Madrid finish off a perfect week with a 4th win

Real Madrid have passed with flying colours the test presented by one of the most demanding weeks of the season by winning all four games played in 7 days. They defeated La Laguna Tenerife thanks to spectacular second and third quarters in which they achieved a 64-38 partial that decided the outcome of the match. Chus Mateo's team's destiny is in their own hands to secure Copa del Rey seeding in the next match. Hezonja (16 points and 24 rating) and Ibaka (15 and 23), were the pick of the 6 players with double digits valuation. Musa played his 200th game in the Madrid jersey.

Going into the halftime break with good feelings
Madrid came to life in the second quarter and showed a defensive improvement that limited La Laguna Tenerife's inside scoring. Feliz and Hugo Gonzalez injected some much-needed energy, with the academy product getting the Movistar Arena on its feet with a block against the 2.13m Fran Guerra. But they were unable to catch up with the visitors due to too many instances of lost possession and three-pointers from Kramer (12 points) and Fitipaldo (10) maintained the gap on the scoreboard (24-32, min. 16).

It was from then on that Chus Mateo's team cut loose in attack and took the game by the scruff of the neck. Led by the superb Ibaka (11 points without a miss) and Hezonja (11 from 13), they achieved a 21-10 lead in four minutes that flipped the scoreboard around. Both were involved in the play of the game. A block by the center led to a counterattack that the Croatian finished off with a dunk. Rathan-Mayes stood out with 5 assists, while Llull brought a close to the first half with a three-pointer at the buzzer, putting Madrid 3 ahead after scoring 30 points (45-42).

Madrid drive towards victory
Madrid continued as they had left off before the break while also tightening up the defense to suffocate La Laguna Tenerife and restrict their opponent's outside shooting. The Whites’ irresistible offensive display continued with 19 points in the first five minutes of the third quarter (8 for Vidorreta) displaying great fluidity with strong contributions from all those who were on the court (Campazzo, Musa, Abalde, Ndiaye and Tavares). In the 9 minutes between the 16th and 25th minutes, our team registered a 38-17 advantage which put them more than 20 points ahead (64-40).

But it did not stop there. They wanted to kill the game and for the rest of the quarter continued to squeeze the life out of the visitor leaving no room for a reaction. Feliz and Ibaka’s shooting was impeccable, getting in on the scoring and the team improved on the second quarter’s performance with a final partial of 34-16 (79-58, min. 30). Kramer and Fitipaldo managed to close the gap in the last quarter for Tenerife outfit, but one of our players was always on hand, in this case Campazzo and Rathan-Mayes, to seal another outstanding team performance and clinch another victory that was just shy of 100 points (96-86).

REAL MADRID-LAGUNA TENERIFE STATISTICS