Real Madrid v FC Barcelona: Bad night at the Palacio (97-73)

Defeat in Madrid. And a heavy one. A poor second half was to blame as Barça crashed 97-73 at the Palacio de los Deportes, and the 24 point deficit will do no favours for their all-important points differential at the end of the group phase. Hezonja and Tomic had good games, but Rudy, Rodríguez and Llull were in unstoppable form for Real.

White lightning

It started with a 5-0 run for Madrid, then FCB hit back with a 0-7 led by Doellman before Madrid replied with a 10-0 of their own. Rudy Fernández’s 3-pointers had the home side 8-up after five minutes and poor long throws from Barça were largely to blame for things staying that way until the end of the first period (24-16).

Lost balls

Madrid exploited every Barça error in the second period, and there were a lot of them, to stretch their lead to 30-18. Tomic managed to keep the Barcelona ship afloat, and got things back to a more hopeful 34-28, but that didn’t change the dynamic of the way things were going and the half ended with Madrid on +9 (2-33).

Playing catch-up

The threes started coming at last for Barça in the third period, but no matter what Hezonja scored, Rudy would match it at the other end. From 54-47 after a three from Huertas it went to 66-53 and so ended the period with Pascual despairing in his search to find the answer.

Game over

Madrid soon made it to the +20 and this was the point of no return for a dejected Barça. Mario Hezonja continued working hard on what would eventually be a fine tally of 22 points, but Barça’s woes were in defence. Madrid didn’t stop scoring and their lead increased to 24 points at 91-67 with three minutes to go, and stayed that way until the end (97-73). This clearly wasn’t Barça’s day, although the scoreline is clearly not a true reflection of the difference between the two teams.