ACB play-offs | Madrid strikes first against Baskonia

Pablo Laso’s team takes the first point of the series after winning at home (94-84)

The white team managed to open a gap after the break and managed the rent to perfection

Real Madrid struck first in the semifinals of the Endesa League with a meritorious choral victory against an intermittent Bitci Baskonia who, although they held on until the break, could not counteract the dominance of Walter Tavares under the hoops or stop the display of an inspired Fabien Causeur that broke the game in a third quarter to frame (94-84).

Based on effort and teamwork, the whites overcame Alberto Abalde’s last minute drop, with discomfort in one foot. The absence of the Galician further aggravated the problems in the management of the game after the injuries of Carlos Alocén and Nigel Williams-Goss, in addition to the fact that Pablo Laso has not had Thomas Heurtel since March 31.

The beginning did not meet expectations. Only Tavares saw the hoop in a cold start plagued with errors in which the only two baskets in play in the first four and a half minutes bore the signature of the Cape Verdean center. The Baskonistas lived based on free kicks until Rokas Giedraitis finally culminated, with a mate, a counterattack almost halfway through the first act.

Then it was time for the triples. Sergio Llull, with three in a row, and Rudy Fernández, spurred on their team from afar, although they were unable to break away from a team from Vitoria that kept slipstreaming and responded as best they could, thanks to the quality of their squad and some isolated actions by Wade Baldwin IV and Steven Enoch.

As the minutes went by, the match leveled out and at the end of the first quarter the Whites had a slight advantage after a final three-pointer by Rudy. Despite losing the rebound battle (14-6) against a rival in which only Tavares captured the same rebounds as all the Baskonia players in the first ten minutes, Neven Spahija’s men reached the first break three down (22-19 , min 10).

The game resumed with another phase of inaccuracies in the shot that Rudy aborted with his success from the perimeter. Real Madrid went on to win by seven points, although Serbian Vanja Marinkovic responded immediately, keeping his team going with a couple of three-pointers until, in the last minutes of the second half, Baldwin woke up with seven consecutive points that rebalanced the battle.

Both of them hit more shots in the first half out of three than out of two, and with better percentages. Madrid scored eight, with Rudy and Llull as the most inspired men with three each, and Bitci Baskonia scored seven, of which three were signed by Marinkovic. As the fight for the rebound was balanced in the second quarter, the semi-final reached the break with the score in one hand (44-42, min 20).

Everything changed radically in the resumption. A 10-0 start culminated in a three-pointer by Fabien Causeur raised the maximum lead up to that point for Pablo Laso’s men to twelve. Tavares continued to wreak havoc under the hoops, allowing for second chances and, after another false start by his team, Spahija had to stop the game when he saw how his rival escaped and his players had gone almost three minutes without seeing the hoop.

Hanga and again Causeur from the goal further aggravated the situation after the time-out and set off alarms on the visiting bench. From 42-42 in the last minute of the second quarter it had gone to 59-42 in six minutes of Baskonia blackout in which a partial against 17-0 had put a squad that missed the contribution of Baldwin, Fontecchio, and Giedraitis.

To make matters worse for his interests, Causeur was still unstoppable. The Frenchman was still plugged in and, with fourteen points in seven and a half minutes, kept the Vitorians at bay. When they had it worst, the three-pointers from Peters and Costello, this one twice, lessened the damage in a Bitci Baskonia that got back into the game, although they reached the last quarter with a lot to do to maintain their chances of victory (74-63 , min 30).

The match grew in intensity. Both teams put one more march in defense and the baskets came with droppers, which benefited the locals, who with triples by Jeffery Taylor and Adam Hanga went to the last six minutes with half a game in their pocket (85-66, min 34).

The match no longer had a history. Real Madrid slowed down and the Baskonistas made up the scoreboard in the final minutes, in which Pablo Laso took the opportunity to rotate his bench, and shoot the youngsters Juan Nuñez and Urban Klavzar. On Saturday both teams will meet again in the second round of the series.