EUROLEAGUE - Madrid grind out victory to reach Final Four
MADRID (Euroleague) – It’s been 15 long years since Real Madrid had reached the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. On Thursday night at the Caja Magica, the Spanish giants ended the drought by beating Power Electronics Valencia 66-58 in a deciding fifth game of their quarter-final series. Madrid's players, stunned when coach Ettore ...
MADRID (Euroleague) – It’s been 15 long years since Real Madrid had reached the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four.
On Thursday night at the Caja Magica, the Spanish giants ended the drought by beating Power Electronics Valencia 66-58 in a deciding fifth game of their quarter-final series.
Madrid's players, stunned when coach Ettore Messina quit at the end of the Top 16, have rallied under his longtime assistant Emanuele Molin and grinded out a series victory that has left the Spanish capital buzzing about basketball.
If there were questions about Madrid's heart and determination when Messina left, there are none now.
The players have both in abundance because without them, they would not have beaten a very good Valencia.
Clay Tucker, one of Madrid's key men in this series, sparked them in the second quarter of Game 5 with three shots from the arc.
He admits it's hard to believe the club hasn't been to the Final Four for such a long time.
"With the way this club is, the surroundings, I'm amazed," Tucker said to FIBA.com after the game.
"But every team goes through a period, no matter how big it is, when they don't win.
"Now it's up to us to go and win it."
Before looking ahead to the semi-final showdown with Maccabi Tel Aviv, Madrid's players and fans will want to savor the triumph over Valencia.
It was a battle from Game 1 to Game 5, one of the hardest and most physical series ever played in the competition.
It captured the imagination of everyone, which is why Real Madrid's football star Ronaldo was among those who showed up to watch on Thursday.
He had one of the best seats, right across from the Real bench.
The biggest advantage Madrid had was the sixth man, and it came into play early in the second quarter after a Dusko Savanovic-inspired Valencia had opened up a 23-13 lead.
With the crowd roaring them on, Madrid got a three-point play from Felipe Reyes and a three-ball from Pablo Prigioni to cut the gap to 23-19.
Valencia still threatened to take a comfortable lead to half-time after Rafa Martinez made one of two at the free-throw line for a 42-37 advantage, but Tucker hit his third shot from the arc in as many second-quarter attempts to leave Madrid trailing just 42-40 at the break.
Madrid's three-point shooting in the second quarter was crucial.
After hitting just one of five in the first 10 minutes, Molin's team drilled five of seven in the second frame.
As the teams went to the locker rooms at half-time, one had the sense that Madrid weren't going to be denied.
Valencia might have pressed home the early advantage but did not, and a Real side determined to play defense returned to the floor for the last 20 minutes.
A relatively high-scoring game turned into a dogfight.
There was a bad omen for Valencia at the start of the quarter when Ante Tomic passed the ball outside the arc to Carlos Suarez.
The forward put up a shot from the wing that hit the front of the rim, rolled to the back of the ring and came out, but bounced high off the backboard and fell through for a three-pointer and a 43-42 Madrid lead.
Martinez drove into the lane and scored to put Valencia back in front, but it was the last lead Valencia would have on the night.
Sergio Llull replied for Madrid with a drive of his own and then hit a huge basket.
With the shot-clock about to expire and a defender in his face, Llull hit a long fade-way three-pointer from the left corner for a 48-44 lead.
The crowd erupted.
As Valencia's players went to the bench for a timeout, Llull chest-bumped his teammates.
When play resumed, the excellent Savanovic, who had a game-high 13 points in the first half, kept his team within striking distance by adding six more in the third quarter.
He had four straight on a lay-up and two free-throws to cut the Madrid advantage to 52-50.
The hosts finished the quarter strong, though, outscoring Valencia 6-1 for a 58-51 lead.
D'or Fischer dunked to begin the fourth quarter to give Madrid their largest advantage at 60-51 and the home side, who were edging the rebounding battle 27-26 after 30 minutes played, began to dominate on the boards the way they had in the first game.
The key sequence in the fourth quarter arrived when Martinez knocked down a three-pointer to reduce the deficit to 60-54 and then Valencia point guard Omar Cook stole the ball from Llull and threw a pass up the court to Martinez.
Just as the guard went up for a lay-up, Tucker soared in and blocked his shot.
Martinez fell to the ground and shouted at the referee.
No call was made, though Martinez and the Valencia bench argued for a foul and basket interference.
Video replay suggested Tucker may have gotten away with something.
Tucker had been rewarded for his good hustle.
"They had a good stop and Omar did what he did, I saw Rafa," Tucker said.
"I had in my mind I had to either foul him or get the block."
Tomic scored down low for Madrid to take the lead to 62-55 and though another Martinez three-ball reduced the arrears to 62-58 with two minutes to go, Madrid, getting offensive rebound after offensive rebound to frustrate the visitors, held on.
Madrid sealed victory with one the ugliest fourth quarters the Euroleague has ever known.
They outscored Valencia 8-7 in the frame and also, crucially, out-rebounded them 18-10.
Of that total, seven of the Madrid fourth-quarter rebounds came on the offensive end.
Suarez had 10 rebounds to go with his 12 points, Felipe Reyes 10 to accompany his seven and Tomic nine boards with his nine points.
Savanovic had a game-high 19 points and Martinez 16 for Valencia.
"The rebounds cost us a lot," Lithuania center Robertas Javtokas said to FIBA.com.
"In a fifth game, you can't just give 100%.
"It has to be 120% and it looks like they (Madrid) wanted it more."
Javtokas spoke as if he'd experienced the hardest defeat of his career.
"I don't think we have a worse team than Madrid," he said.
"They had their fans and that helped them a lot.
"They played more aggressive and they won.
"I hope we can come back, think about it and let it go and win what is left.
"But this was very tough."
Right now, Real Madrid are second in the ACB standings and Valencia are third.
If the regular season ends with that order, and both teams win their first-round play-off series, guess what?
They'll do it all over again.
FIBA