On a Euroleague day in which Barça and Real Madrid had decided their respective matches with just one point of difference, with the Whites in their favor (100-99 against Zalgiris) and the Azulgranas against (74-73 in Istanbul against Efes), Valencia Basket and Baskonia, the other two Spanish teams competing in the top continental competition, gave a good boost in the standings yesterday.
The Vitorians resolved their duel first, recovering after a bad start against Bayern Munich and, led by a great Markquis Nowell (12 points, eight assists and two rebounds for a PIR of 20), found victory at the Buesa Arena (95-73), where they hadn’t played in front of a crowd for 15 days.
Half an hour later, at the Roig Arena, the Valencia Basket match began, where Pedro Martínez’s team, once again without the young Sergio de Larrea due to a technical decision, faced Red Star, co-leader of the Euroleague with eight victories in 11 games, a record identical to that of the surprising Hapoel Jerusalem.
The game came with just one possession advantage for the grapefruits in the last ten seconds, and there, with his wrist faster than usual, the Serbian Nikola Kalinic made an error in a throw-in and gave the ball away to Valencia Basket, who did not let the advantage slip away and won again (76-73) in the Euroleague after last week’s defeat in Paris.
“We were able to increase the pace in defense at the moment of truth and they arrived tired at the end, because it was a tough and very physical match”, commented Pedro Martínez after the conclusion to the microphones of Movistar+. “The end was heads or tails. Last week we had tails and this time it was heads.”
“Keep one of my players today? In the end, teamwork is more important to me than individual recognition,” said the coach of a team that, seventh in the Euroleague after Friday’s victory, has no player among the 33 top scorers in the competition. A fact, another, which underlines the triumph of the collective over the particular.
This is what the Euroleague standings look like after the 12th matchday
