The white team advances in the final of the Endesa League (2-1) after being much superior to Barça (81-66)
The 15 local offensive rebounds and the 19 visiting turnovers help explain what happened quite well.
In a game with less history than expected, Real Madrid beat Barça fairly (81-66) in the third game and already dominates the final by 1-2. On Sunday he will have his first opportunity to snatch the league title from his eternal rival starting at six in the afternoon.
DATASHEET
ENDESA LEAGUE
RMA
BAR
LINEUPS
REAL MADRID, 81
(21+25+20+15): Adam Hanga (7), Fabien Causeur (13), Gabriel Deck (14), Guerschon Yabusele (9), Walter Tavares (10) – starting five – Sergio Llull (10), Vincent Poirier (6), Rudy Fernandez (3), Alberto Abalde (2), Jeffery Taylor (5), Juan Nunez (2) and Eli John Ndiaye (2).
BARÇA, 66
(16+23+14+13): Nick Calathes (10), Cory Higgins (3), Dante Exum (5), Nikola Mirotic (9), Sertaç Sanli -initial five-, Nico Laprovittola (6), Dante Exum ( 5), Kyle Kuric (15), Rolands Smits (5), Rokas Jokubaitis (2), Àlex Abrines (3) and Sergi Martínez.
REFEREES
Carlos Peruga, Benjamin Jimenez and Alberto Sanchez Sixto. No eliminated for personal fouls.
INCIDENTS
Third game of the Endesa Men’s Basketball League final played before 11,973 spectators at the WIZink Center (Madrid).
It was a key game after the Barça victory on Wednesday by 71-69 in a very tight duel that had nothing to do with the white exhibition two days before in the first (75-88), since the winner would have two options to win the title and one of them at home.
The first news broke already in the morning when it was confirmed that Jasikevicius discharged Dante Exum to the detriment of a Nigel Hayes that contributes less and less in attack. The problem is that the Australian has not had his day and has contributed very little.
Barça expected little less than a trap after what happened in the second game, when several players tweeted real barbarities after Guerschon Yabusele intimidated one of the referees during the match and walked away scot-free. In fact, the director of the Josep Cubells section had to come to the fore, but the reality is that this Friday he has appointed the one who has sought him the most. Little or nothing more to say.
The azulgranas took the lead with a triple by Higgins (2-3) who The current league runner-up responded with a partial 6-0 (8-3). Calathes was important there with three penetrations traced by the center that once again turned the score around (11-12, min. 5:44).
Adam Hanga is making an extraordinary final
| EFE
However, Jasikevicius’s men accumulated losses and gave their rival extra options. A triple by Taylor whose irruption was very positive and two free throws by Sergio Llull closed the very intense first quarter in which the whites controlled the details better (21-16).
Kyle Kuric recovered his aim at the beginning of the second quarter with two three-pointers in a row that reduced the visitor’s disadvantage to its minimum expression (25-24, min. 12:07), but from then on Barça entered a dynamic of losses (11 in the first half) that in part were the result of the defense with continuous changes that Chus Mateo ordered. By the way, Sertaç Sanli was disastrous with the mitigating factor of his ankle problems.
And that the champions attacked to get ahead with 27-26. They didn’t make it and conceded a 7-0 run that culminated in a triple by Gabriel Deck (34-26, min. 15:27). A triple by Rudy Fernández after a masterful feint to get rid of Laprovittola further opened the wound (44-34) of a azulgrana team that at least did not leave the game (46-39 at halftime after three free throws scored by Brandon Davies).
A triple and two baskets by Kuric in the return of the match they catapulted a Barça that was back to dreaming 55-50 (min. 25:18), but a series of errors and four points in a row from Causeur plus a mate from Poirier put the locals away again in a jiffy (61-50) .
Mirotic and Smits, trying to stop Tavares
| EFE
For more defensive efforts that Barça made even with pressure after a kick-off, Madrid liked it and a three-point shot by Sergio Llull from eight meters over the possession buzzer made it a painful 64-52 in the middle of a festival of Madrid offensive rebounds with Poirier as a referent. At the end of the quarter, 66-53 and everything was very uphill.
The last quarter was a real grotesque. Barça took more than three minutes to score (73-56) against a rival who had it much easier. If he failed, he knew that he had as many options as he wanted to control the rebound as an inexplicable superiority, like Father Abraham surrounded by Smurfs for trying to take iron away from a sad reality.
no more story, Madrid ended up winning 81-66 after a basket from its young promise Eli John Ndiaye and it will be time to think about the fourth game on Sunday, at six in the afternoon and also at the WIZink Center. Seen what has been seen, it seems like a chimera that those of Jasikevicius revalidate the title. However, stranger things have been seen in basketball.
