Real Madrid – Barcelona 68-86: The Blaugrana won the EuroLeague Clasico with a delightful Laprovitola

With a weapon and his ally in the superb first half, Barcelona dominated the EuroLeague Clasico, beating Real Madrid with 86-68 to the 26th game of the tournament and climbed to the top of the table. Led by Laprovitolas and assists from many other players (Mirotic, Kuric, Exum), she exited the tournament with a brace against her biggest opponent, forcing her to her first home loss of the tournament this season.

Real Madrid didn’t start the game with the energy appropriate to the conditions, losing touch with the score from the start and struggling from time to time to close the gap as much as possible. Real’s part in the threesome was heartbreaking, Tavares struggled alone for a long time and it turned out that his effort wasn’t enough to topple him. Top scorer for Barcelona was Laprovitola with 20 points, while Tavares had 25 points for Real Madrid. Now both teams have the same record in the tournament after 25 games (20-5), with Barcelona prevailing in the first round match (93-80) and climbing first in the standings and leading in the games between them.

The race

Barcelona’s start to the match was dreamy. The Blaugrana had Nicolas Laprovitolas hot and did what they wanted on the pitch against Real Madrid, who were performing poorly in both defense and attack. Barcelona were even ahead by 20 points early on and showed that the hosts won’t let it become dangerous. Exum was formidable, stealing the show early on, while Kuric didn’t lag behind in scoring important baskets when needed. Kalathis was the conductor again and the Blaugrana went into the dressing room with 21 points (31-52) at half-time.

In the second half, Real Madrid did everything they could to narrow the gap, with Tavares the main threat in attack. Madrid’s brutal center was entertaining but alone and Yaboussele looked to offer points to the hosts. The Blaugrana, on the other hand, who had the security of the big difference of the first half, made some childish mistakes but without costing them much.

In the last ten minutes, which proved to be the most critical, Real Madrid reduced the difference to 13 and attempted another comeback in the game. Tavares was entertaining, he did what Lasso wanted to do and more, but even in stressful situations, Barcelona had the solutions and achieved a great double.

THE REFEREES: Belosevic, Rocha, Hordow

THE TEN MINUTES: 8-28, 31-52, 55-71, 68-86

real Madrid (Lasso): Williams-Goss 5, Koser 8 (3/5, two points), Randolph, Hertel 4 (3 assists), Albalde 7 (1), Hanga 3, Alothen, Poirier 2, Tavares 25 (10/10, two points). , 6 rebounds), Yul 8 (0/6 three points), Yaboussele 4, Tombkins

BARCELONA (Jasikevicius): Davis 11 (4/8 two points, 4 assists), Exum 13 (3/5 two points), Sunley 5 (1), Martinez, Smith 2, Hayes, Laprovitola 20 (5/5 three points, 7th rebounds), Kuric 10 (5/5 two points), Yukobaitis 6 (3/3 two points), Mirotic 9 (1), Nazi, Kalathis 10 (5/5 two points, 5 assists)

Team Stats – Real Madrid: 20/45 two points, 2/22 three points, 22/24 shots, 32 rebounds (22+10), 13 assists, 5 steals, 7 errors, 1 block.

Team Stats – Barcelona: 26/38 two points, 8/24 three points, 10/12 shots, 33 rebounds (29+4), 21 assists, 4 steals, 11 errors, 2 blocks.

Team games: In the 27th game, Real Madrid will play Zalgiris in Kaunas (24 February, 8 p.m.), Barcelona will play Monaco away (25 February, 9 p.m.).