Real Madrid routed Darussafaka Dogus 101-83 in the Spanish capital as Sergio Llull continued where he off last week at the Copa del Rey.
Llull scored 19 points in the first quarter and finished with 26 overall as Real hit season-highs of 16 three-pointers and 28 assists to register its ninth consecutive win and remain top of the EuroLeague table.
“It’s been a good day,” said Llull afterwards. “The important thing is we started out strong, because when you play after winning a trophy it can trip you up if you relax too much.
“But we were very serious and intense from the start. The truth is I don’t remember having another first quarter like that. It was one of those days where everything worked from the start and that gives you confidence.”
James Anderson scored 18 for Darussafaka as they stay in ninth place.
Darussafaka’s loss proved to be Anadolu Efes’ gain as they took advantage to beat Baskonia 96-85 in Istanbul.
Efes improved to 12-11 and moved into seventh place, while knocking slumping Baskonia to the same record after its third straight loss and sixth in the last seven games. More importantly, Efes claimed the potential tiebreaker against Baskonia.
Thomas Heurtel powered the winners with 21 points and 11 assists.
“We like to play against the best teams,” said Heurtel. “We controlled the rebounds and when we control the rebounds we can play our fastbreak and our basketball. So today was a really great win for us.”
Mike James hit the game-winning three-point shot with 0.9 seconds remaining as Panathinaikos edged Unics Kazan 83-82 in Athens.
The win keeps Panathinaikos in fifth place while Unics remain third from bottom.
“I think it was the worst game in defence today,” said Panathinaikos coach Xavi Pascual. “Only in the third quarter did we bring better defence, but it was our worst quarter in offense. But we did one good thing all game, we believed we could win.”
Ioannis Bourousis led the winners with 15 points with Chris Singleton adding 14. Keith Langford led Unics with 21 points and seven assists.
Zalgiris boosted its Playoff chances with a thrilling 91-86 road victory at Brose Bamberg in a game that saw both teams leave absolutely everything on the floor.
The Lithuanian champs collected their fourth win in their last five games to improve to 10-13 and remain two wins out of the playoff zone. Bamberg dropped its six game of its last seven to fall to 8-15.
Paulius Jankunas led the winners with 24 points.
“It was a very tough game,” said Jankunas. “We knew that Bamberg plays very aggressively at home, we were ready for that and the coaches prepared us. The game was very intense but in the end good defence and offence helped us to win.”
