The best way to measure a style is when, for one reason or another, a team has significant losses. At Valencia Basket, Costello, Taylor … and Thompson are very important. The first due to his knee discomfort and the other two due to rest, were left off the list. A new opportunity for Nogués and Sima. In front, it is true that a Lleida with the losses of Goloman and Ejim. More in favor of analysis. For Hiopos, these losses conditioned their performance. Not for the taronja. With a choral game in attack, as always, Valencia Basket had a scoring feast with the seventh game with one hundred or more points of the season in the ACB. 39% which is a tremendous figure. During a stretch of the match, with 12 triples scored at halftime where at 50-30 the local victory was no longer in danger, Pedro Martínez’s team flirted with the best historical record in the Endesa League, which is 23, but they remained at 17. A record, which when accompanied by a 47% success rate is usually synonymous with victory. In this case, to shore up second place in the ACB with a balance of 14-4 and two behind the leader Real Madrid.
It was a game with an emotional start. Every season there is a jump of honor with the major falleras of Convento Jerusalem as the protagonists. Until now, always in Fonteta. The exit to the court of Juana Paula Centeno Roig and Trinidad Ferrer Roig, senior and child fallers respectively of the commission in 2026, was accompanied by an image on the video scoreboard of Brad Branson, a Pamesa legend who died last Tuesday, in that same kick-off that occurred in 1994 in a match against DYC Breogán. Natalia Branson, daughter of the myth, currently works at the Roig Arena and lived very close to that emotional moment.
Another of the keys to the long staff is competitiveness. Something that forces each player to raise their level. Taylor’s last month, brutal, had overshadowed some colleagues like Puerto. Without Kam, the captain took a step forward with 19 points, equaling his best mark as a professional, and 5 triples, surpassing his record of 4. Nogués and Sima were the new additions to the list and Pedro Martínez, when asked, clearly explained his role: «The first thing I ask of you is that you understand the situation, which we explained to both of them when we signed them, and we ask them for more things on a day-to-day basis. They have to give us a good training dynamic and then I ask them to be prepared. In their positions it is complicated but we encourage them to adapt as much as they can but when we signed them we made the idea we had clear to them. The best for Lleida was Millán Jiménez, with 13 points and 4 rebounds, who is on loan at Hiopos for the Taronja. «We have the best opinion about him because otherwise he would no longer be our player since last summer. He has very clear virtues that show that he can be a good player in the ACB. We know that he is working very well and we are happy that he is making his way in such a positive way,” the Taronja coach assessed the Rioja forward.
The only moment to dream for Lleida was the initial 3-8 because Valencia Basket responded with a run of 19-3 (22-11 scored by Badio) and with 6 of 9 in triples at 25-15 in the first quarter. As if it were clockwork, with a base rotation of ten players where Puerto had minutes at four and Pradilla at five, Montero and the captain took over the scoring in the second quarter so that the maximum advantage exceeded twenty (49-27) and remained at double ten at halftime. With Diagne’s fifth, Lleida directly fell. When Valencia Basket put the score to thirty (86-55) the only doubt was whether the Taronja were going to push to put the game in the Top 10 of comprehensive victories in the club’s history. It was better to consider, somewhat, the rest before another week of three games.
Valencia Basket: Montero (16), Moore (7), López-Arostegui (9), Pradilla (11) and Sako (1), starting quintet, Badio (9), De Larrea (13), Nogués (4), Puerto (19), Key (6), Reuvers (2) and Sima (4)
Hiopos Lleida: Batemon (6), Walden (9), Paulí (6), Sanz (10) y Diagne (3), starting quintet, Agada (10), Millán Jiménez (13), Shurna (4), Krutwig (-), Ríos (-), Dabo (4) y Torrens (-).
Partials: 25-15, 27-17 (52-32), 19-19 (71-51) y 30-14 (101-65).
Referees: Manuel, Araña and Mendoza
Incidents: 12,648 spectators.
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