There is no bad Clasico, but this afternoon’s (18:30, #Vamos) has its old one, the usual and one more point 21 days after the originally scheduled date (follow the match live on As.com). A Classic with everything and everyone, with Rudy, Tavares and Mirotic back after a week unemployed by COVID, and with classificatory significance, because the victory is very relevant to decide the first place in the regular phase that gives home court advantage throughout the playoff. And that, in a hypothetical final between the two best teams in Europe at the moment, can be decisive.
A victory would place the whites with three defeats less than the azulgranas (and six more wins, but that’s a matter of postponements) and leadership very well on track, and more if we think that they only add a setback in the entire League, against Gran Canaria on October 24. If success was grabbed by the culés, they would continue to depend on themselves. If they also won the return leg at the Palau and did not fail again, they would finish first. The Barça of now is not the effervescent of the end of 2021, when he chained nine wins in a row in the Euroleague, and maintains the absences of Abrines and Oriola. Yes, Higgins., the decisive piece last year, peek out again after severe back pain and Calathes is the other famous comeback.
The coronavirus outbreak has made more of a dent than the whites, who continue to rearm and seem to be in constant progression, ready to fight that blow to the previous order that Jasikevicius tries to strike since his arrival: 7-3 dominates in the Classics. The last merengue success at the WiZink Center was before the pandemic, on November 14, 2019 in the Euroleague (86-76 with outstanding Campazzo, Deck and Randolph). Since then, four wins for the Catalans in the League, the Euroleague, the Cup final and the final of the playoff.
lasso talks about “reset required” and congratulates its leaders for the movements of the summer (the signings of Williams-Goss, Heurtel, Hanga… and before Poirier) and for the most recent ones, the incorporation of Deck and the renewal of Yabusele: “We needed to rearm and what my club has done is chapeau. He knew that the moment was difficult and he said: ‘Let’s go forward with everything’. The current template is very complete“. Now he has 15 players plus Juan Núñez and a Vukcevic who could leave. Although both and Causeur are left out of the call, they will still have to make two other discards. One, obligatory, that of a non-community: Goss, Thompkins or Deck (the anti-Mirotic?), only two fit in the ACB.
Madrid presents itself as Super Cup champion and leader of all after linking 21 wins in 22 games (the setback, by the way, continental and at the Palau: 93-80 with 31 points and a PIR of 39 for Mirotic). Barça arrives as the dominator of direct duels, especially at the Palace. There is tomato.
Felipe Reyes will enter the court in minute 9
Real Madrid will today pay an emotional tribute to Felipe Reyes during the Clásico. The duel will stop at minute 9, the number that he wore until his retirement, last summer, the white captain, who will then take to the pitch to receive the tribute of the merengue fans. In the last playoff, a positive for coronavirus prevented him from saying goodbye on the parquet after 23 seasons in the elite, 17 in Madrid, with whom he accumulated 1,046 games and 23 titles. “He has been a great player in Spanish basketball and, of course, in Real Madrid. I hope that many people go to the field (about 7,000) to support us and to enjoy the tribute, which will be well deserved. I only have good words for Felipe”, says Pablo Laso. Reyes continues to be linked to the club as a basketball ambassador.
#MadridBarça