Madrid falls with a crash

Madrid lost without palliatives in Piraeus, where they gave up all four quarters and in none of them did they exceed 16 points after signing a scandalously bad 3 of 25 (12%) in triples for a meager 73-60 finish, his lowest score of the season. These figures are reminiscent of last year, when he fell into a deep well from which he managed to get out in time. Olympiacos, who arrived as the block with the highest score, the highest assist and the highest value, has many records and this time it was the fight suit to beat the opponent in one of its strong points, the rebound: 43 to 36. The almost 80 rejections give an idea of ​​the high number of failures in a duel where Walkup (18 points) was the most accurate and Vezenkov, on a lazy day, finished with 15. In Madrid, Tavares from more to less, two or three blows from Hezonja and that’s it. He accused having only Llull and Hanga at the helm, and this is still far from his best form after the injury.

Another setback against one of the Euroleague potentates and that is, of the seven meetings played with one of the current top seven, they have lost six, including both with Olympiacos (beat Fenerbahce). Of course, the difference between the Greek team, once again the leader for the basket average with 35% defeats (13-7) in the 20 rounds, and the eighth, Maccabi, is just two wins. Four teams tie for first placethe two protagonists of this face to face plus Fenerbahçe and Barça.

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The best possible game on the continent As of January 20, it came out intense, although not very lucid. Olympiacos took control at the start with better ball circulation and more outside threat against a Tavares who was the only visitor scoring route (19-12). Madrid responded in the second quarter (21-22) already with the rotation launched, where Hezonja emerged with five goals and Poirier rebounded well, as did Cornelie. The locals got somewhat stuck, but Sloukas returned the advantage and McKissic alleviated the offensive problems by beating Musa, who needs to take a step back so as not to be the recurring target of the rival’s punishment.

With a triple from nine attempts (at halftime, then it got even worse) you can’t attack the fraternal Pavilion of Peace and Friendship. The seven losses then (14 at the end with four by Tavares and three by Llull) made the whites pupate. Those transitions after errors (forced and unforced) in attack allowed the navy rojiblanca travel several lengths ahead (36-28). On a day without Vezenkov’s leprechaun, the MVP of the course so far, the all terrain Walkup appeared in the race and with shots released (13 points at the start, more than one per minute). In the fight in the mud it was noted that Deck He has lost pace with his muscle injury, as the absence of the two purest point guards was noted, Sergio Rodriguez (hit on a knee) and Williams-Goss (fever), momentary leave in a commitment of extreme demand (and Abalde was missing, another handlerdue to a sprain).

At the restart, the gap stretched to +12 (52-40) due to Merengue’s ineffectiveness, which led Llull, due to the general collapse, to take too many shots. Also Tavares, who ended with a blow to the leg, played two to the forced post against another giant, Moustapha Fall (2.18). He lacked fluidity beyond a previous action, finding the weak side and enormous defense of Bartzokas’ men. The drift was not changed and the game became a jumble of all kinds of bad decisions and, above all, many mistakes in the launch. So as soon as the oly he calmed down, he opened the gap more: 65-50. There was no colour. Madrid was similar to the one that capsized against Barça at the 2023 premiere and very little to that of the following five duels, where it offered a great image. Without bases, there is no paradise; Or it costs more to get to it.