Real Madrid remained on top of the Liga Endesa at the end of week 17, but Valencia are still in touch. Down at the bottom, Estudiantes found some breathing space as they look to escape the bottom two places.
Despite losing their unbeaten run in the Euroleague to CSKA Moscow last week, Real Madrid bounced back with a comfortable 88-67 win over fellow Euroleague side Unicaja Malaga in the Spanish capital.
Sergio Llull led Real with 23 points as the hosts bulit up a 52-39 lead at the half and were comfortably in control for the second half.
Vladimir Stimac and Mindaugas Kuzminskas led the Malaga charge with 10 points each.
Valencia stayed in touch by downing Joventut Badalona 85-69. The win was by no means easy though, especially as the Catalan side have been in good form as of late. Valencia, who were behind for the majority of the game raced away in the final period, hitting 33 points to gain the win.
Pau Ribas led Valencia with 22 points, while a game-high 26 points from Sitapha Savane was not enough for Badalona.
Barcelona are third following a narrow 62-56 win in Seville against Cajasol.
Alex Abrines led the Barca charge with 17 points, including five three-pointers as a strong final quarter push saw Barcelona home.
Gran Canaria, who have been dropping down the Liga Endesa table are back to winning ways after thumping basement side Valladolid 89-60.
A dominat first half set the tone for the hosts, as they raced clear to pick up an easy win. Ben Hansbrough had 23 points to lead Gran Canaria, while Danilo Andjusic and Dimitris Haritopoulos were the only players in double digits for Valladolid with 12 points each.
The loss gave Estudiantes the perfect chance to pull clear, which they did, by upsetting Gipuzkoa 72-61 at home.
Taking a 15-10 lead into quarter number two, Estudiantes raced clear to lead 39-19 at the half. The deficit was too much for playoff chasing Gizuzkoa to come back from as their post-season dreams took a hit.
Kyle Kuric, Marko Banic and Uros Slokar all had 13 points to lead the victors.
Fuenlabrada are working their way up the Liga Endesa table after an Andy Panko triple with 1.0 second left gave them a 74-71 home win over Laboral Kutxa.
Panko had 19 as his side move to 14th, while Baskonia are seventh.
Monbus are one spot above Fuenlabrada following an impressive win over Bilbao, and Zaragoza thrashed Murcia 103-67 as a 38-11 third period from Zaragoza turned a reasonably close contest into a blowout.
