BRA/ESP - Huertas magic

BARCELONA (Liga Endesa/Olympics) - There is no doubt about the quality of players that Brazil coach Ruben Magnano will have in his squad that he takes to the Olympics.

The South American giants, remember, almost upset the United States at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and they reached the Final of last year's FIBA Americas Championship.

In case anyone needs to be reminded, though, they can look at the highlights of Barcelona's stunning win over Real Madrid in Spain's Liga Endesa Finals on Wednesday night.

Marcelo Huertas, the Brazil national team point guard, conjured up a magical moment that will never be forgotten in Spain, nor back in his homeland where basketball fans are keeping close tabs on the national team stars.

Real Madrid appeared to be closing in on victory at the Palau Blaugrana.
 

They led by two points and had the ball with 31 seconds to go.

Madrid ran the shot-clock down to the end, with Barcelona electing not to foul.

Hoping for a Madrid miss, Barcelona fans watched as Sergio Llull barely nicked the front of the rim with a shot and the ball fell into the hands of a Chuck Eidson.

He passed quickly to is Barca teammate Huertas, who dribbled quickly past midcourt and released the ball on the run just before the final buzzer.

The ball sailed through the air before banking in.

Barcelona's players ran to Huertas and piled on top of him in joyous scenes while Madrid's players walked off the court wearing looks of disbelief.

"This sport is unpredictable," Huertas said.

"We believed in it, the bench gave a lot of support and the fans helped us a lot."

Huertas teamed up with fellow Brazilian Tiago Splitter to lead Caja Laboral to a 3-0 sweep of Barcelona in the 2010 Finals but now he's hoping to win the championship with the Blaugrana.

The series is a best-of-five, which means there is a long way to go in the showdown.

This summer, Huertas will be the starting point guard for a Brazil team that was drawn in Group B with Australia, China, Great Britain, Spain and a team that emerges from the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

FIBA