Red Star Belgrade – FC Barcelona Lassa: Errors condemn Barça to defeat (76-65)

Barça Lassa haven't got off to the best start in their first week with three games. The meeting with Red Star Belgrade finished with a 76-65 loss after an error-strewn game. Bartzokas' men weren't able to punish the Serbians' mistakes, in contrast to the opposition who won the game in the second quarter with a 31-15 score at half-time. Barça Lassa fought without reward to get back into the game with little success.

The match didn't start well. Neither team was playing with fluency and they were struggling to score points, with the scores even four minutes before the end of the first quarter. Oleson led Barça from the front with two three-pointers in quick succession and a total of ten points giving the Catalans a 9-16 lead after the first ten minutes.

Barça come unstuck

The home side dominated the second quarter. Without Rice on the court and after Pau Ribas had scored three three-pointers in quick succession giving Barça a 22-29 lead Red Star responded with 16 unanswered points led by Simonovic and Gudoric. The Catalans finished the second quarter in a bad way trailing 42-31 and this was compounded by the injury to Pau Ribas' achilles tendon.

The third quarter started like the first one did, with lots of errors making the game a scrappy affair. Barça Lassa were kept at arms length by Red Star, who struggled to score themselves and were content to maintain their ten point lead throughout the first fifteen minutes of the second half.

Bartzokas' team tried not to lose sight of the game with Claver and Vezenkov trying to reduce the gap with little luck. Finally, the team from Belgrade's long periods of possession and the fact the Catalan's lost the ball 19 times condemned Barça to defeat in the second Euroleague game by a 76-65 margin. On Friday, Barça have the opportunity to bounce back from a loss characterised by a game full of mistakes against Brose Basket at the Palau Blaugrana looking to find form in front of their own fans.