Lucas Sáez-Bravo

Updated Sunday, January 28, 2024-15:02

  • Liga Endesa Classification and results

The boasts, the comebacks and the demand for a meaningless schedule pay off. The bill arrives sooner or later and it seems that after Christmas it was Real Madrid's turn. He did not forgive him for Dreamland Gran Canaria, because

Jaka Lakovic

's men have the fang of those who have ambition. Against an exhausted and inconclusive rival, they brought out their best version. A real shake (100-77).

The review of the year awaited Real Madrid in Gran Canaria, a few meters from where the football team had come back to Las Palmas a day before. A party that gathered many ballots. A launched rival and an absolutely burdened squad. That, together with the January slope that the whites are suffering, were the ingredients for a review that should soon be forgotten. Among other things because it is a bad time for a crisis, with the Cup just around the corner.

Chus Mateo

arrived in Las Palmas with 10 players. This time, he couldn't even count on the homegrown players.

Hugo González and Ismaila Diagné

, so common, compete in the final of the ANGT, the most prestigious continental under 18 tournament, in Podgorica. The casualties of

Edy Tavares and Sergio Llull

were joined by those of

Yabusele and Hezonja

. The interior rotation was limited to

Poirier, Ndiaye and Deck

. Lakovic's Granca was not going to waste the opportunity.

Ethan Happ

Among other things because it is a team with strong arguments to fight with anyone. They are seeded for the Malaga Cup, where they will face Valencia in the quarterfinals. And second in his Eurocup group, a competition he won last year (he refused to play in the Euroleague, a wise move). Rain of triples and intensity at dawn to quickly put distance. With

Ethan Happ

dominating the paint and no one in front opposing him.

Halfway through the second quarter, the loss began to be historic (46-21), with Chus Mateo looking for impossible combinations to stop the gale, with

Abalde as four

and Campazzo and

Chacho

(the best of the visitors) together on the court.

And in the second half things did not improve much for Madrid, despite some attempts to get closer, such as a 0-10 at the end of the third quarter (75-60) led by

Rudy

. But the yellow response was even more forceful, with triples (they finished with a wonderful 15 of 27; nine between

Bassas, Shurna and Slaughter

) everywhere, until they reached 100 points when there was still a long time left to go, and a 30 point advantage. It is the first time in the Endesa League all season that Madrid has scored so much. In the Euroleague, only Fenerbahçe and Efes, although there were overtimes in both games.

And it is the third defeat in ACB for the whites, the second in the last three games, and the sixth in all competitions. "Gran Canaria has played very well. We have not been able to find solutions or energy," conceded Mateo, who desperately seeks to recover pieces for what is to come. Among other things, Euroleague doubleheader this week.