Real Madrid won the first match of its EuroLeague quarterfinal matchup against Hapoel Tel Aviv, notching the teams third victory on the season against the Isreali side and making Los Blancos a perfect 3-0 against Hapoel in this season’s EuroLeague campaign. Madrid was propelled to victory by the stellar play of Facundo Campazzo, who lead the team in scoring with 21 points on stellar 67% shooting from beyond the arc. Trey Lyles also chipped in with 13 points and Chuma Okeke contributed 7 rebounds, of which 6 came on the offensive end of the court.
Campazzo was the driving force for scoring wise for Madrid on a night where the team as a whole struggled mightily to make shots from three point land. Campazzo’s six threes accounted for 75% of Madrid’s three pointers made on the night, as the team as a whole made only 8 of 28 threes, and Trey Lyles was the only other Madrid player to hit a three during the match. Campazzo hit three of his three pointers in quick succession in the first half to help Real Madrid to a 48-33 lead at halftime.
Madrid held control of the match at halftime and well into the third quarter, but Hapoel Tel Aviv turned it on in the fourth quarter and pushed hard for a come back until the final buzzer sounded. The Tel Aviv comeback was led by Antonio Blakeney, who ended up leading all scorers in points with 25. Blakeney continued to make clutch shots, especially down the stretch as he made two threes in a row to cut the lead to four. However, the clutch shooting of Tel Aviv left them at the crucial moments down the stretch, as the Reds missed two straight threes with time running down on the clock to cut the lead to 1.
For Madrid, the main concern coming out of this matchup is the apparent injury that was suffered by Edy Tavares. The starting center for Los Blancos appeared to hurt himself fighting for a rebound with Tel Aviv center Daniel Oturu and was forced to leave the game in the third minute and not return. This would be a huge loss for Madrid, as Tavares has started every EuroLeague game and leads the team in PIR during this EuroLeague campaign with 15.5. Madrid Head Coach Sergio Scariolo stated during his press conference, “I don’t know anything yet, but for us it’s very different playing with him or without him. Now we just have to wait for the next few hours and see how we’ll play the next game, possibly without him.”
After the unfortunate injury to Edu Tavares, Hapoel Tel Aviv found plenty of success in the paint tonight. Tel Aviv center Daniel Oturu has his best game of the season, recording an impressive double double of 20 points and a staggering 17 rebounds. Oturu was a bully on the low block, recording plenty of dunks and owning the boards, the next closest player in terms of rebounding had 7 boards.
It was a frustrating game for Tel Aviv head coach Dimitrios Itoudis dropping a third straight matchup this season against Madrid, and seeing his team go down 1-0 in the best of 5 series. First, Itoudis lost his starter Elijah Bryant to injury in the first half and the player was not able to return to the game. Then, Itoudis saw himself ejected in the fourth quarter after coming onto the court to complain about, in his eyes, unfair officiating that was mostly favoring the hosts Real Madrid. Itoudis had to hand over coaching duties for the rest of the game to his assistant coach and watched the outcome of the game from right outside the doors to locker room. After the game, the Tel Aviv head coach was critical of the officiating stating, “Game 1 in Botevgrad, game 2 regular season over here in Madrid, and first playoff game, the free throws are 35 to 64 for Real Madrid. I don’t know if you heard me, it’s 35 to 64, the free throws in three games. 35 for Hapoel Tel Aviv, 64 for Real Madrid.”
Up next for both teams is game two of this EuroLeague Quarterfinals matchup once again being played at the home of Real Madrid Movistar Arena. Hapoel Tel Aviv will be looking to tie up the series 1-1, while Real Madrid will look to take a commanding 2-0 series lead with them into game 3 on the road in Tel Aviv.