To escape from a maze, there is no better solution than to go to Jaycee Carroll. The years do not go by the escort nor the injuries cool their aim. He was returning after the ugly fall of a few days ago in ACB, a cervical sprain that left him KO. But the stop all he did was increase his cravings: in the tangled encounter against Maccabi, Real Madrid escaped the ropes of his first defeat of the season with the fourth quarter of Mormon night, with two seconds left, a blackboard play executed with goldsmith's perfection. [86-85: Narration and statistics]

Madrid had gotten into a mess by its own demerits. Above all, for an unusual defensive negligence that was used by Sfairopoulos to always remain in the bid, despite the last minute drop of his great signing, directly from the NBA, Omri Casspi. The Maccabi was planted in the Palace without complexes and escaped each of the white escape attempts. I almost always found a corridor towards the basket and, mainly Wilbekin, it was a torment.

The script was repeated all night, in the second meeting I followed at home: Real Madrid had trouble expressing its superiority. The tired rhythm of the duel prevented him or rather allowed the Maccabi to stay alive, responding with whips, from the talent resources of Wilbekin, Tyler Dorsey and Elijah Bryant. The Maccabees did not take off, despite some warning (43-34), because they found too many offensive facilities, where they minimized damage, especially that of Jordan Mickey - as if throwing a message to the signing of Mejri, announced hours before - who a perfect first part was scored: 12 points without fail and eight rebounds. It was as if the success from the white perimeter (7 of 12 to the rest) made them relax in the other basket.

To such an extent that the Maccabi came up at the turn of the locker room, with the pearl Avdija -MVP of the European Under-20 and a clear candidate for the high positions of the next NBA draft- as a novelty, with Wilbekin at the controls, accompanied by the forced Di Bartolomeo, and a partial 0-12 (50-56) that turned on the white alarms. That imp was going to be an adequate spark: the answer was a 13-2 to put things back in place. Along the way, the Hebrews had been loaded with faults: four from Tarik Black and Di Bartolomeo. Mickey was only missing on the track, because it was definitely not Tavares night.

But already on the finish line everything was to be resolved. The night was a coin in the air. Mickey corroborated his great game (30 valuation) with two free throws after key offensive rebound. But Wilbekin responded with a basket in the absence of 10.9 seconds (83-85). There emerged the tactical wealth of Pablo Laso and Carroll's wrist. The Vitorian returned Tavares to the track and drew a play in which he blocked the escort to propitiate his throw of three. As it came out on the track and there were only two seconds left for Maccabi in which he had no answer.

With sweat and without brilliance. With Carroll and Mickey as stars, Madrid already has seven career wins to start the season.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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