Euroleague working day 33
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Where they least expected it, after a streak of three consecutive defeats, Baskonia saw the light at the WiZink Center, where many others succumbed in this Euroleague with very few certainties. Dusko Ivanovic’s team, which needed a victory in the last two rounds of the regular league, found it on the field of the leader, Real Madrid, and qualified for the play-in after achieving an unexpected victory (91-95) against a rival that has lost twice in five days and that in 48 hours has to face the Clásico against Barcelona.
Real Madrid, who entered the penultimate matchday with first place under lock and key, decided that it was a good day to run and have a good time. Baskonia allowed it at the beginning and that gave wings to the champion, who was happy riding a bullet train from basket to basket. Facu Campazzo accelerated his team’s game as much as possible, which was very accurate in shooting (over 70% in 2-point shots and 50% in triples) and enjoyed a 15-point advantage (27 -12).
The public was enjoying a pleasant night and thought they were going to see another setback by Baskonia, who had little success away from Vitoria this season, but Real Madrid, with nothing at stake, relaxed and allowed their rival to join their racing challenge. from one ring to the opposite. Howard, the king of three-pointers in Europe – he has already had 120 this season – began to punish the Whites’ mistakes in this match that was progressing with a tailwind. Everyone ran, everyone scored.
The success of Chus Mateo’s team began to plummet. His quintet moved around the court without the necessary tension and there Ivanovic saw that he had the dream opportunity. He established the inside game, where Madrid was forced to sit Tavares due to fouls, and began to give balls to Howard. Baskonia lost the first quarter (27-17), but won the next three. And, most importantly, they ended up taking the lead on the scoreboard to enter the decisive quarter with an advantage (64-65).
Mateo tried to lower the revolutions by bringing in Chacho Rodríguez – the point guard reached 400 games in the Euroleague – instead of a somewhat out of control Campazzo, but he had to recover him as soon as he saw that Baskonia, led by Codi Miller (12 assists), Matthew Costello (19 points), Taras Sedekerskis (14 rebounds) and, above all, Markus Howard, who had 35 points in 30 minutes (with seven triples), reached a lead of seven points (73-80), which the Madrid no longer knew how to counter.
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