• Baskonia.The amazing comeback that tightens the 'playoffs'

  • Euroleague Qualifying

No time is good to doubt, but less when you walk through the abyss.

There is no memory of a Real Madrid more overwhelmed like the one that CSKA shook in one night to forget at the WiZink.

From start to finish chasing red shadows, aware that he was getting into a mess.

The Whites, who have lost five of the last seven games, cannot be much more distracted in the remaining four if they want, at least, to be in the quarterfinals of the Euroleague.

It is still too early to do the math, but for now, being seeded already seems like a chimera for Madrid.

Something that had been the norm.

But the worst, by far, were the sensations against a CSKA that was not exactly on its best wave.

Just the show of self-respect at the end of the third act, when Carroll appeared as a hero.

But not even his dynamite made Itoudis's men tremble, with the clear strategy of torpedoing them from the perimeter, where Tavares could not reach.

It was moving to see the effort of the giant, relentlessly, always the goal of everything that happened on the track.

But Madrid soon went into a spin, as if advancing in muddy waters against a comfortable CSKA, spurred on by its success.

If both came to the stake with doubts, the Russians cleared them to the rhythm of Mike James, which is a free verse as great as it is disconcerting.

If the whites could come back without too many problems the three initial triples of Shengelia, it was more complicated when the current champion shot up to 15 away (36-51) with Will Clyburn, the MVP of the still current Final Four 2020, completely untied.

Between James, Clyburn and Shengelia they had tallied 43 of CSKA's 55 points in the first half.

Intolerable for a Real Madrid that had been making the defense the loophole in which to grow in these difficult times.

Too many mismatches, all facilities for Russians at WiZink.

Hardly the opposition of the omnipresent Tavares and a Trey Thompkins who fights to return to being who he was a few weeks ago.

And the worst at that point, a feeling of lack of competitiveness that has rarely been seen in this group.

Maybe it was just CSKA's superiority.

But Laso could not allow that laziness in his pupils.

How to solve such a problem with Rudy and Llull dressed in tracksuits in the background?

And, of course, without the once breath of the Palace stands.

Worse still when Alocén began to make mistakes, showing that he has too much responsibility in his hands at the age of 20.

And that Laprovittola fixes nothing on the track.

CSKA put the maximum (43-63) and only then did Madrid react.

He came close (69-74), with 10 points in the blink of an eye from Carroll.

But he did not reach the whites for more, exhausted and with only pride as an argument.

He did not stop fighting to the shore, despite the fact that Voigtmann was now his executioner.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports

  • basketball

  • Euroleague

EuroleagueReal Madrid sinks in Moscow

EuroleagueDeck leads and Madrid sweat against Zalgiris

EuroleagueTavares takes Real Madrid out of a mess

See links of interest

  • 2021 business calendar

  • Zenit Saint Petersburg - TD Systems Baskonia

  • Mold - Granada CF

  • Villarreal - Dynamo Kyiv

  • Real Madrid - CSKA Moscow