‘The Incredible’ Llull grabs the Eleventh with the basket of his life

A basket from five meters from Sergio The incredible lull falling and with the giant of 2.18 Moustapha Fall almost brushing the ball, all with 3 seconds to go, returns the most precious trophy of the Old Continent to the showcases of Real Madrid. The king. Faith moves mountains and the Sergios too. They worked that last miracle, although the victory was as tremendous as a team, with Edy Tavares (13+10 and a PIR of 20) as MVP of the Final Four. Eight minutes from the end, when Vezenkov carried everything because he wanted glory as it was (29 + 9 + 4 assists for 34 credits), the one Micic stole from him a year ago, the disadvantage was eight (69-61). What two triples from Causeur then. And with less than two it was still six: 78-72. Chacho’s basket and three-pointer (15 goals and 9 assists), who swallowed the responsibility like a snack, and the decisive ball, the one that boiled at a hundred degrees, for Llull, zero points until that critical moment, but the captain was always a hero: 78-79 after unlocking the shot of his life.

Real Madrid is past and future, “history that you made, history to be made…”. The present flies, it is always on the go, it is quickly forgotten; but this one is now rabid until it becomes part of the legend of the club, of an endless myth: Madrid is European champion for the eleventh time in its historyundisputed king of the orange ball, three trophies more than CSKA, five more than Panathinaikos and Maccabi… eight more than their rival tonight, Olympiacos. It is always there, rain, shine or shine. There he is again after a journey through the desert that lasted 35 years with the only oasis in Zaragoza in 1995. A new golden age that Laso recovered and wants to continue Chus Mateo, the sixth merengue coach to lift the Euroleague. His and the coaching staff’s perfect approach with the few internal resources available, against an adversary thirsty for success. Behind, the club doing many things well that it used to do regularly, which is why they removed it from the elite. But that was decades past, because the last decade looks radiant white: three trophies and six finals out of ten possible“because no one resists your desire to win”, nor the red army from Piraeus.

The jump between two was delayed due to a problem on the table, so the Olympiacos fans scratched a few minutes to bellow as they pleased. The duel began with a triple from Canaan (5 of 6) answered by Ndiaye, once again a starter to hold Vezenkov, although Real soon showed their zone 2-3. Williams-Goss was going inside and Tavares was the buoythis time before a challenge of height, Moustapha Fall, of the same size, with talent and ability to get the ball from the inside out, but below Edy in intimidation, determination and quality. Soon he added two fouls and another two Bolomboy and another two Tarik Black, the three fives greeks. Olympiacos accumulated fouls and, at the same time, advantages, the appearance of Vezenkov put them on another level. The whites continued with the zone, they did not come from their best percentages in the launch, and, in addition, that arrangement somewhat slowed down the mobility and the continuous cuts of Bartzokas’ men. It forced them to play something else, even though they maintained their high rate of passing. And another thing was to throw more from the outside, moving the ball as if it were a handball until finding the free throw.

Vezenkov raised the +12 (24-12) and Chus Mateo had already taken out Hezonja, and Sergio Rodríguez and Causeur. With them something clicked. Chacho was magnificent in managing attacks, the Frenchman very well at the back and from 5 of 13 in Hellenic triples in the first act he went to 3 of 9 in the second. A bit like against Barça, it was about persevering and waiting for the percentage to drop. He didn’t do it much; The whites grew, with a fantastic Hezonja (10 goals in that section). He ran, took advantage of mismatches, stole and hit three. Partial 5-20 in five minutes. The sensations were good, their own rhythm, they played what Mateo wanted: 40-45 before the 45 equals of the break because McKissic (always the key) was already on the scene. Vezenkov (20 PIR at intermission) had barely rested for 25 seconds, Tavares five minutes.

