The first-year forward had his best performance to date against Los Blancos’ biggest rival
Trey Lyles rises to the occasion as Real Madrid triumphs in El Clásico
Informes de partidos
3 Min lectura
Regular Season
Round 9 of 38
Regular Season
FC BarcelonaBAR
92101
Real MadridRMB
Overview
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Facundo Campazzo stressed ahead of El Clásico that the Real Madrid players would need to stick together, particularly given four members of the roster would be competing against FC Barcelona in the EuroLeague for the first time. In the end, Trey Lyles not only looked comfortable in Spain’s biggest fixture but he was able to dominate, silencing the Palau Blaugrana crowd in the process.
Lyles finished the night with a career-best 29 points, the most points ever scored by a Real Madrid player against Barcelona in a EuroLeague game. Not bad for a Clásico first-timer.
Despite only joining Real Madrid this past summer, the 30-year-old Canadian-American forward has looked right at home – and the statistics bear that out, with Lyles leading the team in scoring, steals and PIR, while he is second in rebounds.
"I don't want to say it's easy for me to adjust, but I think I'm pretty adjustable as a player," Lyles told Euroleague.net’s Javier Gancedo in the locker room after the game. "Coming here [to Real Madrid] wasn't that big of a change for me. My teammates helped me out; the coaches helped me out along the way as well. It's been a good transition."
Most importantly for coach Sergio Scariolo, his team’s fast start at Palau Blaugrana meant Barcelona was always playing catchup. Real Madrid dropped 34 first-quarter points on the Blaugrana, the most they have ever given up in the opening period of a EuroLeague game, while the 58 first-half points poured in by Los Blancos are the most Barcelona has allowed in the first half of a EuroLeague fixture. Two bits of history – and 16 of those 58 points came courtesy of Lyles.
"It was good to get the win," Lyles added. "Winning the game was the most important thing. We played well as a team. I was able to make more shots than a couple of other guys, but the most important thing is that we won the game, so I was happy to be a part of it."
More history came at the final buzzer as Real Madrid broke the 100-point mark for the third time in El Clásico, with all three of those occasions coming at Palau Blaugrana. The 101 points put up on Friday night tied the second-best mark, which came on February 23, 2018, but was one point shy of the record 102 scored on November 18, 2016. Curiously, Barcelona has never been able to reach the century mark against Real Madrid in EuroLeague play.
"It was great," Lyles stated. "I know the history of the Clásico games, and for us to come in here and win like we did, it's big time for us."
Real Madrid now holds a 21-18 record against Barcelona this century, and it has been victorious in six of the last seven Clásico fixtures. One man who has seen plenty of wins – and losses – in El Clásico is Sergio Llull, who is 16-14 for his career in this matchup.
Before Friday’s game tipped off, Llull was seen running at the last minute to join the homage for former Barcelona forward Alex Abrines, who had several of his former teammates – from both the Blaugrana and the Spanish national team – in attendance. While it was a funny moment for social media, it turns out that there was more to the story.
"I was told to go there!" Llull revealed to Euroleague.net’s Javier Gancedo in the locker room post-game. "It was not my idea. Barça wanted Sato [Tomas Satoransky], its captain, in the photo, and they invited us to join Alex's tribute. So as captain, I had to be in the picture. I didn't crash the picture, I would never do that."
Lyles, Llull and the rest of the Real Madrid squad will now head back to the Spanish capital, knowing they finally got their first road win of the season after starting the campaign 0-4 on their travels. Perhaps this Clásico win will end up being a big step forward for Coach Scariolo’s men – and Lyles certainly had a lot to do with it.
