You want YouTube highlight clips? We’ve got your YouTube highlight clips right here. In recapping last night’s Euroleague action action action (BallinEurope is applying the Spike Lee recite-dialogue-thrice method to denote the excitement), who better to start things than The Human YouTube Clip himself, Ricky Rubio?
This first clip is entitled “Sergio Llull vs. Ricky Rubio and Navarro,” which does make for a decent summation of last night’s Real Madrid-FC Barcelona thriller, which saw the latter advance to the Euroleague Final Four with a run-and-gun 84-78 win.
¡Oh, Ricky Rubio, you've done it again!
Llull – and o boy, this guy needs to play NBA ball someday, if only to hear the likes of Marv Albert and David Stern trying out his surname – was everywhere for the homers, going for 20 points and single-handedly closing deficits for Madrid throughout the game, but he wasn’t enough on this night.
Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Navarro nearly topped his 24-point performance in game three with 21 to go with three steals last night, but it was the young magician who stole the show. Rubio went for 19 points and five (!) rebounds to go with a shockingly low two assists, but these statistics cannot sum up the leadership Rubio showed nor – at least until closer examination – the Allen Iverson impersonation he pulled off, sinking nine of 11 tries from the free-throw line.
Time and again, particularly in the first half, Rubio gave up the body in the paint when he wasn’t leading the fast break. This unexpectedly aggressive showing after a heretofore quiet series from the lad made the difference. Plus, it makes a helluva YouTube clip:
As expected, the 13th man was key to Partizan Belgrade’s victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv. Here’s a seriously low-quality clip of the game – would you believe a video of the television broadcast? – but go just about 40 seconds in or so to get the general idea of the insanity that is Partizan fandom. Seriously, poor Pini Gershon couldn’t even think straight…
Here’s “The last minute of an excellent win” from the stands of Belgrade Arena, packed to the rafters with 21,367 basketball nuts.
Speaking of insanity, here’s what it looked like in the streets of Belgrade after the win:
What’s that? The game? Sure! Enjoy four and half minutes of Partizan-Maccabi game four; this one looks a lot like a three-point shooting clinic from both sides.
Elsewhere in the league, CSKA Moscow took care of business against the frisky-as-of-late Baskonia, 74-70, in Spain to advance…
…and Olympiacos did the same against Asseco Prokom, steamrolling the home team with a cast of the usual YouTube-producing suspects, namely Josh Childress (22 points on 8-of-11 shooting, six boards, three steals), Linas Kleiza (14 points), all-around gamer Milos Teodosic (15 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and four steals), and mighty Sofoklis Schortsanitis (12 points on 4-of-5, seven rebounds and five mostly bruising fouls, heh heh).
However, congratulations should go out to Asseco Prokom in what has already been the club’s finest season in its existence; can’t wait to see what these guys bring in 2010-11.
Now. While BallinEurope catches his breath, we’ll wish you a good day. See you at the Final Four (and on YouTube)!
