Three Kings’ Day gave three victories to the Spanish teams that played in the Euroleague in the middle of the marathon of matches between the end and beginning of the year. Valencia took the Estrella Roja court (89-106), Madrid won the Asvel Villeurbanne stadium (69-80) and Barça won at the Palau al Maccabi (93-83).
In the first of their four games in seven days, Pedro Martínez’s Valencia continued with the accelerator pressed to the floor in Belgrade, where they once again surpassed one hundred points this season, 34 of them in a first quarter in which they already marked a significant distance that they later knew how to manage without too much sweat. Jean Montero emerged with 25 points and four other players (Moore, Taylor, Badio and Key) reached or exceeded ten in a new great team performance and exhibition of fast and offensive play by the European leader.
Madrid suffered more than expected to conquer the weak Asvel court based on their defensive improvement in the second half of the match. In the first he only scored 36 points in a short score match, but it was from behind that he cemented the victory. Scariolo’s team had a final quarter of 8-24 in their favor to come back and secure the final victory with 21 points and seven rebounds from Lyles and 12 and nine from Tavares.
Barcelona received Maccabi Tel Aviv in a Palau Blaugrana without an audience due to the decision of sports and political institutions to play behind closed doors for fear of incidents in the presence of an Israeli team. The measure continues to raise complaints and criticism among the Spanish teams for what they consider a competitive disadvantage since, either in exile or now in their country as locals, both Maccabi and Hapoel have been able to have fans in the stands. The situation that Barça experienced will be repeated this Thursday by Real Madrid at the Movistar Arena against Maccabi itself.
Under the echo of a silent pavilion and the squeaking of shoes on the parquet, Xavi Pascual’s team continued its European climb. Shengelia recovered her best version with 22 points and the resurrected Willy Hernangómez contributed 10 and another 10 rebounds.
Euroleague results and classification.
