The Madrid of feats will fight for the Eleventh

Without Deck or Poirier, without the suspended Yabusele, with a youth player like Ndiaye lending a hand and with Tavares and Hezonja carrying all the responsibility inside, Madrid rang the bell again (66-78), this time in Kaunas, although it was heard throughout Europe. He started strong, saw how Barcelona overtook him and had the courage not to let go, to resist and hit a claw of 0-15 in the third quarter that reminded the reaction of a year ago in Belgrade. He finished in the last six minutes, with nine points from Sergio Rodríguez in 1:25 combining in several passes with lull. The old guard. The finish to a resplendent white night, in which much of the rest was supported by Tavares, who ended up eliminating Sanli and almost Vesely. The best interior player on the continent scored 20 points (7 of 9 of two), 15 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, four, for sure, in the critical stretch, for a PIR of 39. Between the two, Sergios added 10 assists and Hezonja completed a rock star performance with 14 + 9 and the triple of the lace: 66-76 with 35 seconds from the buzzer. At Barça, the ship sank in the second half (24-42), only Laprovittola was left charging until exhaustion, and Abrines. Neither Mirotic, in the blackest night, nor Satoransky when the males had to squeeze, nor Vesely… There was no rescuer. Jasikevicius also did not know how to get a handle on the situation. Higgins was missing, an unequivocal block was missing in his course and he fell down the street from the triple (39 tried, only 35% accurate, 5 of 25 in the second part; and a very poor 10 of 30 of two and 4 of 11 from the staff). Madrid will fight on Sunday, at 7:00 p.m., against Greek Olympiacos, for their eleventh European Cup in their twentieth final. History to do.

Basketball allows many paths to reach the objective, we verified it in the first quarter, in which Madrid dominated in almost all aspects, with Tavares taking great care of making a foul, and even so, going up to 10 points and 6 rebounds in those ten minutes, and with Barça tied the act at 18 because he holed 6 of his 9 triples (three from Abrines) and he even gave him the same not to score any of two until the 12th minute. Ndiaye, in addition to all this, starting at 18 years old and doing very well against Mirotic: he stopped him in a couple of actions, shot him and took a free kick. A feeling of security for some, who had a calibrated peephole, and of frustration for others, who did not show control.

In the second act, Tavares took a good breather, Jokubaitis took the opportunity to burst in with force and open the Barca locker with two and repeat the next one before hitting the parquet and breaking two teeth. The balance was unbalanced. Musa had not come into play in attack, imprecise, Goss only at the beginning and Real did not create. Causeur ate a couple of balls, Rudy made two waters in separate triples, then Hezonja repeated, although the Croatian was the only one who was seen with the ability to reply. And to Randolph, who took advantage under the basket of the defensive changes with shorties. In the culés ranks, the injured Jokubaitis was taken by the witness Satoransky, very incisive inward (they missed him when the goal loomed). And Kuric emerged, on one of those days in which the touch with the ball was with him. Tavares had returned, but without the initial containment. He body charged Mirotic (first foul) and then exaggeratedly turned into a brawl with Nnaji (second personal). He couldn’t make the third, so Barça exploited it. He got +7 and, when the break came, with +9 (42-33) before a three-pointer from Llull: 42-36. The rudder was held by Jasikevicius’s team despite the 10 losses and the 1 of 5 from the free kick.

At the restart the forces were equalized again, Mirotic, now with Hezonja, did not catch the good wave (0 of 8, ended with 1 of 10 almost desperate), the Merengue defense was no longer porous and the accuracy of the Barça snipers disappeared. Tavares, again the figure on which everything revolved. His blow on the table made noise: 0-15 in five minutes and 47-54. In the middle, a scuffle. Vesely pushed Hanga and he hooked his arm committing unsportsmanlike action. Neither the free kicks nor the subsequent kick turned on the favorite’s light. The white wall grew and allowed him some career, through which Musa, unable to break static, slipped into the Classic. And good moments from Goss, while Jasikevicius had opted to sit Mirotic down and put Kalinic back. four. Just four Madrid losses in the second half.

