BARCELONA (Liga Endesa) - Ten players set to compete at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain in just a couple of months are already in the country.

They're on the books of Barcelona and Real Madrid and trading blows in the Liga Endesa Finals.

It's the ones who play for Barca that are in upbeat mood because they have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five 'El Clasico' showdown following a 94-79 triumph on Tuesday night in their Palau Blaugrana.

The teams return to the same court on Thursday night for Game 4.

Real defeated Barca in a thrilling Copa del Rey Final in February and thrashed them at the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in May, yet it's the Catalan club that is now just a single victory away from ending the season on a high and inflicting a colossal disappointment on the Madrid outfit than many expected to march to the title.

For Barcelona in Game 3, Spanish international Juan Carlos Navarro had his second highest scoring game of the playoffs with 19 points while several others played extremely well.

Brad Oleson (15pts) and Bostjan Nachbar (14pts) were in fine fettle, and Brazil international Marcelinho Huertas had 12 points and eight assists.

GreeceGreece's Kostas Papanikolaou (12 points), Croatia's Ante Tomic (6pts) and Slovenia's Erazem Lorbek (2pts) also contributed.

Barcelona wreaked havoc from long range, drilling 16 of 28 attempts with Nachbar, who recently announced his retirement from Slovenia's national team, four of six and Papanikolaou a perfect two of two.

Real have the likes of Spanish internationals Rudy Fernandez (7pts), Felipe Reyes (2pts), Sergio Rodriguez (9pts) and Sergio Llull (15pts), as well as Greece's Ioannis Bourousis (13pts), Nikola Mirotic (11pts) and AfroBasket 2011 MVP Salah Mejri (4pts) of Tunisia, but they couldn’t stop Barca.

The losing team only hit six of 19 from the arc and it was also out-rebounded, 38-35.

Llull says there has to be sense of urgency for Real if they are going to come back and win.

"We were particularly weak on defense," he said.

"We lacked toughness and intensity. You can't give Barcelona an inch and we did.

"We have to change the chip," he said.

"Thursday is like a Final, win or we go home, and you have to go out with a different mentality to have any chance."

Barcelona didn't look as if they would even make the Finals after losing Game 4 of their Semi-Final series at home to Valencia Basket, but Marcelinho hit a tough shot at the buzzer to win Game 5 on the road.

Now they are just a single victory away from the title.

Navarro, a four-time Olympian and one of the most successful Spanish national team players of all time, is taking nothing for granted.

"We're very happy with the game today (Tuesday) but we know that on Thursday it will be very complicated," he said.

FIBA