Another week is behind us, and yet another week of exciting Spanish basketball is in the books. A buzzer beater, a few upsets and great games.
Just a typical week in the strongest basketball league in Europe.
Real Madrid is keeping chase with Unicaja in the battle for the top spot in the league. They edged out Zaragoza 80-74 in a fairly close game. Real faced some early injury problems in this game as Rudy Fernandez had a back injury and didn’t return after that. He only played 10 minutes in this game.
Zaragoza went into the final minute with an 74-73, but Sergio Llull got a basket and a faul at the other end to put Real on top. Zaragoza players reacted furiously to that call earning a couple of techs that put this game to bed.
Jaycee Carroll was efficient for visitors with 14 points in only 16 minutes. Stevan Jelovac led Zaragoza with 21.
Amazing finish happened in the Gipuzkoa – Gran Canaria game, which was close throughout, as Gran Canaria had the ball with 2 seconds left with a 72-72 score. Albert Oliver got a ball and sinked a crazy circus one legged floater of the glass to win it for the visitors. This was really important win for Gran Canaria as they keep the same record as Zaragoza in their fight for the last playoff spot.
Oliver led Canarians with 13. David Doblas had 19 for the home side.
Tenerife crushed Laboral Kutxa at home 91-56 where Laboral was only able to hang around in the first quarter. Coming of their big Euroleague win over Fenerbahce, Baskonia shoved no fight in this one.
Saul Blanco led Tenerife with 16, but the home side also had 6 players in double digits. Mike James had 16 for the visitors.
Barcelona’s 76-64 win over Murcia puts them one game over Bilbao in standings because Bilbao lost this week.
Barca was able to pull away from Murcia in the fourth behind great play of Alex Abrines, Maciej Lampe and Brad Oleson. Also, Barcelona bench was simply to much for the home side in this one.
Lampe led Barcelona with 13. Nemanja Radović had 16 for Murcia.
Elsewhere around the league, Estudiantes got an important win to firmly get away from relegation zone. They have beaten Bilbao 83-77. Joventut had no problems with Manresa as they won 82-63. Unicaja edged out Fuenlabrada 78-75, Sevilla crushed Rio Natura 86-60 and Valencia won at home against MoraBanc 95-91.