The champs trailed for most of the first three quarters before getting hot in the fourth.
Fourth-quarter run was just enough for Real to get past ASVEL



Real Madrid survived a number of absences and a strong physical effort by LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne and finished 2023 with a 76-77 road victory thanks to a big start to the fourth quarter.
ASVEL had answered every comeback attempt by Real throughout the first 30 minutes and led three times by 9 points. Los Blancos finally delivered the punch it needed with a 0-16 run in the first 5:46 minutes of the final frame to take a 10-point lead. The cushion was 11 points shortly thereafter but ASVEL responded one more time with a 15-4 run to even the game 74-74.
Edy Tavares’s hook shot and a Facundo Campazzo free throw in the closing minute locked up the win, but the foundation was laid at the start of the final period.
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“We started to grab the rebounds and run and get some easy baskets. That’s what gave us a little bit of space. We should have been doing that from the beginning,” said Vincent Poirier, who led Real with 17 points including a number of big dunks.
“The game is decided in the last quarter. You have to give everything you have, all the power you have. You have to leave it all out on the floor. We did a great job, we played smart,” added Tavares, who tallied 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Real head coach Chus Mateo, who was missing Gabriel Deck, Mario Hezonja and Rudy Fernandez, said his team was really challenged by ASVEL but found a way at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
“We started to run a little bit more. We started to play our game, passing to each other. This is how we want to play,” the coach said. "Today it was not an easy execution because their physicality didn’t allow us to play so easily as in other games. They play very good on defense. They didn’t allow us to share the ball. But in the end, we were able to find a window.”
ASVEL did a good job shutting down Real’s prolific offense, which coming into the game had ranked first in the EuroLeague in PIR (108.4 per game), scoring (88.1 points per game) and assists (21.9 per game) while ranking second best in two-point shooting accuracy at 60.4% and fourth best in three-point shooting accuracy at 38.2%.
Real scored 77 points with 19 assists and shot 52.2% on two-pointers and 33.3% from long range for an index rating of 97.
But the biggest stat that carried Real to the win was 16 - as in the first 16 points of the fourth quarter.








































































































