FIBA Basketball

    Barca try to weather the storm

    BARCELONA (Liga Endesa/Euroleague) - Barcelona will look to snap a three-game losing streak when they run onto their Palau Blaugrana court on Friday to take on Panathinaikos.That’s right, one of Europe’s t

    BARCELONA (Liga Endesa/Euroleague) - Barcelona will look to snap a three-game losing streak when they run onto their Palau Blaugrana court on Friday to take on Panathinaikos.

    That’s right, one of Europe’s top teams is in the midst of a three-game losing run.

    Bearing in mind the club also fell 102-96 at Movistar Estudiantes on 21 December, Barcelona have suffered four defeats in their last five games!

    Did anyone see this coming?

    Barca slumped to defeat in the Spanish Liga Endesa in Santiago de Compostela on 30 December to Rio Natura Monbus, then lost in their first Turkish Airlines Euroleague game of 2015 at Alba Berlin, a Top 16 encounter, on 2 January.

    Their latest setback came two days later, back in the Liga Endesa, at Bilbao Basket.

    Injuries to key players will hurt a team and that's been the problem for Barca, with Juan Carlos Navarro, Alex Abrines and Brad Oleson - all shooting guards - hurting and out of action.

    Navarro went down with a thigh injury in the third week of December and probably will not play in January, while Oleson has been sidelined by an ankle injury for the past month.

    Abrines, who with Navarro represented Spain at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, suffered a partial tear of the plantar fasciitis on his right foot in a Euroleague game against Fenerbahce on 11 December.

    The situation has been so dire that the club lured France international sharpshooter Edwin Jackson to Barca from ASVEL, signing him 21 December.

    Jackson, who played for France at the FIBA Basketball World Cup and helped Les Bleus win the bronze medal, had a good debut in a 76-68 victory over El Clasico rivals Real Madrid on 28 December.

    Coach Xavier Pascual played the former French LNB MVP more than 30 minutes and he responded with eight points, including a two-of-four effort from the arc.

    ...

    The next time out against Rio Natura, he failed to score. In the game at Alba, he played more than 27 minutes but missed all three of his shots from long range and had just six points.

    He poured in five against Bilbao over the weekend.

    Before their latest setback, Navarro admitted: "It's a complicated situation for the team with many casualties and in the same position. But the season is very long, it's just start of the Top 16 and we still have time to get it right."

    Oleson or Abrines is likely to be included on the roster for Friday’s clash with Panathinaikos, who won at home against Maccabi Tel Aviv in their first Top 16 game.

    FIBA