In the resumption, initial quintets were repeated, only the presence of Hezonja changed. Olympiacos found the scoring streak again, Canaan did it with 9 sparkling points while the power went out in the other trench, three and a half minutes without scoring, neither Rudy nor Hanga appeared: 57-52. El Chacho on track, to create, but by Hanga, not by Goss, who with a triple and a steal with a free kick tied at 59. The rubber, and a new stretch of the red army, by an imperial Vezenko (72-64), it seemed they were taking the air to the area, at least until they left the ball in the hands of Walkup and Fall for important, very important shots. Three minutes to zero in the last six for the already champion seemed like a condemnation from ancient Greece…

Not so fast, it was the Madrid of last resort, the one with impossible, incredible feats, the one with the last miracle. And it came again, from reaction to reaction until the final victory. It is the club, it is the old guard, it is an indomitable and inexplicable, prodigious spirit, knee to the ground for these champions. With 2:10 to go, the disadvantage was 6 (78-72) with fatigue included, which seemed not to give him the change of pace he needed, with the heroes on the track for many minutes. But you know what? It happened again. chachismo, first. The man from Tenerife went inside, then a review took the ball from Tavares and Vezenkov did not take advantage of it, Sergio Rodríguez holed it from three to 46 seconds. Two attacks remained, the one of the oly it ended in a fall shot. Rebound from Tavares, lack of Walkup and 12 seconds to put together a global attack, which he hit with Llull after the marking changes with Tavares in the one-on-one with Fall, for inside and five meter high pumped shiver… Inside!!! Of a killerto another, Sloukas, who in three seconds did not replicate the miracle. Madrid was European champion again, what a team legend.

olympiacos

Statistics

14 Sasha Vezenkov
0 Thomas Walkup
10 Moustapha Fall
3 Isaiah Canaan
16 Kostas Papanikolaou
eleven kostas sloukas
77 Shaquielle McKissic
twenty-one Joel Bolomboy
5 Giannoulis Larentzakis
28 Tarik Black
4 Michalis Lountzis
25 Alec Peters

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
14 Sasha Vezenkov	39	29	9	3	6	4	1	0	1	5/5	9/13	2/8	4	3	33
0 Thomas Walkup	27	0	2	1	1	6	1	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/5	4	3	3
10 Moustapha Fall	25	0	5	1	4	1	0	0	0	0/0	0/3	0/0	1	2	2
3 Isaiah Canaan	twenty-one	twenty-one	2	0	2	2	1	0	0	2/4	23	5/6	2	1	twenty-one
16 Kostas Papanikolaou	twenty-one	6	3	2	1	2	3	1	0	0/0	0/1	2/5	1	0	6
eleven kostas sloukas	23	6	2	0	2	3	0	0	0	1/3	1/2	1/5	4	2	6
77 Shaquielle McKissic	16	14	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	23	3/3	2/6	2	1	12
twenty-one Joel Bolomboy	9	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	1/1	0/0	0	2	1
5 Giannoulis Larentzakis	6	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	1	-2
28 Tarik Black	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	2	-2
4 Michalis Lountzis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
25 Alec Peters	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0

real Madrid

Statistics

22 Edy Tavares
0 Nigel Williams-Goss
31 dzanan muse
8 Adam Hanga
30 Eli Ndiaye
eleven Mario Hezonja
13 Sergio Rodriguez
1 fabien causeur
5 Rudy Fernandez
23 Sergio Llull
3 Anthony Randolph
6 Alberto Abalde

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
22 Edy Tavares	3. 4	13	10	3	7	2	3	1	0	3/4	5/9	0/0	4	2	twenty
0 Nigel Williams-Goss	18	9	2	0	2	2	2	1	0	2/2	2/4	1/4	3	1	8
31 dzanan muse	fifteen	6	1	0	1	4	0	0	0	0/0	0/1	2/4	1	1	8
8 Adam Hanga	eleven	2	3	0	3	0	0	0	0	0/0	1/2	0/1	1	2	2
30 Eli Ndiaye	5	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	1/1	0	1	2
eleven Mario Hezonja	3. 4	12	3	0	3	0	2	2	0	23	23	2/8	3	2	8
13 Sergio Rodriguez	28	fifteen	4	2	2	9	3	1	0	1/1	4/6	2/5	3	1	23
1 fabien causeur	16	eleven	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0/0	1/1	3/5	1	4	8
5 Rudy Fernandez	16	3	2	2	0	2	0	0	0	1/1	1/1	0/3	1	2	3
23 Sergio Llull	12	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0/0	1/2	0/1	0	1	0
3 Anthony Randolph	4	3	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	0/0	0/0	1/1	0	1	5
6 Alberto Abalde	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0