The Real Madrid forward scored 26 points in his team's blowout win over ALBA.
Real's Mario Hezonja shined with season-highs in first start
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Mario Hezonja made the most of the opportunity that was given to him by Real Madrid head coach Chus Mateo, who introduced his star into the starting five and saw him pull off a man-of-the-game outing to lead Los Blancos to a 99-75 win over ALBA Berlin. The Real Madrid forward got off to an impressive start by scoring his team’s first 6 points with back-to-back triples. He finished the first quarter with 11 points and ended the game with 26.
Coming from a game against AS Monaco, where Real Madrid cruised past its opponent but he didn’t manage to score, Hezonja bounced back and recorded season-highs in both points and PIR (25). The 28-year-old went 5-for-7 on two-pointers and 5-for-6 from beyond the arc. He also downed 4 rebounds and registered 2 steals to help at both ends.
“I enjoy playing basketball, helping my teammates,” Hezonja said in the flash interview after the game. “I want to see Real Madrid win every game, every trophy and that’s why I’m here.”
Despite missing key players Sterling Brown, Matt Thomas and Louis Olinde, ALBA demonstrated on the floor that it travelled to Spain to play its basketball against the reigning champion. Real Madrid was leading from start to finish, but ALBA showed character on the floor and stayed close after two quarters.
“We said that we had to speed the game up a bit more at halftime and we know that they were going to come back into the game because they are a good team that fought with the resources [they had], because today they had some injuries,” Mateo said after the game. “But they are always dangerous, so we had to prevent situations, use everybody, and everybody scored, which is good.”
Dzanan Musa came off the bench for the first time after the break to score 11 of Real Madrid's 23 points in the third quarter and allow them to put the game to bed. He was one of the 12 Real Madrid players who recorded at least 3 points each on Thursday night.
“There is no bottom-team in the EuroLeague,” Hezonja added. “They are all serious teams, playing extremely well. As I said at halftime, we had to go out, do the basics and focus on details. We did this in the second half. Dzanan also came on. He was ready and he gave us a push.”
Real Madrid circulated the ball smoothly at times, with all players getting involved and offering some great spectacle to the home crowd. Facundo Campazzo and Sergio Rodriguez had 13 and 10 assists, respectively, this being the first time in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague history that two teammates reached double digits in assists. The hosts registered a season-high 32 assists, which is also the fourth-best mark in club history. Los Blancos will dispute two Turkish Airlines EuroLeague games next week, as they first play at Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv on Tuesday in a Round 6 postponed duel and then travel to Turkey, where they’ll face Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul on Thursday night.