By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid finished the double-game week in EuroLeague in the best possible manner.
Two days after a victory in Belgrade over Crvena Zvezda, the Spanish powerhouse held back an ALBA Berlin comeback from down 19 to take an 84 – 77 win on the road to improve to 13-6, good enough for the top of the standings.
Dzanan Musa scored a team-high 15 points to lead Real and had some key baskets to push back ALBA. When the German side approached 64 – 66 at the beginning of the fourth quarter to make it a one-basket game for the first time in the second half, Musa made a 5-0 run to put Real beyond a shooting distance.
Hanga, Tavares, and Musa then combined for six unanswered points as Real took a 67 – 77 advantage with three minutes remaining. ALBA tried to make another push but Sergio Llull delivered five points of his own to seal the deal for his team.
“We said before the game that ALBA is a great team with great talent,” Musa said. “They play 40 minutes, they don’t give up at all. We felt that tonight. But I am happy for the guys that we got a win. It’s not easy to win in Berlin”.
Jaleen Smith scored 22 points and Tamir Blatt had 12 points for ALBA which is now 6-13.
For ALBA, the road remains the same as coach Israel Gonzalez admitted: “Details, a little luck on some actions, some calls [made the difference in the end]. But we had a great effort, we did good things. We have to keep going how we are”.
Real Madrid coach Chus Matteo admitted that things were not easy and he was happy with the team effort. To win on the road, it’s very important to play as a team, and we did that today,” he said. “We know that ALBA Berlin is playing wonderful basketball for the fans. It’s not an easy team to stop, because once they start to score from outside, it’s amazing how well they start to play. We knew that and, in the first half, we were able to stop it. But in the second half, they started to score very easily, especially in the third quarter. We were able to solve this by all the guys doing their jobs – all 12 players on the court. It was amazing.”