It was not the best Saturday for Florentino Pérez, who arrived at the Stark Arena hanging on the phone after the door slammed against him by Kylian Mbappé and left a couple of hours later after witnessing Real Madrid's defeat against Anadolu Efes in the Euroleague final. Laso's team won't be able to celebrate their eleventh continental title for the time being, although what he has achieved in Belgrade, surprising (and leaving very upset) Barça and competing until the last second against the Turks, deserves only words of praise.
But if Jasikevicius's Barça seems to be putting an end to its dominance of Spanish basketball, in the final four Real Madrid definitively handed over the continental baton to Ergin Ataman's Anadolu Efes, finalist in the last three editions of the Euroleague and champion of the last two. against, precisely, Barça and Real Madrid. There is no transatlantic that can resist the Turkish team, which lives mainly from the wonderful that it accumulates in its squad. Of course, with an undisputed leader like Vasilije Micic. The Serbian, MVP last year in Cologne and Belgrade, qualified Efes for the final with a three-pointer at the buzzer and signed another NBA performance against Real Madrid. It is no secret that Europe has been too small for him for a long time.
But if last year at the Lanxess he had the invaluable help of his particular Zape, Shane Larkin, at the Stark Arena the intervention of Tibor Pleiss was equally decisive. The German center, who during his time at the Palau was accused on many occasions of lack of character, gave a lesson in the most important game of the year, getting up from a very bad start in which he was devoured by Tavares, and becoming a fundamental piece for Ottoman success.
The final was a bit long for Madrid, who marked the pace of the game with an impressive defense and managed to make the scoreboard experience moments of famine, a scenario that clearly favored them. There were minutes of defense by Llull against Larkin or by Taylor against Micic of those to put in basketball schools, but the strength of a veteran team like white was dwindling minute by minute.
Tavares' 12 points and 7 rebounds in the first half allowed Madrid to dominate the game with more and less comfort, depending on what Micic's wrist was doing, who was also adding his own. But only Llull seemed to be following in the footsteps of the white giant in attack and Laso's team hadn't finished breaking the match, as they had their third Euroleague on the horizon. Efes insisted on trying to score based on penetrations, crashing again and again against Tavares. Scoring from outside cost the two finalists a world - neither exceeded 25% success in triples - but Madrid seemed more whole. Hanga stretched until 40-31 (m25) and there the whites had the eleventh in several consecutive attacks in which they could not score despite putting on their boots on the offensive rebound.
The Efes smelled blood and began like an ant to approach the marker. Tavares' fourth foul at the start of the last act weighed heavily on Madrid and Micic wasted no time in regaining control for his team. It was in the final stretch, in which each basket was worth its weight in gold, when Pleiss's wrist at mid-distance began to line up for the title. Laso's team seemed mentally and physically exhausted because they didn't even miss Efes' last possession and couldn't even shoot a basket in search of victory. The eleventh will have to wait
57 - Real Madrid (15 19 8 15): Abalde (2), Hanga (5), Deck (5), Yabusele (3) and Tavares (14) -five starting-, Causeur (3), Randolph (6), Poirier (5), Rudy (2), Llull (9) and Taylor (3).
58 - Anadolu Efes (14 15 11 18): Larkin (10), Micic (23), Moerman (0), Anderson (0) and Pleiss (19) -starting team-, Bryant (0), Singleton (4), Dunston (2) and Beaubois (0).
Arbitrators: Luigi Lamonica, Borys Ryzhyk y Gytis Vilius. Sin eliminados
Incidents: Final of the Euroleague 2021-2022 played at the Stark Arena in Belgrade before some 15,000 spectators.
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