Joventut brought down Baskonia in Vitoria and secured a place in the Liga Endesa semifinals
Asisa Joventut secured a place in the semifinals of the Spanish basketball championship after defeating Kosner Baskonia 96:88 in the decisive third game of the Liga Endesa 2025/26 playoff quarterfinals at the Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria-Gasteiz. According to the official ACB chronicle, the team from Badalona closed the series with an away victory by a 2-1 score and eliminated the third seed, continuing the run of surprises in this year's playoffs. The game, played on June 7, 2026, carried clear competitive weight: Baskonia were defending home-court advantage, while Joventut, after a convincing victory in the second game, were trying to confirm that the turnaround in the series had not been merely a reaction in front of their own crowd. In the end, the decisive factor was the maturity of the visiting team in the second half, especially in the period when Baskonia tried to stop the opponent's rhythm with a zone defense, but failed to find a sufficiently stable solution on offense. Joventut thus secured a semifinal against Valencia Basket, while Baskonia ended the season earlier than their position after the league phase of the competition had suggested.
Rubio led the rhythm in a high-pressure game
According to the official report by the ACB and the EFE agency, the key figure of the game was Ricky Rubio, who scored 23 points for Asisa Joventut and recorded 28 valuation points. His contribution was important not only because of the number of points, but also because of the way he controlled the tempo in periods when the game could have turned toward the home side. Rubio, according to the ACB, once again took over the organization of play in the second half, created promising positions for his teammates and, with his own scoring runs, forced Baskonia to constantly change their defensive adjustments. In the closing stages, his composure had additional value because Joventut needed to maintain the lead in an arena atmosphere that had strongly carried the home team at the start of the game. Such a performance is especially important in the broader context of the club as well, because the ACB notes that Rubio will play the seventh Liga Endesa semifinal of his career, while with this performance he set his personal best mark in the playoffs.
Baskonia opened the game with a 6:0 run, which matched the home team's expected scenario in a decisive encounter. According to the ACB chronicle, Joventut stabilized through Simon Birgander, who in the early phase was the visitors' main attacking point, while the home team's personal fouls allowed the Badalona side to enter the game more quickly. Two made shots by Ludde Hakanson from behind the three-point line and an unsportsmanlike foul by Eugene Omoruyi changed the initial course of the game, so Joventut briefly took a 16:15 lead. Baskonia nevertheless finished the first quarter in front, 24:23, after a three-pointer by Kobi Simmons, with which the home side at least kept control on the scoreboard after a very demanding opening ten minutes. That result, however, already showed that Joventut had not come merely to survive the pressure, but that they had enough offensive solutions for a high-intensity game.
The second quarter shifted the psychological balance
The second period brought a change of rhythm that was decisive for the continuation of the game. According to the ACB, every basketball action in that stretch had added value because both teams had to work for every open shot. Joventut felt increasingly secure in that part with Rubio on the ball, and Adam Hanga gave the visitors a five-point lead with a three-pointer. Joventut's defense forced Baskonia into long possessions and decisions as the shot clock expired, which reduced the quality of the home team's finishes and disrupted the usual flow of the ball. At halftime Asisa Joventut led 41:38, and the official ACB chronicle emphasizes that the visitors at that moment looked clearer and more organized.
After the break, Rubio continued to steer the game toward a rhythm that suited the visitors better. According to the ACB, in the third quarter he first distributed several passes to teammates for easy points, and then strung together his own points for an 11-point Joventut advantage. Paolo Galbiati tried to change the dynamics of the game with an adjusted zone defense, but Joventut responded with offensive rebounding and outside shooting. Baskonia remained in the game at certain moments thanks to free throws, but three-pointers by Michael Ružić and Rubio again widened the gap. Cameron Hunt's basket at the end of the third quarter made it 71:63 for Joventut, so the home team entered the final ten minutes with a clear deficit and pressure to reverse a course that was already seriously slipping away from them.
Joventut maintained the lead when Baskonia went all or nothing
The final quarter confirmed that Joventut had a wider distribution of responsibility in the decisive game. According to the ACB chronicle, five consecutive points by Jabari Parker and two three-pointers by Ludde Hakanson increased the visitors' lead to 82:68 a little more than six minutes before the end. Baskonia tried to speed things up in that period, but could not string together enough defensive stops and quality attacks to bring the finish into complete uncertainty. The home side continued to look for solutions through the zone, but it did not stop Joventut's ball movement, while the visitors showed enough patience and concentration to withstand the final surge. The final 96:88 for Joventut was, according to the ACB's official description, an away surprise against one of the seeded teams, but not a coincidence if the way the series evolved after the first game is taken into account.
Baskonia had several inspired individuals, but not the continuity needed to win a decisive game. Kobi Simmons scored 18 points, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot added 15, Trent Forrest 14, Mamadi Diakité 12, and Rodions Kurucs 11. For Joventut, Rubio was the top scorer with 23 points, Hakanson scored 15, while Parker and Birgander added 14 each. The official ACB box score also lists the quarters as 24:23, 14:18, 25:30 and 25:25, which describes the flow of the game well: Baskonia won only the opening period, while Joventut created the decisive difference in the second and third quarters. There were no disqualified players in the game, and the match was officiated by Carlos Peruga, Martín Caballero and Alfonso Olivares; according to the official report, unsportsmanlike fouls were called on Omoruyi and Kurucs, and a technical foul on Kraang.
