Real Madrid 85-69 FC Barcelona Lassa: Defeat that certifies elimination

Barça Lassa have lost at Real Madrid in Wednesday’s Euroleague Clásico the day after losing any chance of making the playoffs after Anadolu Efes won their game on Tuesday.

With coach Bartzokas sent off before the break and Rice and Tomic leading the FCB scoring with 12 apiece, this was not the ideal start to a run of three games in five days. Red Star Belgrade are at the Palau on Friday and on Sunday there’s a Liga Endesa meeting with Morabanc Andorra.

Barça never got into their game tonight, and took three minutes to even notch up their first score. Turnovers in offence were proving to be the downfall, but some solid control of rebounds at either end by Tomic and Diagne at least kept them in contention.

But Llull and Carroll’s form was as strong as it has been all season, and although consecutive threes from Renfroe and Vezenkov brought things back to 22-20 a 12-2 streak for the home side made the teams were wide apart by the time of the interval (41-27).

Always met by a response

Playing without their coach, Barça Lassa needed to conjure up some kind of response. But despite their best efforts, Real Madrid never lost their stride and their lead was never cut back down to single figures. The Rice-Llull battle was one of the highlights of the game, but errors both in defence and offence were proving costly for Barça Lassa and the difference opened up to a game-high 19 points.

Sharp shooting from Claver and Navarro managed to clean things up a bit, but not even fourteen 3-pointers were enough to trouble the home side and the final period turned into little more than a formality.

Barça Lassa have three more Euroleague games to play out (Red Star, Maccabi and Fenerbahçe) but sadly those will be the last European games of the present campaign.