Tavares swallows Barça and leads Real Madrid to another final

The blocks of Edy Tavares in the sky of Kaunas as a symbol of the dominance of an unapproachable player, of the power of a giant on which Real Madrid of the impossible sways. At the Zalgirio Arena, another exercise in brutal competitiveness, the whites gobbled up Barça like a year ago in Belgrade and on Sunday they will fight again, this time against Olympiacos, for another Euroleague, the engine of their existence. [66-78: Narration and Stats]

It was another rebirth that made Chus Mateo's group succeed, an impeccable second part. This time not as agonizing as a few days ago against Partizan, but there were moments of authentic labyrinth, trapped in the spider web of a Jasikevicius who fails again in his third attempt to conquer Europe. His boys, without the leadership of a disastrous Mirotic (he missed his seven triples), became tiny while Sergio Rodríguez danced and Tavares darkened all the way to another final.

The decompression of all the emotions of the historic playoff against Partizan did not take its toll on Real Madrid. So many times the precedents are only valid to wrap the fish. In Kaunas, the launched Barça crashed against their reality, against a rival that has defeated them on the last three occasions that there was something of truth at stake between them. Not even his seriousness in the first half helped him at all.

The dawn already gave some clues to everything else. The Real Madrid plan passed, of course, due to the superiority of Tavares. That it is not exclusive against Barça: there is nobody in Europe capable of facing it. Chus Mateo was right again with the inclusion of youth squad player Eli Ndiaye from the start. In the fifth against Partizan he had shown that he was fully prepared for such a challenge, even without turning 19. Without Deck, Poirier or Yabusele (Petr Cornelie did not enter even among the 12 called up), the defense against Mirotic was his task and the Senegalese (with a Spanish passport, great news for Scariolo) nailed it. The Montenegrin was no longer going to raise his head.

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What Madrid did not have was the Barça success. That first quarter every 3-pointer was like a blur on his good defensive intentions.. Abrines' staging was devastating, both in his zeal for Musa and in his pitches. The aggressiveness of Sanli and Vesely against Tavares, without too much consideration, sent them to the bench loaded with fouls and Saras had to resort to Nnaji, another wonder. But it is that it was the Cape Verdean against the rest and, little by little, a Madrid without many more resources began to falter.

Mateo resorted to the zone that worked so well against Obradovic, with Randolph giving Tavares a break, but Jokubaitis appeared to, after 12 minutes of play, score the first basket of two for his team. She wasn't going to be the only one. Between him (who lost a couple of teeth along the way) and Kuric, Satoransky later, Barça came up, confident now, to enjoy the first obvious advantages (40-31). Only a 'tangerine' from Llull almost on the half-time buzzer brought some relief to the whites.

On the way back, a huge battle continued with such a physical level that it was as if both were advancing in the mud. Mirotic was failing and failing strangely and his team caught the horrible display of their leader. Because in the blink of an eye, the fang of Madrid appeared, held on the shoulders of Tavares. A 0-15 partial that put him ahead for the first time in many minutes. Now the one that was reeling was Jasikevicius's group, although, as happened to his rival when he was bordering the abyss, a couple of three-pointers restored some of his strength before the final quarter.

But details engulf dynamics. That little spring, together with Chus Mateo's mistake of not giving his quintet a break, gave Barça strength again. Madrid took more than four minutes to score in the game in the final act, although it was going to be the appearance of Chacho that would lift him up again, such was the swing at the Zalgirio Arena. turned out the key. The canary, still wearing the superhero cape from his magical night at WiZink last week, chained nine points in a row to leave his team throwing the sprinters at the finish line (60-67, min. 36).

With its three tenors on the court, those three veterans of infinite competitiveness and the overwhelming dominance of a Tavares who became even more of a giant (20 points, 15 rebounds and ‘hundreds’ of blocks, in contrast to Mirotic’s resignation), Madrid’s prey was not going to escape. Another Euroleague final, for the second time in a row after plundering Jasikevicius’ Barça in the semifinals. And that confirms the incredible transformation of a team that just a few days ago was in the most absolute depression, with an impossible match against Partizan, and now looks at the horizon of the Undécima.