Real Madrid-Gran Canaria: league playoffs get underway
Chus Mateo's charges will be looking for the first point in the quarter-finals at the WiZink Center (8:30pm CEST).
Real Madrid get the Liga ACB quarter-final playoffs underway this evening at the WiZink Center against Gran Canaria. One year on, the two teams will be facing each other again in the first playoff tie for the title. Last year, and on the four occasions they have gone head-to-head in this round, the Whites have progressed. Chus Mateo's charges will be looking to go 1-0 up at the WiZink Center before travelling to the Canary Islands.
The decisive stretch of the season has now arrived for the madridistas. With the Final Four on the horizon, the Whites now face a demanding quarter-final series in the league. Poirier, who earned 27 in PIR in the win over Baskonia, said this: “It's a very important week because we want to win all the trophies and we can't afford to drop our guard.” The seventh-placed team in the Regular Season await, namely a Gran Canaria team that performs better as a group than on an individual level. They are an attacking team that recover a lot of turnovers. They have a potent inside game, which is also their main source of scoring with Happ, Lammers and Shurna. Brussino is enjoying a great season and they also have experienced players on the perimeter, such as AJ Slaughter, Albicy and Bassas.
However, if there is one team that excels as a unit, it is Real Madrid. The Whites finished the Regular Season as the highest rated team with an average of 109.2 points per game and six players in double figures in this category: Campazzo, Tavares, Musa, Poirier, Hezonja and Yabusele. In the first match, Chus Mateo's troops overwhelmed the Gran Canarian side 97-71. A 14-0 run at the start put the team on track for victory. Conversely, Gran Canaria beat Madrid at home by 100-77.
100% winning record
This will be the fifth time the two sides clash in the quarter-finals and Real Madrid have progressed to the last eight: 3-0 in the 1999/00 season and 2-0 in 2014/15, 2020/21 and 2022/23. They have also met in the semi-finals, in 2017/18, and Madrid reached the final with a 3-0 win. This evening, the Whites will be gunning to make it 1-0.