FC Barcelona left nothing to the imagination by dominating the SBL All-Stars in every facet of the game to close out their week-long tour of Asia on a high note with 123-57 victory at the Taipei Arena last night.
The modern-day Spanish Armada bombarded the home hosts with 14 three-pointers off 28 attempts in the air, led by Mario Hezonja’s 4-for-5 shooting from long distance to humble the hosts.
“We had it going pretty well today,” star shooter Juan Carlos Navarro said after the game, while hurrying to leave the arena for the airport.
He did not have much to show statistically, with only seven points on the night, due to skipper Xavi Pascual’s decision to rest his starters for much of the game after his team took a commanding 34-12 lead after one quarter of play.
The visitors opened with a 14-5 run in the first five minutes of the contest, with Navarro nailing a three and star center Ante Tomic doing as he pleased inside the paint.
Even though the hosts would boost their scoring in the second quarter by three, with Liu Cheng and Norvel Pelle picking up the scoring slack, it proved no match for the visitors, who poured in 30 more to enjoy a 64-27 advantage at the half.
After 10 straight points from Liu to start off the second half to give the home crowd something to cheer about, the game soon turned into an offensive passing clinic by Barcelona, whose flawless execution in finding the open man in their set offense left the Taiwanese defenders seemingly helpless at times.
Despite their monstrous lead, the Spaniards showed no signs of slowing down as they continued to attack the basket and hustle after the loose balls for 35 points in the fourth quarter to earn several long rounds of applause from the crowd.
By the time all was said and done, the visitors had shot 55 of 83 from the field and outrebounded the SBL All-Stars 55 to 22, to illustrate the wide gap that still exists between Taiwanese professional basketball and its European counterpart.
Seven players scored in double-digits for Barcelona, led by Hezonja’s team-high 20 with three rebounds.
As for the SBL All-Stars, Liu’s game-high 22 points and hired gun Pelle’s 17 were the lone highlights in a game in which the hosts never seemed comfortable.
Even though the match was intended to introduce the European style of play to local hoop fans and the SBL could easily have assembled a stronger lineup to face the visitors, the outcome of the contest still exposed several areas of weakness in which the local players need to improve.
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