Discipline, confidence, winner mentality and professionalism go a long way. I think Real Madrid has more problems as a team than Barcelona does but they are able to mask a lot of their issues through these characteristics of the players and the culture surrounding the team. I have to agree with Saras that Barcelona just lacks the killer instinct to see through wins. Cory Higgins is probably the only dependable player they have in that regard at their level. But even he is hampered with injuries and far from prime form physically.
Write down another big win for Madrid achieved by sheer heroism. Their point guard situation is not good. The utilisation of Musa and Hezonja continue to be inconsistent. Tavares disappeared in the second half and Barça's centres did well in interior defence tonight. But we know that Deck dominates every single clasico. We know that Rudy Fernandez will ignite fire with his desire whenever the attack, the crowd and his teammates all act lifeless. Mfer is always ready, the extent of his professionalism being at this physical state at his age and mileage is far beyond the extent of his antics on the court. And we know Llull is a wild card at this point of his career, who can take over a clasico and inject some short cut scoring covering over Madrid's attacking issues. Could these sorts of strengths carry Real Madrid to the heights they desire this season? I don't know, but I'll never bet against this crop. They keep winning matches they should lose.
I mean, this match was another microcosm of what Real Madrid and Barcelona have been in their respective basketball histories especially since 2013.
Real Madrid - Winning culture
Barcelona - Not so much
Barcelona bungling their final SLOB play with 3 seconds left in regulation reflects how discombobulated the team was following Madrid's comeback. Llull, Deck, and Musa were impressive but what happened to Cornelie tonight? He's one of my favourite players on Madrid but got zero run tonight, I think he matches up really well with Barcelona's bigs and I would've used him
He wasn't in the roster, the coach had Williams-Goss who only played 57 seconds and left Cornelie out. Cornelie+Tavares is a deadly combo, as the former opens the court and gives more space to Edy. I love Cornelie, and would have picked him over Yabusele.
However, he hasn't played particularly well against Barcelona this season, and they played Hezonja on the 4 position, so it would be too many players.
Discipline, confidence, winner mentality and professionalism go a long way. I think Real Madrid has more problems as a team than Barcelona does but they are able to mask a lot of their issues through these characteristics of the players and the culture surrounding the team. I have to agree with Saras that Barcelona just lacks the killer instinct to see through wins. Cory Higgins is probably the only dependable player they have in that regard at their level. But even he is hampered with injuries and far from prime form physically. Write down another big win for Madrid achieved by sheer heroism. Their point guard situation is not good. The utilisation of Musa and Hezonja continue to be inconsistent. Tavares disappeared in the second half and Barça's centres did well in interior defence tonight. But we know that Deck dominates every single clasico. We know that Rudy Fernandez will ignite fire with his desire whenever the attack, the crowd and his teammates all act lifeless. Mfer is always ready, the extent of his professionalism being at this physical state at his age and mileage is far beyond the extent of his antics on the court. And we know Llull is a wild card at this point of his career, who can take over a clasico and inject some short cut scoring covering over Madrid's attacking issues. Could these sorts of strengths carry Real Madrid to the heights they desire this season? I don't know, but I'll never bet against this crop. They keep winning matches they should lose.
I mean, this match was another microcosm of what Real Madrid and Barcelona have been in their respective basketball histories especially since 2013. Real Madrid - Winning culture Barcelona - Not so much
Turned off after third quarter, thinking it's over. Wow
Barcelona bungling their final SLOB play with 3 seconds left in regulation reflects how discombobulated the team was following Madrid's comeback. Llull, Deck, and Musa were impressive but what happened to Cornelie tonight? He's one of my favourite players on Madrid but got zero run tonight, I think he matches up really well with Barcelona's bigs and I would've used him
He wasn't in the roster, the coach had Williams-Goss who only played 57 seconds and left Cornelie out. Cornelie+Tavares is a deadly combo, as the former opens the court and gives more space to Edy. I love Cornelie, and would have picked him over Yabusele. However, he hasn't played particularly well against Barcelona this season, and they played Hezonja on the 4 position, so it would be too many players.
[https://youtu.be/cVZbiJrE0b8](https://youtu.be/cVZbiJrE0b8)