Scariolo’s Madrid plan in the first days of the year is amazing. Today he receives Dubai Basketball in the match that closes the first round of the Euroleague. 40 hours later the visitor to the Movistar Arena will be Barcelona in the Endesa League. And the first full week of 2026 includes a visit to the ASVEL on Three Kings Day and two days a continental classic against Maccabi. Four games in seven days.
The first challenge is a rookie in the continental competition, but who only has one victory less than Madrid. Dubai Basketball has one of the most versatile attacks in the Euroleague (87 points per game), although injuries hamper the emirate’s franchise. One of the absences will be Dzanan Musa. He injured his right ankle in the Adriatic League, the domestic competition he plays in, and has only been able to play in two Euroleague games. Despite the casualties, the threats are multiple: Aleksa Avramovic, Filip Petrusev, Davis Bertans, Kabengele, Dwayne Bacon Jr, McKinley Wright IV or another former Madrid player like Klemen Prepelic.
«It is a complex match due to the quality of the rival and we will surely have to work hard defensively to keep them under control. It won’t be easy, but at the same time we have a lot of motivation to be able to play a good game, one more, in front of our fans and add up,” said Scariolo. The club founded in 2023 is for Scariolo the best proof of the leap in the middle level that the competition has made: «The increase in the number of good rivals in the last two years has been incomparable compared to the past. There are eight, nine, even ten teams that legitimately aspire to be in the Final Four and win it and this has never happened. It’s amazing, it evens out the competition, it generates interest, but it increases the difficulty. “It forces you to always go all out against anyone.”
After beating UCAM Murcia to confirm the leadership in the ACB, Scariolo considers that “we have to work hard in each game because all the rivals are very good, especially in this part of the season. We like to play in front of our audience and that is an advantage, but it stops being so if we think that this can help us save effort,” he concludes.
