Real Madrid with a prestigious victory at the Botevgrad Arena in Bulgaria (74-75), where Hapoel plays as an exile in its home game before its imminent return to Tel Aviv. The Israeli team is the leader of the Euroleague, but it was almost the entire match behind its opponent, colder and more successful in the last actions.
The match featured a battle between two of the best coaches in Europe on the unmarked Botevgrad board: Dimitris Itoudis against Sergio Scariolo. The Italian placed Mario Hezonja in the starting five and the forward did not disappoint him. If there ever was a fire, it seems to have been put out and the Croatian was the leader of the white attack with 19 points. His start was devastating: 11 points in the first minutes. When he went to the bench, Dimitris Iotudis breathed… until he saw Trey Liles enter. Although the Canadian was not able to keep up with his teammate this time.
Madrid has been showing off in defense for several games and that allowed them to feel comfortable with short leads. Until they had a good run and were ten points ahead (18-28). When Hapoel found themselves in trouble, they decided to change the drawing and take a risk with five small players. Although the big change came when Micic, the highest paid player in the Euroleague, took a step forward. The Tel Aviv team also improved when they began to defend ahead of their rivals and there came some steals that served as a boost.
Hapoel, who only used eight players, took control of the scoreboard midway through the third quarter (50-49). Real Madrid had problems in attack and was missing the help of three of its outside players, very in tune in recent games, such as Lyles, Theo Maledon and Andrés Feliz. The white team seemed to be playing in the dark and Antonio Blakeney saw the hoop getting wider and wider. Scariolo had to stop a game that was going wrong (58-52).
The solution was in the legs of Feliz, who made his team play the way he likes: on the run. The toll of this frenetic game is some losses, but Real Madrid regained dominance in the last quarter (60-67). Hapoel, in front of their home crowd, still tied the match (67-67) but Itoudis had to retire Micic, with four fouls, while Scariolo returned his pillars, Campazzo and Tavares, to the court, whom he had cooling off for a good stretch of this second half. Chris Jones assumed the offensive role that the Israeli team needed. The former Valencia Basket player is happy in that final stretch in which each possession is a limit play. There, with his one-on-one resources, he manages time masterfully.
Iotudis put all the gunpowder next to Jones: Micic, Blakeney and Bryant. But just at that moment came two great defensive actions from Madrid that allowed them to score four points in a row on the counterattack. Hezonja shone in attack and defense. And Tavares, who saw that the end was brewing behind the line of three, had no problems bending his hips to move away from the rim and condition Hapoel’s attacks, which ended up paying for it.
Baskonia fell to Zalgiris (82-67) in a game in which they were only able to score 25 points in the second half. They beat Bayer without problems (90-64).
