FC Barcelona have won the EuroLeague Clásico! The Palau was able to enjoy a 13-point victory in which the Catalans put a slow start behind them to be led by a spectacular Mirotic (31 points and 10 rebounds) that puts them outright leaders of the regular season table.
Real Madrid scored the first six points, but Barça quickly regrouped with Dante Exum coming on for his debut to help them team to 5-point lead at the end of the first period.
Barça soon had the difference in double figures, but despite some stunning play from Mirotic and Davies, the visitors somehow managed to reduce the deficit by the interval
Barça pressed the accelerator again after the restart and were soon back in a double digit lead, and it very nearly became +15 before Madrid once again found some points to get back within striking distance.
But with the Palau on mighty song, Barça never really looked like letting this one slip. The best Madrid could do was get to 86-78, but there were no alarm bells ringing and the blaugrana instead reasserted their dominance to eventually take it 93-80.
MATCH STATS
Barça: Laprovittola (16), Kuric (9), Sergi Martínez (-), Mirotic (31), Sanli (5), Davies (16), Exum (2), Oriola (-), Laprovittola (16) & Jokubaitis (12).
Reial Madrid: Llull (10), Taylor (-), Hanga (5), Yabusele (8), Tavares (10), William-Goss (10), Causeur (11), Heurtel (11), Rudy (8), Vukcevic (-) & Poirier (7).
Periods: 24-19 / 27-23 / 16-16 / 26-22
Referees: Sreten Radovic, Saso Petek and Uros Nikolic.
