Real Madrid-Baskonia: EuroLeague playoffs get underway
Chus Mateo's charges, who have always qualified with home-court advantage, will be hoping to secure the first point of the series this evening at the WiZink Center (9pm CEST).
Real Madrid and Baskonia go head-to-head this evening at the WiZink Center for the first time in the EuroLeague playoffs. Chus Mateo's troops will be looking to get the edge in a best-of-five tie in which they have home-court advantage. This is a decisive factor for Madrid, who have reached the Final Four on the eight occasions they have started at home.
The rivalry in the Liga ACB shifts to Europe. The two teams have never faced each other in the title play-offs before, but there is a first time for everything. For Real Madrid it will be their 11th consecutive appearance in the playoffs and with the current format they are the only team to have participated in all of them. Meanwhile, Baskonia are back in this round after a five-season wait, since 2018/19, and they return with the motivation and confidence of having clinched the last place by beating Virtus Bologna last Friday in the play-in showdown.
This is something that Madrid will have to deal with, as after clinching first place several rounds ago and recording the best Regular Season in history (27 wins), they had a rest last week. The Whites’ victory against Casademont Zaragoza was a great warm-up to face the demanding playoffs. This season, the overall record favours Chus Mateo’s men (2-1): they were victorious in the first round of the EuroLeague (77-79) and also in the league (85-99), both at the Buesa Arena.
Defence will be one of the defining features of the tie. And Madrid's defence is the one that limits their opponents' three-point and two-point shooting percentages the most, which is crucial when facing a team that relies heavily on triples and boasts the competition's leading scorer (Marcus Howard). The madridistas' potential extends beyond the individual aspects of their game. Seven have averaged double figures in PIR, spearheaded by Campazzo's 16.2 in PIR. In addition, Madrid have the two best shot blockers. in the EuroLeague (Poirier, 1.5; and Tavares, 1.4). Baskonia average a lot of points against (85.4), which means that if Madrid are at their optimum level in attack (88.2), they will cause their opponents a lot of trouble.
El Palacio in the playoffs
The Whites have enjoyed home-court advantage on eight occasions and have reached the Final Four on all eight of them: by beating Valencia (3-2) in 2010/11; Maccabi (3-0) in 2012/13; Olympiacos (3-2) in 2013/14; Anadolu Efes (3-1) in 2014/15; Darussafaka (3-1) in 2016/17; Panathinaikos (3-0) in 2018/19; Maccabi (3-0) in 2021/21; and Partizan (3-2) in 2022/23. A win today in the first match would also equal our record of 28 EuroLeague wins last season. So let's make it 1-0.