Day 4 in Cologne told hour by hour.

08:30 – The breakfast buffet opens, but as a tradition in this season, there is no specific meeting time. In this case, arriving in dribs and drabs helps, because the anti-Covid rules do not allow the presence of more than 24 people at a time in a single room, no matter how large. It is time for reading a press review extensive as only a few times before. Sergio Rodriguez also has huge stories about him on El Pais and El Periodico.

11:45 – The day begins in earnest. It is time to get on the bus and go to the Lanxess Arena. It would be a short walk, but the bus is forced to perform a series of laps and it takes at least 10-12 minutes to get rid of the traffic in this treacherous area. Upon arrival, you run into CSKA Moscow. They have just finished their shootaround.

12:00 – Practice begins. The first to take charge is Giustino Danesi, the strength and conditioning coach. Then it’s up to Coach Ettore Messina: a brief review of the game plan on both ends of the floor follows and finally the players shoot, divided in two groups of six. When Mario Fioretti groups are reversed. Sergio Rodriguez mixes three-pointers and low-post passes for Kaleb Tarczewski. It is another ritual.

12:55 – “Bus is leaving”. It means that the bus is about to leave, and the sentence is pronounced by Ettore Messina. It’s not actually leaving, but it’s a way to put pressure and make the team understand that players really need to leave. It is yet another ritual of the season. Coming out of the arena, the Barcelona delegation appears. The last player to step in is Pau Gasol.

13:40 – After showering in the hotel, the team finds itself in the same room that in these days has also functioned as a “meeting room”. First the latest recommendations, then the classic game day lunch. Meanwhile, nice encouragements come via social media from Esteban Cambiasso, Theo Hernandez, Alen Omic and even from Reyer Venezia.

18:30 – It’s snack time, when each player resorts to habits matured in years of career, different for everyone, for those who eat spaghetti with tomato sauce like Kevin Punter, those who have a cappuccino (Sergio Rodriguez, Vlado Micov) and those who are much more traditional and just eat something very light.

19:30 – The bus leaves the hotel to go to the arena. It happens 90 minutes before tip-off, usually by then the team is already in the locker room. But this format and the court not available because the first game is still in progress would make it unnecessary to arrive at the Lanxess Arena too early, so the team opts to leave slightly later than usual.

21:00 – It’s game time. Barcelona wins the trip-off, and try to get away immediately, Olimpia resisted blow for blow. First, it is led by Vlado Micov, then by Kevin Punter. It loses contact towards the end of the second quarter when two consecutive turnovers generate an 11-point margin for Barcelona. The first half ends at nine points down, but the second is spectacular. Olimpia scores 50 points right in the face of the best defensive team in Europe, including 29 in the third period. The nine-point deficit becomes an eight-point lead, a 17-point swing, Kevin Punter plays like a man possessed, supported by a great defensive job too. Barcelona, ​​however, is too strong a team to lose confidence. Nick Calathes leads the team and finds unusual ways to keep contact and stay close, and then ties the game and then regains the lead. But the ending is fistfight. The latest score is Cory Higgins’ pull-up winning jumper. It means losing a spectacular game. A night of disappointment follows, but also full of rational pride.

23:30 – Kyle Hines: “Small things decided the game. Execution down the stretch. We made mistakes and with a team like this, you can’t make those types of mistakes. That ended up costing us. First half we gave up 51 points and our defense was basically non-existent. We were able to switch that. But we didn’t make enough plays. Last play was a scramble play. It was a tough shot. Cory is a great player, he is an experienced player. He has been hitting shots like that for a long time. We came down, Kevin Punter got a good look at the basket and Cory came down and made the shot. Like I said, Cory is a great player and this is the way it goes sometimes.”

23:40 – Malcolm Delaney: “We are disappointed. We did everything we can to win the game, we made a couple of mistakes and they just made a big shot. It wasn’t bad defense, it was just better offense. Of course, we are disappointed, but we can’t hold our heads. We fought. They are the best team in EuroLeague and we did everything we could to get a win. We just wanted to play aggressive. They are the best defensive team in the EuroLeague, we tried to take advantage of some things. I think we kind of went away a little bit from what was working. Nothing went wrong. It was just basketball. Everybody made runs and we played until the last 10 seconds and they made a better shot.”

23:50 – Sergio Rodriguez: “We didn’t play well in the first half, but came ready in the second half. We had ups and downs during the game, as usual, and in the end, it went down to one possession and Cory [Higgins] made a shot. It is what it takes to be a champion and to get to the final and we lost today. We are working well and the season was good, but at this point, everybody wanted to play the final. Everybody wants to try to win. In the end, these games are played until the end and you cannot relax. They hit the last shot and we didn’t do well in the last possessions and that’s it. We have to learn from this and carry on.”

 

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