Spain: Real Madrid kept its ACB win streak alive, improving to 6 and 0 behind a combined 28 points by the power forward tandem of Jorge Garbajosa and Novica Velickovic. A semi-fit Juan Carlos Navarro had 10 points for Barcelona in crunch time to put aside a tough CajaSol side, as Navarro’s outstanding importance for Barca shows best in his absence.
Unicaja won their first of the ACB season, blowing out Murcia behind Taequan Dean’s hot shooting, and Joventut [Clay Tucker: 26] keeps playing extremely well, winning 83:78 in Granada, who Pablo Aguilar had 13 points for. Meanwhile, Thomas Kelati had his long-awaited debut for Valencia, adding 10 points in 19:11 minutes to help Valencia to third place in the league. Caja Laboral edged Gran Canaria 86:79 in a difficult game without playmaker Marcelinho Huertas, boosted by not only Mirza Teletovic’s [27 points] and Tiago Splitter’s [15] expected contributions, but also 20 points [on 9/10 field goals] and 8 rebounds by Stanko Barac.
