Real Madrid get caught with tweezers; without reference bases; at Hanga, acting as such, with two fouls in the first minutes; Llul ran into the locker room after three triplets, clutched his groin and called the physio. With Poirier on the exercise bike and Pablo Laso making that characteristic gesture of the man from Vitoria, who grabs the knot of his tie with his right hand when he seems worried and looks for solutions among young people. Enter Núñez, who is underage – for a day – to lead the team. And despite everything, Madrid did not collapse against a Baskonia alluding to fatigue, to the intensity of the third game in Valencia to justify its ups and downs. The first attack is white.
But not. It’s not fatigue that defeats Baskonia, but the spirit of Real Madrid, which, in addition to an amazing wardrobe, doesn’t shy away from difficulties. Laso is missing bases and the players are improvising on the pitch. The first is Llul, despite the inconvenience, the one who causes the callus while enduring the pain. He leaves, returns to the bank, and then puts on his tracksuit so as not to take it off. Then Rudy seems to take over in the three-point shots and in the moral leadership of the team, which of course also needs Tavares’ 17 rebounds or Yabusele’s accuracy.
As Baskonia approaches, a solid team can be sensed, with Peters and Costello in unison, and leveling out the differences in the light, Pablo Laso appears, touches the knot of his tie again, dons the face of an ogre and throws starry fury at his Players who make them react. But it is true that the Real is touched without being able to assemble a canonical team, but only assembling a Meccano, but of course from very precious pieces. Baskonia runs when she can and in those moments Madrid suffer, also losing control of the rebound but not being intimidated.
When the Madrid team is at its worst, they don’t give up, quite the opposite. Complete the first part and win. With two points, within maximum par, but he wins, and that lead on the scoreboard is like a sign that if they do well, they can go further.
The coaches talk about not making mistakes in the second half. The speech of the two is identical, but only Real Madrid applies the story, because when the white players go out of the script, Laso reappears, with that subtle touch of the tie, that angry face, that anger at Poirier, who goes to bank to reply. And five minutes into the second half, Baskonia are collapsing in a disastrous or stratospheric start, from the local side, with a 17-0 run against the Vitorian and with Real Madfid hitting everything and everyone, it’s difficult to lift.
So Baskonia gave up, despite some occasional smacks that forced Laso to look back with an angry gesture to touch his tie. He does not want frivolity, although he reluctantly admits the final relaxation of his team and the last attempt of the Baskonistas, who in the closing minutes, when Spahija is already silent on the bench, level up, only to lose ten points, even if it was long before known of defeat. Inspired by Rudy, Tavares, Yabusele or Causeur, Real Madrid can now play without bases, which is unstoppable. Finding a loophole early in the second half, a touch of doubt, was enough for him to win the first game of the series.
REAL MADRID 94
BASCONIA 84
Real Madrid: Hanga (7), Causeur (16), Taylor (4), Yabusele (10), Tavares (12) –starter–, Llul (9), Deck (8), Rudy (14), Núñez (0) , Randolph (3), Klavzar (0), Poirier (11).
Baskonia: Baldwin (10), Fontecchio (4), Giedraitis (10), Peters (15), Enoch (9) –starters–, Marinkovic (11), Costello (12), Raieste (0), Granger (3) , Wetzell (2), Sedekerskis (5), Kurucs (3).
Partial votes: 22-19, 22-23, 30-21, 20-21.
Referees: Jiménez, Cortés and Torres.
Wizink Center.
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