A series in which home-court advantage proved insufficient
The playoffs began according to plan for Baskonia. In the first quarterfinal game in Vitoria, according to official ACB data, Kosner Baskonia defeated Asisa Joventut 85:71 and took a 1-0 lead in the series. The home team then used a strong closing quarter and left the impression that home-court advantage could be a decisive factor. But the second game in Badalona completely changed the tone of the duel: Joventut won 82:63, forced a decider and sent the series back to the Fernando Buesa Arena. Before the end of the quarterfinals, the ACB pointed out that three of the four series had gone to a third game, something that had not happened in that phase of the Liga Endesa since 2017, excluding the special final tournament in 2020 organized under the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic.
Such a context further emphasizes the value of Joventut's victory. According to the ACB standings after the league phase, Baskonia finished the regular season as the third team with a record of 25 wins and 9 losses, while Joventut were sixth with a 22-12 record. This means that the team from Vitoria had a better starting position, home-court advantage and statistically stronger league performance, but failed to impose themselves with sufficient stability in the series. Joventut, on the other hand, after losing the first game, found a defensive structure and outside shot that changed the balance of power. In the decisive encounter, that change was visible in the fact that the visitors controlled the middle of the game better, while Baskonia increasingly depended on individual plays and attempts to change the rhythm with defensive surprises.
Semifinal against Valencia Basket and an unusually open playoff
Asisa Joventut will play Valencia Basket in the semifinal, the second seed and the only team among the top four that, according to the ACB, maintained its seed advantage in the quarterfinals. The official ACB schedule states that the Valencia Basket - Asisa Joventut series begins on June 10, 2026 at 20:00, while the second game will be played on June 12, also in Valencia. The third game is scheduled for June 14 in Badalona, while the fourth and fifth would be played on June 16 and 18 respectively if needed. The other semifinal pair consists of Barça and La Laguna Tenerife, further confirming how much this year's playoffs have moved beyond the simplest predictions. According to the ACB, for the first time in Liga Endesa history, three teams that were not seeded reached the semifinals: Barça, Asisa Joventut and La Laguna Tenerife.
For Joventut, this is a return to the final stage of the competition with important symbolic meaning. The ACB states that the club from Badalona returns to the semifinals for the first time since 2023, and in its historical overview points out that Joventut played the first eleven semifinals of the ACB era, from 1984 to 1994, and later reached that stage several more times. This time, the path to the semifinals included a victory on the court of the third seed, which gives Dani Miret's team competitive weight before the series with Valencia. Still, the continuation will require a new level of stability because Valencia advanced 2-0 in the quarterfinals against Surne Bilbao and brings into the playoffs the status of the team that best defended its own starting position. Joventut's task will be to repeat the defensive toughness and rhythm control from Vitoria, but against an opponent that during the season showed one of the deepest and most efficient rotations in the league.
A season of record attendance got a dramatic playoff opening
This year's Liga Endesa playoffs are taking place after a league phase that, according to an ACB announcement, ended with 2,082,981 spectators in the stands over 306 games, the highest figure in the history of the competition. The ACB states that average attendance was 6,807 spectators per game, or 296 more per game than the previous season. Within that framework, Joventut's victory in Vitoria is not only a sporting surprise, but also part of a broader picture of a season in which the differences between the top and the middle of the playoff field were unusually small. According to the ACB analysis, the distance between the first-placed and sixth-placed teams of the regular season had never been smaller, while the quarterfinals produced a historic outcome with three non-seeded teams in the semifinals. Such a combination of results creates the impression that the closing stage of the Liga Endesa 2025/26 remains open even after the elimination of one of the teams that had home-court advantage.
For Baskonia, the defeat means the end of the season at a moment when the club expected at least a fight for the semifinals. According to the official ACB chronicle, the home side in the decisive game tried to find an answer through defensive changes and late pressure, but Joventut maintained composure and tactical discipline. In a sporting sense, the decisive factor was that the visitors had a clearer offensive structure and a greater number of solutions when the game entered the phase of greatest pressure. Baskonia lost the opportunity to capitalize on third place from the regular season, while Joventut proved that playoff form can outweigh the initial order. Ahead of the team from Badalona now lies the semifinal challenge against Valencia, and the victory at the Fernando Buesa Arena remains a result that significantly changed the picture of the Spanish playoffs in June 2026.
Sources:
- ACB Live / Liga Endesa – official chronicle of the Kosner Baskonia - Asisa Joventut 88:96 game, with the result, scorers, quarters and box score (link)
- ACB / Liga Endesa – official competition page with playoff results, semifinal pairings and regular-season standings (link)
- ACB – schedule and times of the Liga Endesa 2026 playoffs, including the Valencia Basket - Asisa Joventut semifinal series (link)
- ACB – analysis of the quarterfinals in which three series went to a decisive third game, for the first time since 2017 in that phase of the competition (link)
- ACB – analysis of the historic qualification of three non-seeded teams for the Liga Endesa semifinals and the context of Joventut's return among the four best teams (link)
- ACB – data on the record attendance of the Liga Endesa 2025/26 regular season (link)