In one of the toughest road venues to play at in the world of basketball, and on the brink of elimination, down 2-0 in the best-of-five series, Real Madrid needed some heroics to keep its season alive. And Los Blancos got them from star center Walter Tavares who led the team to a dramatic 80-82 win over Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade in a packed Stark Arena, cutting the series deficit to 2-1.
Tavares, who had a knee injury that caused him to miss the better part of the second half of Game 1 and all of Game 2, not only made a recovery that allowed him to play his first full game of this series, but he had one of the greatest single-game performances in EuroLeague Playoffs history.
Tavares scored 26 points, tying his personal career-best and tying Real's individual single-game playoff record. He was 11-for-14 on two-point shooting, another career-high and the second-best mark for two-pointers made in EuroLeague Playoffs history.
The Real Madrid big man also pulled down 11 rebounds, including 4 on the offensive glass, and delivered 3 blocks and 3 assists. Tavares's performance index rating of 41 tied the second highest in a playoff game since 2005, behind only Luis Scola's record of 43, which came on the first night ever in the modern playoffs.
What was remarkable for Tavares was that he spent 35:45 on the floor due to Real losing a fellow big man Vincent Poirier during the warmups. And not everything went smoothly.