The Real Madrid won in Istanbul to the Anadolu Efe s Turkish (65-73) drawing strength from weakness after the defeat in the ‘Classic’ against Barcelona and the lack of effective inside game, to defeat a set Ottoman paid to face his stubbornness with the throw of three (7 of 31).
Despite Sunday’s blow against the eternal rival and despite an Efes – who had just won against Barça – who started the game dominating (37-31 at halftime), Pablo Laso’s team was able to turn the electronic end of the third quarter and force the nerves of the Efes shooters, as stubborn as they were misguided from 6.75 meters (22%) by taking out of the fridge a Jaycee Carroll that hit the final two triples that were key.
With Rudy Fernández (9 points) as a false emergency ‘4’ – Alex
Tyus has already left Galatasaray for Valdebebas to reinforce the Madrid interior game – in a complicated afternoon for Cape Verdean Walter Tavares (4 points and 9 rebounds), and moments of French Fabien Causeur (15 points) and American Trey
Thompkins (13 points, 4 rebounds) added to a hard-fought victory.
Pablo Laso surprised by reserving Tavares in the starting five, with Usman Garuba and Thompkins on the inside and Carlos Alocén leading the team. However, it was not a novice, but a veteran like Causeur, who the local star, the American Shane Larkin – less fierce than expected with only 7 points at the end – stole the first ball for 5-0 with the one who started the match, with a physically superior Efes who threatened to distance himself (9-3, min. 3) so Pablo Laso stopped the game.
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After the white coach’s talk, Madrid seemed to recover with penetration by Causeur and a triple by Thompkins, but they still did not dominate the game and the Serbian Vasilije Micic returned to pull from Efes. He introduced Tavares – who had four rebounds in a minute and a half – but with a triple by Chris Singleton, the Turkish team went seven (20-13).
With a blessed Micic in the penetrations to Efes, it was enough to keep Madrid at bay only supported by the triples of Argentine Nico Laprovittola (28-23, min. 15). Despite running out of Tavares, with two fouls, Rudy transmitted the defensive aggressiveness – and the triples, two – that Madrid lacked, but not even for those were Anadolu Efe s who maintained a 37-31 at halftime.
The Turks, who had everything in their favor to increase the advantage, dedicated themselves to playing triples without rest or success, particularly the Turkish Serlan Sanli, which gave Madrid the window of opportunity to regain ground, also from 6.75 meters, with hits from Jeff Taylor and Sergio Llull, and a pat from Tavares, recovered for the cause to turn the score around (45-47, min. 27).
The whites had managed to start the last quarter with a very slim advantage (51-52), in the last quarter of many nerves in which only the outsiders were right: the Frenchman Rodrigue Beaubois and the American Adrien Moerman stretched Efes (59-55, min. 33), but when the Turkish team could have distanced itself more, Moerman and Micic’s wrists trembled, quite the opposite of Rudy and Causeur on the tray to overtake the whites (59-63).
The duel was in a fist: Micic came to tie it, but he committed the foul in an attack in the next action that gave way to Jaycee Carroll’s vital triple that gave five vital income points (63-68). Not happy with it, the Wyoming (USA) hit again to get it right and sentence the game, which allows Real Madrid to close 2020 with the taste of a triumph (65-73) worked.
Data sheet:
65 – Anadolu Efes (20 + 17 + 14 + 14): Larkin (7), Beaubois (9), Simon (5), Moerman (8), Dunston (9) -the starting five-, Anderson, Micic (16), Singleton (5), Sanli (6) and Balbay.
73 – Real Madrid (13 + 18 + 21 + 21): Alocén, Abalde (6), Causeur (15), Thompkins (13), Garuba -the starting five-, Laprovittola (10), Tavares (4), Deck (2 ), Carroll (6), Rudy (9), Llull (3) and Taylor (5).
Referees: Luigi Lamonica (ITA), Matej Boltauzer (SLO), and Fernando Rocha (POR). Without eliminated.
Incidents: match of the seventeenth day of the Euroleague, played at the Sinan Erdem in Istanbul (Turkey), without spectators.
