Real Madrid - Gran Canaria
Spain - Liga ACB, Playoffs, Quarterfinal
It is to be expected that Real Madrid will play much better and more convincingly at the start of the Spanish ACB League playoffs, against Eurocup champions Gran Canaria, than in the triumph over Betis 79:77 in the last match of the regular season, played on Wednesday.
The new and proud champion of the Euroleague Real Madrid consciously rested a number of important players in the match against Betis, with a reduced playing time for the main players. It is clear, after the big celebration and hard fight at the F4 Euroleague tournament last week, coach Chus Mateo wanted to relieve and rest the team as much as he could allow. The Madrid team is aware, that they do not have the luxury of losing their home field advantage in the quarterfinals.
On the other hand, Gran Canaria's form seems to be on the decline, after the Eurocup final triumph over Turk Telekom 71:67, in a match played on May 3. Since then, the team from the Canary Islands has lost three out of four matches in the final part of the ACB league regular season. The last defeat, away to Manresa 105:75, was particularly convincing and worrying for them.
Just two weeks ago, Real Madrid won against Gran Canaria away 95:67. It is clear that the attacking style of play of this opponent suits Chus Mateo's team. In that game, French guard Causeur scored 19 points for Real, but the key figure was young power forward Yabusele with 17 points and nine rebounds.
It is clear that Real has a big advantage in the fight in positions under the hoop. Along with Yabusele, fully recovered and rested will be the best Euroleague center and the best Real Madrid player this season, Walter Tavares. If the Madrid team takes advantage of this obvious difference in quality early in the match, victory with a double-digit advantage will not be out of the question.
In total, Real Madrid are on a ten-game winning streak in all competitions. In those ten triumphs, they never scored less than 78 points. Some of the editions on their field were impressive – and the best game this spring was definitely the victory over the biggest rival Barcelona 78:66, in the match played on May 19 in the semi-finals of the Euroleague. That game showed: when Real finally has all healthy players, it can be unstoppable offensively.
Gran Canaria's good shooters, such as A. J. Slaughter (scored 16 points in the last match against Real Madrid) and Argentinian Brussino - will try to test the Real's zone defense, which Mateo's team has played perfectly in recent weeks. However, in reality, Real has many more quality individuals, ready to make a difference, even in the case of good phases in the opponent's game.
After a series of long trips to tough matches since the start of spring, Gran Canaria looks worn out. On the other hand, Real Madrid wants to defend the title in the ACB league and win even the 37th championship in their history... The team will look for a way to show that they are worthy of that task, already in this first match in the playoffs.