Tiago Splitter’s squad continue to impress among Europe’s elite
Paris made a statement with emphatic win over Barcelona
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Paris Basketball has enjoyed a sensational start to its first-ever season in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, but Friday night’s 87-103 victory at FC Barcelona might just be the most notable triumph yet for Tiago Splitter’s team.
True, last season’s BKT EuroCup champion had already claimed the impressive scalp of reigning EuroLeague titleholder Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, won at AS Monaco and downed fellow high-flier Zalgiris Kaunas in a solid performance earlier this week.
But two of those victories came at home, where it is far more commonplace to claim famous ‘upset’ victories against heavyweight opposition, and the other was against a well-known opponent from domestic competition.
Beating a title contender on the road, however, is a different proposition.
Just ask Barcelona’s previous visitors. All four of them so far this season had failed, with three of those games decided in double digits. And that was nothing new, because the Azulgrana went 15-2 at home last season – the joint-best record in the league – and 13-4 the previous campaign. So when a team with a 32-6 home record over the last two-and-a-bit seasons is beaten by 16 points… yes, that’s a pretty big deal.
The significance of Paris’s achievement was not lost on the French club in the immediate aftermath of the victory.
Star man TJ Shorts – an early-season EuroLeague MVP contender – again excelled with 24 points and 9 assists, and he was understandably proud of his team’s efforts, saying: “We were able to find our composure. This is a tough place to play against a very good team with a lot of talent, and I’m proud of everybody who stepped up tonight.
“We found a way to withstand their run and make our own push. I felt like I was in a rhythm, my teammates had the utmost trust in me, my coaches allowed me to be me, and that’s the result you’re going to get. Today was a good day for myself, but it wasn’t just me out there, it was my whole team stepping up and making big plays for us to win this game.”
Fellow guard Maodo Lo also played a huge role in the win, draining 4 three-pointers on his way to a total of 20 points, and he echoed his teammate’s sentiments as he noted: “We were able to play our game on Barcelona’s home court, which is very difficult to do. They’re extremely talented and have a lot of experience so this was a huge win for us today.
“To win on Barcelona’s court is a really difficult challenge, so for us to get that done today was an unbelievable team effort.”
Coach Splitter was equally delighted, especially with his team’s drastic improvement in three-point shooting which went from 1 of 10 in the first half to 8 of 13 thereafter.
The manner of this latest victory begs the question of whether Paris will be able to follow up last season’s EuroCup success by challenging for another trophy at a higher level this time around.
Splitter, though, would not be drawn on the matter. When asked how far his team can go, he simply deadpanned: “I don’t know. We go game by game, and we’ll see.”
We will see, and it will be fun to find out.