- The Turks lengthen the bad run of Madrid and open the gap in the leadership of the Euroleague
Real Madrid yielded (75-80) this Friday to Anadolu Efes on the 21st day of the Euroleague held at the WiZink Center, at the hands of a lethal Shane Larkin (32 points) once again for the Turks, who escape to three victories in the leadership and extend the bad moment of those of Pablo Laso to four defeats in a row.
Those of Ergin Ataman put the 18-3 at the top of the table, for the 15-6 of Madrid, Barça and CSKA, in another exhibition of Larkin and a team that bet strongly to confirm the step to the front of last season. Laso's fit their third straight defeat in Europe, fourth with the league against Baskonia on Sunday, which cut a streak of 31 games without losing at the Palace.
It was up to Madrid to dance with the ugliest at the time of most doubts of the season, at least in results. Those of Laso took a good version to avenge the Palace, but to knock down the leader it was necessary one night of the great. The feeling left by the first quarter was that the white team had done many things better, but the score was 20-20, despite Larkin's anger.
The best player in Europe played the first 13 minutes and only scored one field basket, although he went a lot to the personnel line, and lost four balls. Hence the swipe to a chair when sitting on the bench. In Madrid, Tavares and Mickey stood out above all, making a difference inside and always accessible to their peers. That inner decline was covered by Efes with triples.
It was hard for the leader to warm up. Facu and Tavares were more productive than Larkin and Pleiss, although the Turks would go from less to more. Carroll was not entered but neither was Beaubois. In the rotation, Madrid again threatened to escape 32-25, but the outside shot left the premises before the break (40-43). The key would be in the defense both teams thought in the locker room.
The Efes did more damage, although the pressure was able to both teams in a resumption of much inaccuracy. The Palace squeezed watching Larkin grow and Madrid tackled the first Ottoman coup (48-53), with Laso burning ships in defense of the MVP for the last three days. 'Facu', Taylor, Llull, Laprovittola, nobody stopped a Larkin willing to charge new illustrious victim (55-64).
A triple of Rudy and two others of Llull stifled the new rival attempt to break the score at the start of the last quarter (64-67), with Larkin challenging Tavares like none. The one from Cape Verde got fed up with the electric base and began to distribute plugs, in a cardiac final with Facu triples and an unexpected Pleiss. Madrid failed two key attacks and Larkin killed dodging everyone, including Tavares' long arms.
DATA SHEET
REAL MADRID: Campazzo (10), Carroll (3), Deck (6), Taylor (-) and Tavares (6) – initial quintet–; Llull (13), Mickey (8), Thompkins (15), Rudy Fernández (8), Causeur (4), Laprovittola (-) and Reyes (2).
ANADOLU EFES: Larkin (32), Beaubois (7), Simon (2), Singleton (7) and Pleiss (13) – initial quintet–; Balbay (5), Moerman (5), Anderson (3), Sanli (-), Peters (3) and Tuncer (3).
– PARTIALS: 20-20, 20-23, 15-16, 20-21.
– ARBITRATORS: Belosevic, Radovic and Vilius. Without eliminated.
– PAVILION: WiZink Center, 11,338 spectators.