The Real Madrid could not get a valuable victory this Tuesday in sports and spirit, during his visit to the Turkish Anadolu Efes, current Euroleague champion who defeated him by a tight 93-90 after a match where the Madridistas, supported by Gaby Deck and Guerschon Yabusele, were ahead until the final two minutes.
The set of Paul Laso could not take a firm step in his recovery and secure second place in the Regular Phase of the highest continental competition, already altered with the goodbye of the Russian teams. He improved his performance, especially at an offensive level, but he just missed the success both in the final quarter (11 points) and when the match was decided in favor of Ergin Ataman’s men.
A great Deck, who played the entire game and had 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Yabusele, who only rested for a little over two minutes and contributed 20 points, with good collaboration from Adam Hanga (14), kept Real Madrid ahead for many minutes, but when an Elijah Bryant three-pointer put the hosts ahead for the first time in the entire game, they no longer had energy.
The Madrid team made a good start in the attack, even though they once again suffered from accuracy from the triple, with a 1/7 that did not weigh them down excessively thanks to their freshness when moving the ball (8 assists) to find other ways.
That, and his good defensive attitude, allowed him to take the initiative in the electronic from the initial jump. A first threat (12-19) was closed by Micic, the best of his team with 17 of his 29 points in the first half, and despite suffering three blocks, but at the end of the first quarter Laso’s men were in charge (19-21).
However, the outside aim returned in the second quarter, thanks to Rudy Fernández and Yabusele, who with two hits each signed a 4/4 in this facet that improved the statistics and that, together with Deck’s work, caused the visitors to send.
A) Yes, the first two hits by the Balearic Islands, another by the French, and two almost consecutive ‘2+1s’ by the Argentine put the ten-time European champion above ten points (31-44). Efes replied with a 7-0 and got closer to 42-44 taking advantage of bad choices by Heurtel, but five consecutive points from Yabusele stretched the score again until 44-51 at the break.
bad quarter-final
After this, Real Madrid had the good news of the arrival of Walter Tavares, until then with little offensive impact. Five points from the Cape Verdean ‘giant’ and the relentless Deck gave new air (48-60), but the current champion did not lose his face and in the absence of a good version of Shane Larkin (12 points with 4/15), he found Moerman.
The French power forward was Micic’s best ‘squire’ with 18 points, 12 of them from the triple where he kept a hand in the final bars of the third quarter with his compatriot Yabusele. Heurtel and Hanga joined forces and Laso’s men entered the final quarter ahead (72-79).
And this last period, especially its second half was long for Real Madrid, who thanks to Deck managed to keep an advantage that was gradually diminishing. Moerman pulled the cart and finally returned all the options to the locals (85-86).
Until then, the Madrid team endured despite the efforts of their Argentine forward. The three-pointers (11) that had entered no longer did so and Micic appeared to be key, with a three-pointer to tie and a steal from Deck for 93-90 just after Bryant put Efes ahead for the first time. This had a ball to sentence on several occasions, he did not do it and the last forced triple by Rudy Fernández did not give five more minutes.
Datasheet:
RESULT: ANADOLU EFES, 93 – REAL MADRID, 90 (44-51, at halftime).
EQUIPMENT:
- ANADOLU EFES: Larkin (12), Micic (29), Anderson (5), Moerman (18) and Pleiss (11) –initial quintet–; Beaubois (5) Dunston (8), Bryant (3) and Simon (2).
- REAL MADRID: Williams-Goss (9), Hanga (14), Deck (23), Yabusele (20) and Tavares (5) — starting five–; Heurtel (5), Rudy Fernández (6), Randolph (-), Poirier (8) and Thompkins.
PARTIALS: 19-21, 25-30, 28-28 and 21-11.
REFEREES: Ryzhyk, Nikolic and Javor. Without eliminated.
PAVILION: Sinan Erdem Dome.