EReal Madrid defeated UCAM Murcia (79-63) and is just one win away (2-0) from winning the Endesa League title in a match that will not go down in history due to Musa’s good performance, Tavares’ interior dominance and not even because of the eternal zonal defense of the Murcians that once again put the whites in trouble. He will do it for the performance of Rudy Fernández, who in what could have been his last game in front of his fans before his retirement, was key in the victory with 14 points without failure (1/1 t2) and 4/4 t3), 6 rebounds and 20 rating. And he ended up receiving a tribute from the fans that brought tears to the eyes of the Mallorcan, his coach and some of his teammates, moved by the legend.
The script, except for the stellar emergence of Rudy, did not change much compared to the first game, nor to those that UCAM Murcia had played in these playoffs against Valencia and Unicaja. Sito Alonso had his team ready from the initial jump in the zonal defense that has given him such good returns, and his team left no loopholes as soon as it left any loopholes for the whites. Only Causeur and Musa managed to break that web of arms to give the initiative to their team (18-15, min 10), who started poorly from the triple.
The faults of their pivots condition UCAM Murcia
Kurucs, Caupain and Sleva kept the pace for the Murcians (24-25, min 16), who were penalized by the third foul, first by Diagné and shortly after by Morin, which conditioned their defense to the white centers. Yabusele began to run wild and the triples finally came in for Madrid, who with one from Campazzo and two in a row from Rudy fixed their bad percentage until then (2/12) and went into the break with the maximum advantage (40- 30).
The whites had played the last minutes of the second act with a zonal defense and maintained it after the restart, until Kurucs and Sleva broke it with their triples to neutralize Musa’s lashes. UCAM bled, giving up 11 offensive rebounds (11), and between the Bosnian and Tavares they set a new high for Madrid (49-36, min 25). But Murcia, a tough team if ever there was one, once again held on to the game by pressing even harder at the back and with triples from Sleva, Ennis and Hakanson (55-51, min 29).
The last Real Madrid push in the last quarter was carried out by Rudy Fernández, who shortly after suffering a bad fall scored a triple and a basket to extend his team’s lead (64-54, min 33). But the Murcians did not lower the flag either. They have never done it and they put pressure on the scoreboard again with the attacks of Sant Roos and Radovic (64-58). Sergio Rodríguez, another member of the Madrid old guard, extended the lead, and a triple from Hezonja and another from Rudy, in what could have been his last game in front of his fans, closed the game (74-61, min 39) and they leave Madrid one win away from the title.
Datasheet:
79 – Real Madrid (18+22+17+22): Campazzo (9), Causeur (5), Hezonja (9), Musa (13), Tavares (8), -starting five-, Poirier (6), Llull (-), Abalde (2), Rudy Fernández (14) , Sergio Rodríguez (4) and Yabusele (9).
63 – UCAM Murcia (15+15+22+11): Hakanson (4), Ennis (6), Rodions Kurucs (11), Sleva (13) y Diagne (7) -quinteto titular-, Sant-Roos (4), Caupain (6), Radovic (4), Radebaugh (2 ) y Morin (6) .
Referees: Antonio Conde, Fernando Calatrava and Sergio Manuel Rodriguez. They eliminated Rodions Kurucs for fouls.
Incidences: Second game of the final series of the Endesa League played at the WiZink Center in front of 11,377 spectators.
