Birthdays don’t always come out round from start to finish. And Laso’s, 54 years old this Wednesday, a kid like who says in the profession, It was magnificent on the way out and then lost some of its bellows. Quite a lot, actually. Madrid went from astonishing with a whirlwind start that placed them 25 up (44-19) against AS Monaco to losing all the advantage to the incandescence of Mike James (24 points, 10 assists and 34 PIR), the push of Donta Hall, the Motiejunas moments and the office of the eternal Will Thomas (35 years old). On the premises Yabusele stood out, since his landing in September, one of the favorites of the stands. Tenacity, strength, size, talent, little hand And always with a smile, that helps. He finished with 18 points and a PIR of 25. He was key at the beginning, in the best of his team, and in the end, in the decisive (94-86). At your side, Heurtel kept the pace shown in Valencia (12 plus 5 rebounds and 7 passes), while the gesture of concern was left by Hanga, who left with discomfort in the back of his left knee.
Madrid flew during the first 15 minutes, with a projection of 120 points (44-19), and disarmed a debutant who arrived triumphantly, with a 2-0 balance. Defense, speed and accuracy for a devastating initial set of 13-1, which grew to 30-12 at the end of the first quarter with 7 baskets without failure and 3 of 7 of three. Yabusele presented a pristine statistic and Hanga ran, cut and threw. It seemed that there was neither a duel nor I was going to see it, but the Real broke down behind, allowed rebounds under its hoop against the beast Donta Hall and Mike James started engines: annotation and assists of various colors. Answer, 7-20.
The new game would definitely arrive in the second half, where James continued to raise the temperature with unlikely 3s and 14 points. In fact, his 24 goals were achieved in a quarter and a half, from 0 to 10 until halftime and then in the Show of the third. In the last act, in which the Monegasque star ended up injured (muscular problems in a twin), he entered 72-65. Motiejunas gave another push in front of Tavares, and Andjusic, Westermmann and Will Thomas nailed it with three as if it were a relay post.
Taylor was on James’ mark, which was not adding up now, but the whites were extremely stuck. And Will culminated the comeback after the tenth pass from the American point guard: 81-83. There were three minutes left and Madrid, with almost no time to rub their eyes, saw how fear tried to get into their body. His best man of the night, Yabusele, prevented him: basket and then three forced free throws that he holed undeterred. Rudy gave the lace In the absence of 60 seconds with a frontal triplazo, James was KO and Heurtel clinched. On Friday, again in the Palace, more, the Panathinaikos.