Euroleague: Hurricane Larkin also devastates the Palace | Euroleague 2019

The great Efes base, with its own exhibition (32 points), disrupts an impotent Madrid, which adds its fourth consecutive defeat, third in Euroleague

Once upon a time there was a player without an antidote, so lethal that not even facing him on warning is enough. An individual domain like that of Shane Larkin, unstoppable also in the Palace, is not remembered in Europe. His very own exhibition propin la fourth track loss for a Real Madrid that January has made him miss. (75-80: Narration and statistics)

The little devil comes after three days of wonder – three consecutive MVPs, somewhat indito – and no one was able to contain him, resources for each defensive approach, lethal from the triple and brave in penetrations. I finished with 32 points (19 in the second part), almost half of his entire team, an Efes who on the back of Larkin feels almighty. Neither all the white ardor nor the full strength of the stands were sufficient. The leader escapes stronger and Pablo Laso's group sinks a little more in his own pothole after losing at home for the first time in Euroleague since May, only days after Baskonia also took the WiZink in ACB.

It seemed that there was nothing better to break the bad inertia than a high-flying game, of those who return to shoot the pulsations as if a Mortirolo's ramp was treated. Because the proclaimed Efes is no longer just a conjunction of stars. To the coup book and the flashes of his undisputed talents, with Larkin at the helm, they have added a serious team entity – work of Ergin Ataman– from which no one would be surprised that there by May will lift the first Euroleague in its history.

Decisive Pleiss

As if wanting to jump from the heart-based mini crisis, Madrid set the pace above all else, the road map so as not to fall into the recent bad memories of this strange start of the year. I woke up emphatically (14-5) with that warrior as silent as effective as Deck de ala-pvot and Carroll, so layered each time, headline. And there came the first response of the Efes, without half measures despite the short rotation without Micic or Dunston.

Larkin, how could it be otherwise, as the beginning and end of everything that happens in the Ataman collective, although without the point of egosmo that is usually the evil spread in those of its kind. The second quarter repeated the script: white squeeze, with the traditional mpetu of Llull and Rudy and the effectiveness of Mickey; and Ottoman response, without shaking a pice, the solidity of the leader.

Obviously, something else is missing. As simple as being reunited with his basketball, because before an opponent, only good intentions are not worth it. In that attempt, the intensity rose to the point that the battle reached desperate levels very soon. And, with such talent and equality on the parquet, it was a delight, with Madrid leaving everything –Thompkins great third quarter– to disrupt the Larkin effect, a permanent headache that kills the slightest absentee and that was planted in the final act with 21 points and four assists.

Now it was the local who struggled to return and for that he needed the success. With three triples, two consecutive of Llull, revived the maximum Ottoman (55-64), clinging to the duel as only Madrid knows. It looked like it looked an outcome of those peaks in which the Palace vibrates, in which even the impossible happen.

But Madrid was one span away, the revolution was not enough this time. When I was closer, Pleiss, the other protagonist of the duel by the visiting party, it was a painful stab, a triple almost at the end of the possession that the atmosphere was, when the whites rode with the wind in favor of the comeback. Then came the tip of Larkin, who left the WiZink with the feeling that a hurricane had passed.