M-V-P! M-V-P!
A big congratulations go out this morning to Caja Laboral Baskonia, who achieved what was unthinkable a week ago in completing the three-game sweep of FC Barcelona last night to win, 79-78, and take the 2009-10 ACB title.
Regular-season ACB MVP Tiago Splitter was named the series top player after contributing a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds, while the real story for Baskonia was the surprising success of Lior Eliyahu. After playing just 25 minutes combined in the first two games, this past offseason’s key acquisition made it all worth the money in playing nearly 26 minutes in game three and befuddling Barça’s big men to the tune of 9-of-14 shooting for an even 18 points.
BallinEurope will leave you with the video highlights of the game as we inevitably kick off an offseason full of questions. For Barcelona, it’ll be “What happened?” and “What do we know do?” For basketball historians, the relevant question upon the final buzzer sounding became simply, “When the hell was the last time the Blaugrana lost three games *in a row* in a season?”
BiE will now happily allow the analysts and the pundits to run this one through the wringer — after all, the 2010 FIBA World Championship is on the horizon. For BiE the key to the series was simple: For three games, Caja Laboral Baskonia was simply the better *team* with the better coach.
Tags: ACB, Caja Laboral Baskonia, FC Barcelona, Lior Eliyahu, Spain, Tiago Splitter
This officially ends all the premature speculation about Barca being “the best Euroleague team in history” or “the best Euroleague team in the last decade”. If you can’t win the Triple Crown you should not even be in the consideration for such praise.
@ Michael: Totally have to agree, much to my chagrin. Though the loooooong layoff did hurt in game one, Baskonia seriously exposed Barcelona’s weaknesses and certain superstars’ non-performances in games one and two reduced the team’s status closer to paper tiger … interesting that both superduperstar Euroleague finalists were knocked off by more cohesive units in their national leagues…
Thanks for reading,
Os.
Not so surprising.. it’s the difference between a final4 and a best-of-5 series.
I’m happy for Eliyahu.. that finally showed his real worth (FantaEL tip for next season
), for SanEmeterio (ok, numbers means a lot in an MVP race… but during all playoffs he played above his standards and always made extra defensive efforts) and for Marcelinho “Caipirina” Huertas, that completely revenged his past season in Italy where he was called as a ‘dead man walking’.
Quite sad about Basile last free thow: his career would’n need that
Anyway: GREAT GAME!! INTENSITY, EQUILIBRIUM, PATHOS, RIGHT FINALE. not the most technical.. but in such an intense game we also had some spectacular plays.
[...] guard and Bradley is probably the best available. [Wait a minute, did you say Tiago Splitter? As in ACB/ACB finals MVP Tiago Splitter? Well, that calls for a YouTube! [...]
Yep, that’s the difference between the Euroleague and the finals of the elite domestic leagues like the ACB and the A1. The Euroleague is largely decided on how a team is playing right in the moment and is a series of such instances week by week.
It’s totally different when you have to play in a 5 game series against the same team. In those instances teams like Barca that use a gimmick offense of jack up as many threes as humanly possible (Phoenix Suns style) and Olympiacos that don’t have any go to players on offense will struggle against very strong defensive teams like Baskonia and Panathinaikos.
[...] 2009-10, Splitter statistically dominated the Spanish League to take the season MVP award and later the championship series MVP nod as [...]
[...] in the NBA, Splitter is no ordinary rookie, joining Arvydas Sabonis as one of only two players to win the regular season and finals MVP in Spanish League history. But the San Antonio Spurs are no ordinary team for a highly touted rookie to come in and impact [...]