Euroleague Day 15
Red Star
real Madrid
There were no colors in Belgrade and Madrid, after clearing a bar with sufficient effort, managed to claim another victory, keeping them at the top of the table. Nobody had won fourteen times in the first fifteen games of the Euroleague regular phase.
It took just enough time for the Madrid team to start at the Stark Arena in Belgrade to distance themselves from Red Star and claim another win, another day at the office. Chus Mateo's team began to do what it wanted in the second quarter when Poirier seemingly scored three baskets in a row with the score tied and made the difference. For a Serbian team that played loosely and was driven by Hanga, the best in the first quarter, and Teodosic, there was almost nothing else to do. When they disappeared, well defended by Madrid, their team no longer knew what to do because neither Bolomboy nor Gedraitis contributed anything.
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With Red Star failing to score from outside and Real Madrid's goalkeepers calling the shots in the zone, the game was long over before Chus Mateo ordered his men to make longer attacks. The final minutes turned into a street race, with the pavilion already bustling and completely silent.
Six kilometers from the scene of Real Madrid's victory, Baskonia lost to Maccabi (89-81) on an empty field, that of the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall, the exile of the Israeli team during the Gaza conflict. In a game that was drawn from start to finish, although the scoreboard may reflect otherwise, the two teams at times chose the alternative, although the Vitorians were punished in the final minutes. This time, Howard's points (19) were not enough to add another win to Ivanovic's streak.
Barcelona, for its part, lost (74-70) to a small rival, Alba Berlin, perhaps due to overconfidence, which resulted in a poor start to the second half after dominating the first. Not even the dizziness that overcame the German team in the final moments, as Barça wiped out the lead and moved to within three points, could ultimately make up for what had gone wrong in the middle. Laprovittola and Kalinic tied the game in the last minute, but their desperate three-pointers failed to hit the goal. Israel González's men held their nerve and secured their third win of the season. Barcelona are four wins behind Madrid.
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