Spanish League Finals, Game 1: May 29, 2008
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Tau Ceramica took back homecourt advantage in the Spanish League finals by blasting AXA FC Barcelona 64-75 in Game 1 on the road Thursday. Despite an 11-2 start to the game by Barcelona, Tau took over with a 0-15 run to begin the second quarter and never looked back while taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Tiago Splitter was unstoppable inside for Tau with 21 points while hitting 10 of his 12 two-point shots and dishing 4 assists. Igor Rakocevic added 12 points while James Singleton picked up 9 to go with 10 rebounds. Pete Mickeal and Mirza Teletovic also had 9 points each for the winners, who let only two Barcelona players score more than 6 points. One of those was Ersan Ilyasova, who posted a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Roger Grimau added 17 points and 7 rebounds off the bench. Game 2 is also in Barcelona, on Saturday.
Barcelona looked at ease while racing ahead 14-7 as Jaka Lakovic and Alex Acker downed a pair of early three-point shots each. Neither player would score again, however, as things were about to change in Tau's favor. A 0-9 run saw Tau tie on a triple by Pablo Prigioni, his second, and go ahead at 14-16 on a dunk by Splitter. A duel from long distance saw Teletovic bury his own double-shot from the arc to give Tau a 21-22 lead after 10 minutes. Spitter's dunk-plus-free throw started the second quarter and inspired Tau to new heights as he and Planinic combined for 13 unanswered points as the visitors blasted off to a 21-37 advantage. Ilyasov and Grimau tried to bring back Barcelona, but Rakocevic and Mickeal kept Tau soaring at 32-46 come halftime. Barcelona tried to make a move midway through the third quarter, cutting the difference to 49-55 on triples by Gianluca Basile and Ilyasova, but Splitter kept scoring for Tau, which led 51-58 after 30 minutes. Barcelona got as close as 54-58 as Pepe Sanchez started the final quarter from downtown, but soon a three-point shot and a dunk by Singleton made it 57-65. Grimau lowered the difference to 61-67 before Splitter's last basket took the wind out of Barcelona's sails and let Rakocevic and Mickeal mop up an impressive Game 1 victory for Tau.
| Finals Playoffs, best of 5 games |
| Record | Team | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 | | 0 | AXA FC Barcelona (3) | 64 | May 31 | June 3 | *June 5 | *June 8 | | 1 | Tau Ceramica (4) | 75 | - | - | - | - |
| Finals games | | Game 1 | AXA FC Barcelona vs. Tau Ceramica | 64-75 | May 29 | | Game 2 | AXA FC Barcelona vs. Tau Ceramica | - | May 31 | | Game 3 | Tau Ceramica vs. AXA FC Barcelona | - | June 3 | | Game 4 | Tau Ceramica vs. AXA FC Barcelona | - | *June 5 | | Game 5 | AXA FC Barcelona vs. Tau Ceramica | - | *June 8 |
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