Madrid wins in madness

Neither Chus Mateo nor Obradovic will play the castanets for the show, which was for scoring and hitting three, but which turned out to be ungovernable due to let’s say dissolute defensive activity. The whites, at least, went from nothing to something else. Those from Belgrade, back in Madrid, on the 30th anniversary of the Partizán de Fuenlabrada, the 1992 European Cup of Djordjevic’s three-way trip, continue to learn life lessons on their return to the elite. Tonight’s is that it doesn’t matter if you score 17 three-pointers with a 49% success rate and 97 points after 21 assists if the rival goes to 105 goals with 65% of two and 11 targets from three of 22 attempts. And you give up on the rebound and don’t stop the many weapons of a superior adversary. That was the summary, with the Real in more than 100 for the first time this season (69-100 against Betis in the Super Cup). Up to five Real Madrid players scored at least 14 points, with Llull on 20, Tavares on 17 and Hezonja and Deck on 15 compared to 20 for Zach LeDay and 17 for Dante Exum. Behind, a good stretch of Ndiaye, Hezonja and Abalde when the locals turned the tables before the break.

Basketball is milk. In case there were any doubts, we saw him again this Thursday at the Palace with a stark contrast between one period and another. Crazy. A triple by Andjusic (ex Bilbao and Valladolid) in the last tenth raised Partizán’s 40 point in the first ten minutes. Yes, yes, 32-40! in a record quarter. The meringues came out soft, no, the following, and Obradovic’s men knew how to open the field, look for good shots from three (and, even more difficult, be accurate: 8 of 12) and play with speed, charging first with Andjusic and then with Nunnally and LeDay. Punter, an offensive benchmark, was an accessory at the start. A whirlwind that, however, barely upset Real in a pulse of alternations, at least until the very final stretch of the act.

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And with that result of rubbing his eyes, more typical of a complete part, he faced the second quarter and… Partizán took two minutes to add his first basket and more than four to achieve the second, in that time, a 20-2 run from the intermission and, being even more specific, 16-0: from 36-42 to 52-42. Chus Mateo had found the quintet behind and with the precise assignments, while Hezonja received good blocks and did not disappoint in attack. The youth squad player Eli Ndiaye, a power forward, took the rival point guard, Exum, a bit in the style of what Marcus Slaughter did a few years agoand Hezonja, a forward, held the melee against LeDay, a 4–5 powerful, but short and with a good shot to get Poirier and Tavares out of the way, although he was before and after in the mark of the recently signed Brodziansky, formerly of the ACB and also with a shot of three. Perhaps for this reason, to open the court, the athletic Lessort, essential for Zeljko, played much less than usual. And he was also on the Abalde court, good job as a quartermaster.

The revolutions had dropped in that second period (22-11 partial and 54-51) to pick up again in the restart (32-23) with a very successful Llull who shot up to 20 goals. The captain armed his shots more after receiving a pass than after carrying the ball. Tavares imposed his dominance under the Serbian ring and Punter entered the scene, although the locals only really pushed at the rear at the end of the fourth, when Williams-Goss stole a ball and left a good layup: 86-74 in… 30 minutes.

The last assault remained and Madrid, despite standing out with a +15 (89-74 and 95-80), stopped and had to grit their teeth to avoid falling into the quagmire. The imminent threat (99-90) did not materialize, Deck raised the score to 101 and… his team embraced the fifth consecutive victory in Europe that confirms its continental takeoff: top of everything in a very even classification, in the wake of the leader, of a Fenerbahçe that he will visit next Friday.

real Madrid

Statistics

14 Gabriel Deck
22 Edy Tavares
31 dzanan muse
twenty-one Petr Cornelie
0 Nigel Williams-Goss
23 Sergio Llull
6 Alberto Abalde
eleven Mario Hezonja
17 vincent poirier
30 Eli Ndiaye
1 fabien causeur
13 Sergio Rodriguez

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
14 Gabriel Deck	25	fifteen	1	1	0	4	1	two	0	1/1	7/8	0/0	two	1	twenty-one
22 Edy Tavares	24	17	8	4	4	0	3	1	1	3/5	7/9	0/0	5	3	twenty-one
31 dzanan muse	twenty	14	1	0	1	4	0	0	0	6/7	1/4	2/4	3	two	14
twenty-one Petr Cornelie	16	6	1	0	1	1	two	0	0	2/2	2/2	0/1	3	0	8
0 Nigel Williams-Goss	eleven	8	1	0	1	3	1	two	0	0/0	1/1	2/2	0	two	eleven
23 Sergio Llull	24	twenty	1	0	1	3	1	0	0	6/7	1/3	4/7	4	3	17
6 Alberto Abalde	19	two	3	1	two	3	0	1	0	2/2	0/2	0/1	1	3	4
eleven Mario Hezonja	18	fifteen	4	0	4	0	two	1	0	4/4	1/2	3/5	two	two	fifteen
17 vincent poirier	fifteen	4	4	two	two	0	1	0	1	0/0	2/4	0/0	two	1	6
30 Eli Ndiaye	10	two	4	1	3	0	0	0	0	0/0	1/1	0/0	0	0	6
1 fabien causeur	6	two	1	0	1	1	1	0	0	0/0	1/1	0/2	0	two	-1
13 Sergio Rodriguez	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	0

partizan

Statistics

7 kevin pointer
twenty-one James Nunnally
33 Danilo Andjusic
two Zach LeDay
12 Vladimir Brodziansky
eleven Dante Liman Exum
26 Mathias Lessort
10 Ioannis Papapetrou
41 Yam Madar
24 gregor glas
32 urostrifunovic

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
7 kevin pointer	32	16	5	0	5	3	two	1	0	3/5	2/4	3/8	7	two	17
twenty-one James Nunnally	32	fifteen	two	0	two	3	1	0	0	2/2	23	3/6	3	3	fifteen
33 Danilo Andjusic	30	13	0	0	0	4	3	0	0	2/2	1/3	3/4	1	3	9
two Zach LeDay	28	twenty	6	3	3	5	two	0	1	4/4	2/5	4/6	5	3	27
12 Vladimir Brodziansky	twenty-one	8	1	0	1	1	0	two	0	0/0	1/1	2/5	0	4	5
eleven Dante Liman Exum	19	17	4	two	two	0	3	0	0	3/3	4/7	23	two	3	13
26 Mathias Lessort	fifteen	8	3	two	1	0	two	0	two	2/2	3/4	0/0	two	two	10
10 Ioannis Papapetrou	eleven	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0/0	0/2	0/2	0	two	-5
41 Yam Madar	5	0	0	0	0	two	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	0	1
24 gregor glas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
32 urostrifunovic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0