By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid led even by 27 points, Dzanan Musa scored 23 points and rested in the fourth period as the “Whites” got the 91-75 win over Partizan Mozzart Bet.
The top team of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in the standings proved that they deserved to be there on the floor, by leaving no chance to the Serbs who were having a hot streak of five wins.
However, Madrid got 22 points from their turnovers, and as Zeljko Obradovic said: “We played a very bad game all the time. We passed the ball to their hands, we didn’t have energy in defense and we didn’t think in attack. Of course, Real Madrid is a great team, they play at a different speed and they deserved to win the game”.
In the third period, the score was 74-47 with two minutes left and the game was practically already over.
As Dzanan Musa who didn’t play in the last quarter, said: “We kept our head in the game from the start. We knew that Partizan would come with all the force they had, we played well and I am proud we got this win”.
Keeping Punter in check
It was a two-way game for the hosts, as Kevin Punter scored just four points and Zach LeDay had seven. Bruno Caboclo was the top scorer of Partizan with 18 points, however, he was not a real factor in the game.
“It’s better to have concentrated players than good players and we have good players who are concentrated”, said Madrid coach Chus Matteo, praising the performance of his team.
Still, he thinks that this was just round one between Real Madrid and Partizan, expecting to see the Serbs again in the postseason: “We played well against a very good team and maybe in the future we will play more games and the history will not be the same”.
Real Madrid still keeps the top of the standings with a 15-1 record and four wins more than their closest competitor, while Partizan is fourth at 9-7, tied with Valencia and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Photo: euroleaguebasketball.net