The Real Madrid center set a club record on a night in which had an increased workload due to the absence of fellow big man Vincent Poirier.
A new personal best for Walter Tavares on an exhausting night
Real Madrid certainly didn’t have it easy when a determined Valencia Basket rolled into WiZink Center on Thursday night.
Going up against a determined opponent which knew every strength and flaw of the team it was facing, the reigning Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion was unable to play the free-flowing, offensive basketball it is famous for, as Chus Mateo’s men never looked comfortable nor fully in control.
A difficult start for Tavares
And those struggles extended to key player Walter Tavares, whose first quarter saw him commit 3 turnovers, miss 2 free throws, blow another shot underneath the basket that he would normally make, watch opposing center Brandon Davies score on him twice, and get whistled for a foul he didn’t believe existed.
After all that, Tavares was recalled to the bench by Coach Mateo with 8 minutes played, by which time Valencia held an 11-19 lead. At that point, it looked like being a long night for Tavares, especially in the knowledge that his big man partner in crime, Vincent Poirier, was unavailable through injury.
But great players on great teams do not let themselves get derailed by the small matter of a tough start, and it didn’t take long for Tavares to return to the action and play a major part in Real’s eventual 96-86 overtime victory.
Making a key impact
He came back into the game midway through the second quarter and immediately set about doing what he does best: patrolling the paint at both ends of the floor to grab rebounds, deny shots, score baskets and draw fouls.
By the end of the first half Tavares had taken his personal tally to 10 points and 7 rebounds, and he continued to deliver whenever his team needed him – which was pretty much all the time as he compensated for the absence of Poirier by spending nearly the whole 45 minutes on the floor.
By the end of the overtime victory, Tavares's steady contributions saw him play more than 38 minutes to amass 18 points, a new personal-best and club-record 19 rebounds, 2 assists, 7 fouls drawn and, of course, 2 blocked shots for a PIR of 32.
When the action eventually concluded, Tavares was understandably so tired he could barely speak as he stood – just about – in front of the EuroLeague TV cameras. But he did manage to admit he would’ve liked Poirier to be available on Thursday night: “I missed my man Vince! He is injured but I hope he can get healthy quick. I missed him a lot today.”
The focus of the players to withstand overtime had been further tested by a delay of more than 15 minutes before the start of the second half due to technical problems with the clock, making a long night even longer.
It was not, however, as long as Real’s previous home game against Anadolu Efes Istanbul last week, which set an all-time EuroLeague record by going to quadruple overtime. And Tavares believes that unique experience helped his team overcome Valencia on Thursday, saying: “It helped up focus and try to start the next game.
“We were tired, but we were focused and we got it done.”
And nobody got it done more than Tavares.