Kuric and lapro they recomposed their own figure from triple (58 equals). The Argentine did not stop forcing free kicks, granite by granite, making a barn and… new blackout, this time general. In four minutes, 3-0, there were six left, six to find out who would sneak into a new Euroleague final. And for that boiling stretch, Chus Mateo was clear about it, the old guard in charge of operations: Sergio Rodríguez, Llull and Rudy. And you know what, they did not disappoint. huge. He Chacho put the white ship into orbit with 9 points in 1:25, in a pair of fantastic 2x2s with The incredible. World basketball genius, what would that say. And that breakthat 60-67 buried the European illusions of Barcelona, ​​from the third year of the Jasikevicius project. To the canvas with no option to get up, because Tavares was not going to allow it either, devastating with his imposing presence, on the rebound, scoring and forcing fouls and with up to four interceptions or blocks in those critical moments. Colossal. The oldies, as Nocioni would say, they have one more dance, for the Eleventh, this time with Chus Mateo on the bench, who has earned it without making a sound, without a pout, “lightening up the drama”, as he usually says. He has swallowed quina waiting for his moment and here it is.

barca

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Statistics

13 Thomas Satoransky
33 Nikola Mirotic
twenty Nicholas Laprovittola
twenty-one Alex Abrines
5 Sertac Sanli
24 Kyle Kuric
10 Nikola Kalinic
6 Jan Veseley
31 Rokas Jokubaitis
46 james naji
8 Sergi Martinez
23 Mike Toby

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
13 Thomas Satoransky	30	7	eleven	2	9	3	2	0	0	0/0	2/4	1/2	0	2	13
33 Nikola Mirotic	28	3	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1/2	1/3	0/7	5	2	-2
twenty Nicholas Laprovittola	28	12	3	2	1	3	1	1	0	0/1	0/4	4/11	6	3	8
twenty-one Alex Abrines	18	16	4	1	3	0	0	1	1	2/2	1/3	4/8	1	4	12
5 Sertac Sanli	16	0	3	2	1	0	1	0	0	0/0	0/3	0/1	0	5	-7
24 Kyle Kuric	23	eleven	2	1	1	0	0	3	0	0/0	1/3	3/6	1	1	eleven
10 Nikola Kalinic	17	6	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0/2	0/1	2/2	1	0	6
6 Jan Veseley	13	4	6	3	3	1	3	1	0	0/2	2/5	0/0	3	4	2
31 Rokas Jokubaitis	12	6	2	0	2	3	4	0	0	0/0	3/5	0/1	1	2	3
46 james naji	8	1	2	0	2	1	1	0	1	1/2	0/0	0/0	3	0	6
8 Sergi Martinez	2	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	0	1
23 Mike Toby	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
5 Rudy Fernandez
13 Sergio Rodriguez
23 Sergio Llull
1 fabien causeur
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	33	twenty	fifteen	4	eleven	1	3	0	3	6/9	7/9	0/0	9	2	38
0 Nigel Williams-Goss	25	10	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	0/0	2/7	2/2	2	4	5
31 dzanan muse	twenty	7	2	1	1	2	2	0	0	3/3	2/6	0/2	3	2	4
8 Adam Hanga	19	0	6	1	5	2	0	0	1	0/0	0/4	0/2	2	2	2
30 Eli Ndiaye	7	2	2	1	1	0	1	0	1	0/0	1/1	0/0	1	0	5
eleven Mario Hezonja	33	14	9	1	8	0	0	2	0	2/2	3/6	2/7	4	3	18
5 Rudy Fernandez	17	2	4	1	3	0	1	2	0	0/0	1/1	0/2	0	3	2
13 Sergio Rodriguez	fifteen	12	0	0	0	5	2	2	0	2/2	2/5	23	1	1	13
23 Sergio Llull	12	5	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	2/2	0/2	1/2	1	1	6
1 fabien causeur	7	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	2	-4
3 Anthony Randolph	6	6	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0/0	3/4	0/1	0	1	5
6 Alberto Abalde	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0