Real Madrid proved to be an increasingly fearsome team with a prestigious victory at the Botevgrad Arena in Bulgaria (74-75), where Hapoel play in exile at home before their imminent return to Tel Aviv. The Israeli team is the leader of the Euroleague, but remained behind its opponent for almost the entire match, colder and more successful in the last few actions.
The match featured the battle between two of Europe’s best coaches on Botevgrad’s unmarked scoreboard: Dimitris Itoudis versus Sergio Scariolo. The Italian placed Mario Hezonja among the starters and the striker did not disappoint him. If ever there was a fire, it seems to have gone out and the Croatian was the leader of the Juventus 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 this time the Canadian was unable to keep up with his teammate.
Real Madrid showed off defensively for several games and this 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 difficulty, they decided to change the draw 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 started to defend themselves in front of their rivals and some steals arrived which served as a boost.
Hapoel, which used only eight players, took control of the scoreboard midway through the third quarter (50-49). Real Madrid had problems in attack and lacked the help of three of their wingers, who were very in tune in recent games, such as Lyles, Theo Maledon and Andrés Feliz. The white team seemed to be playing in the darkness and Antonio Blakeney saw the basket getting wider and wider. Scariolo had to stop a match that was going badly (58-52).
The solution was in the legs of Feliz, who made his team play the way he likes: running. The balance of this frenetic match was some defeats, but Real Madrid regained dominance in the last quarter (60-67). Hapoel, in front of the home crowd, still equalized (67-67) but Itoudis had to withdraw Micic, with four fouls, while Scariolo brought back his pillars, Campazzo and Tavares, who had refreshed for a good part of this second half. Chris Jones took over the offensive role that the Israeli team needed. The former Valencia Basket player is happy in that final stretch where every possession is a limit game. There, with his individual resources, he manages time masterfully.
Iotudis put all the powder next to Jones: Micic, Blakeney and Bryant. But just at that moment two great defensive actions from Real Madrid arrived which allowed them to score four points in a row on the counterattack. Hezonja shined offensively and defensively. And Tavares, who saw that the end was approaching behind the three, had no problem bending his hips to move away from the basket and influence Hapoel’s attacks, which ended up paying the consequences.
Baskonia was defeated by Zalgiris (82-67) in a game in which they managed to score only 25 points in the second half. Valencia Basket, for its part, beat Bayer without problems (90-64).
