It's last versus first as ASVEL (2-14) aims to end 2023 with the upset of the year by toppling reigning champ Real (15-1).
Game Notes: ASVEL vs. Madrid

ASVEL has lost eight straight, with three of the last four losses coming by double-digit margins, and changing that statistic will require a big improvement in long-range shooting after making just 4 of its 19 three-point attempts in last week’s loss to Olympiacos. Real, in contrast, is riding a five-game winning streak and the last four of those haven’t even been close, triumphing by an average of 14.4 points. Veteran Sergio Rodriguez has recently been the main playmaker, dishing 8 and 9 assists in the last two games, so he’s one of the many weapons for ASVEL to stop.
- ASVEL's only win over Real this century, a 77-85 triumph, came in Madrid in February 2003.
- ASVEL and Real played each other for the first time in the 1965 European Cup quarterfinals. Real swept ASVEL with a 37-point aggregate victory.
- ASVEL and Real faced each other in the 2002-03 EuroLeague when they split regular-season road wins. ASVEL won 77-85 in Madrid behind 18 points from Robert Gulyas.
- Real's Sergio Rodriguez and ASVEL's Nando De Colo were backcourt mates at CSKA Moscow for two seasons, from 2017 to 2019. They helped the team win the 2019 EuroLeague title.
- De Colo and the Real Madrid duo of Guerschon Yabusele and Vincent Poirier together won silver medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with the French national team.
- ASVEL's Edwin Jackson and De Colo have been teammates of Real guard Fabien Causeur on the French national team.
- Big men Joffrey Lauvergne of ASVEL and Vincent Poirier of Real have also been teammates on the French national team.
- Real forward Guerschon Yabusele spent a season and a half with ASVEL before joining Real in the summer of 2021. He made his EuroLeague debut there and helped the team win the French League. He was a teammate of current ASVEL players Edwin Jackson, Charles Kahudi and David Lighty.
- Real's Fabien Causeur made a career-high 5 triples, scoring 25 points, in a 74-87 win over ASVEL in November 2021.
- Real Madrid swingman Mario Hezonja scored a career-high 10 two-pointers for UNICS Kazan against ASVEL in November 2021.
- ASVEL forward Charles Kahudi set his career-high with 18 points and a PIR of 22 in a 77-87 home loss against Real in January 2020.
- ASVEL guard David Lighty set his career-high in steals with 4 in a 77-87 home loss against Real in January 2020.