Real Madrid remained unbeaten in Group B of the Euroleague with a dominant 103-57 home win over Anadolu Efes in the competition’s early game on Wednesday night.
This one-sided win virtually seals Real’s place in the Top 16 of the Euroleague and expectedly so. The Liga Endesa side though will no doubt face tougher opposition in the Top 16 as they continue their path to what should be a 10-0 record in a relatively weak Group B.
The hosts raced out to a 17-9 lead and led 19-13 after the first ten minutes of play, in what was a scrappy first period, before Sergio Rodriguez added some much needed flamboyance to the second quarter proceedings. It took just minutes for Rodriguez to lob the ball to a flying Marcus Slaughter, then dish to Jaycee Carroll and end it by converting a three-point play to give his side a 36-19 lead. Real went on to lead 47-23 at half-time.
Anadolu were mere puppets on a string and Real Madrid, led by Spain’s back-up point guard were the puppet masters.
“It is very important for us to work hard and have fun to win games, to enjoy every action of the game,” Rodriguez said.
“We are doing that and have to keep doing it. I always enjoyed playing, but there are good and bad times. I have to work hard and keep in mind that you can always improve in everything if you work hard and knowing that everything is complicated.”
The Turkish visitors put up more of a fight in the third quarter, Scotty Hopson, who led Anadolu with 13 points provided flashes of what he is capable of, but it was in vain. Anadolu were playing for pride at this point. Sure, there was another quarter to play, but Real Madrid were in cruse control for ten minutes before they decided to play around again in the final period.
Rudy Fernandez, who was surprisingly quiet on this night lobbed cameo player Salah Mejri for the slam which was followed by a triple from Carroll and a few possessions later, Rodriguez threw the ball to Mejri for the slam and a 30-point Madrid lead.
Anadolu were drained. A team that just wanted to head back to the locker room, get showered, changed and back to Istanbul quicker than what it took for Rodriguez to display his full arsenal of talents. He finished with 14 points and a career-high 11 assists in just 19 minutes on court.
“We have a long, beautiful season ahead of us,” explained Rodriguez. “We have been playing together for a long time. We know each other well and that we have to improve; it is a long season. We have to keep our feet on the ground. This is an important step. We have to stay undefeated at home and try to compete hard on the road. We will be fine as long as we can defend our home court. I am definitely in the best moment of my career.”
Ioannis Bourousis led Madrid with 17 points as he quietly went about his business, hitting all three of his three-point attempts and collecting seven rebounds to his statline.
“We are playing at a level that is hard to catch up with and our good defence allowed us to run, get fast break points and play on the open court,” Real Madrid coach Pablo Laso said.
“We played with a lot of intelligence on offence, attacking some of the players we had scouted before the game. The final scoreboard reflects that we were the better team tonight.”
Anadolu Efes drops to 3-2 in the group. Still a good shot of making it to the Top 16 with a rebuilding team from last year as they lost Jordan Farmar to the Los Angeles Lakers and Sasha Vujacic, who moved back to the States, hoping to force his way back into the NBA.
“My duty is to prepare my players to face this kind of games, but nothing went well on the court,” said Anadolu’s veteran coach Oktay Mahmuti. “I have been coaching for many years and I understand that losing games is part of life, but the attitude we had on the court tonight was a whole different thing.”
