The hosts shot just 2-of-22 from distance, yet still came away with the win.
Real Madrid overcame three-point nightmare to defeat Barcelona
Statistika
3 Minutė skaityti
Regular Season
Round 5 of 34
Regular Season
Real MadridRMB
6564
FC BarcelonaBAR
Overview
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Real Madrid is now the only team in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague with a perfect record after beating FC Barcelona 65-64 at WiZink Center in Round 5 of the 2023-24 regular season on Thursday night. Despite securing the win, Los Blancos shot a dismal 2-of-22 from three-point territory.
The only two players to strike from distance were Gabriel Deck and Mario Hezonja. It took until there were 4 seconds left on the clock in the second quarter for Deck to drain Real’s first three-pointer, before Hezonja later added one in the third quarter.
Curiously, as Darius Garuolis points out, Real's 9.1% on three-pointers is the third-worst mark in the club's history.
Deck lit a fuse under Real Madrid
In particular, Deck’s triple helped provide a spark for Los Blancos, which they carried into the second half. After making it 28-30 at halftime with his three-pointer, Real went on to outscore Barca 23-11 en route to a 51-41 margin entering the final quarter.
Prior to Deck getting the Real fans off their seats going into halftime, Chus Mateo’s squad had shot a dismal 0-of-14 from distance. Perhaps, given that stat, it is a surprise that Barca had not been able to pull away further.
One of the key reasons why is down to the hosts’ dominance in the paint, as they ended up outrebounding the visitors 27-20; of those 27, 13 came on the offensive end. Real also scored 8 second-chance points in the first half compared to 0 for Barca.
Although Real turned the game around and entered the final lead with a commanding 10-point lead, Barca refused to go away and managed to chip away at the lead bit by bit. The Blaugrana had their chances to tie the game from the free-throw line in the closing stages, but instead it was Facu Campazzo and later Hezonja that got Real over the line from the charity stripe, which ensured Los Blancos won the first Clásico of the 2023-24 EuroLeague season.