Reigning champ and regular season standings leader Real Madrid will aim to strike first at home on Tuesday against Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, which qualified for the playoffs by surging past Virtus Segafredo Bologna in Friday's play-in decider.
Reigning champ Real Madrid takes on plucky Baskonia in Game 1
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The visiting team will take confidence from a thrilling 91-95 victory at the WiZink Center in the penultimate round of the regular season. Markus Howard was the chief architect of that victory with 35 points, and he will clearly be a focus for the home team's defense after also netting 28 in the win over Virtus.
Real will look to dominate physically through its fearsome big man duo of Vincent Poirier and Walter Tavares, who rank first and second, respectively, in blocks with 1.5 and 1.4 per game. Baskonia will desperately hope that Chima Moneke will recover from injury soon to play at 100%, while Matt Costello has fond memories of Madrid after scoring 19 crucial points in the Round 33 victory.