2020-21Regular SeasonRound 26
Real Madrid 70
Zalgiris Kaunas 58
February 25, 2021 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 WIZINK CENTER

Real's defense stops Zalgiris

Real Madrid returned to its winning ways by downing Zalgiris Kaunas 70-58 at WiZink Center on Thursday. Real improved to 16-10 in the standings and grabbed its second win against the Lithuanian champs this season. Zalgiris dropped to 13-12 and is now on a three-game losing streak. Gabriel Deck led the winners with 14 points and Jaycee Carroll and Trey Thompkins each added 12 for Real. Paulius Jankunas led Zalgiris with 13 points and Nigel Hayes added 11. Nico Laprovittola led a 16-2 run that gave Real the lead for good, 18-8. Zalgiris managed to get within 39-38, but Deck had 6 points in an 8-0 run that gave Real a 51-42 edge at the end of the third quarter. Real boosted its margin to 64-48 and never looked back.

Rokas Jokubaitis got Zalgiris going with a layup. Augustine Rubit added a baseline jumper and Hayes made a layup for a 2-6 lead. Laprovittola struck twice from downtown and Edy Tavares followed a jumper with a put-back basket in a 10-0 run that put Real in charge, 12-6. Marius Grigonis hit a jumper, but Usman Garuba and Fabien Causeur each sank a triple, prompting the guests to call timeout at 18-8. Jankunas downed a four-meter shot and added a three-pointer to bring Zalgiris within 21-13 after 10 minutes. Carroll joined the three-point shootout and Alberto Abalde dunked, but Hayes struck twice from beyond the arc to get the visitors even closer, 26-21. Thompkins stepped up with a backdoor layup and followed Carroll's running floater with a jumper to restore a 32-23 Real edge. Carlos Alocen took over with a coast-to-coast basket and Carroll scored again, but Jokubaitis and Thomas Walkup got Zalgiris within 36-31 at halftime.

Laprovittola hit a three-pointer soon after the break. Walkup downed a jumper and got help from Rubit and Hayes to climb within 39-38. Real found a go-to guy in Deck, who struck twice from beyond the arc in an 8-0 run that gave the hosts fresh air at 47-38. Lukas Lekavicius buried a floater, but Thompkins and Alocen kept Los Blancos way ahead, 51-42, after 30 minutes. Lekavicius floated another one in early in the fourth quarter. Carroll answered with a mid-range jumper and Thompkins improved Joffrey Lauvergne's alley-oop layup with a corner triple. Carroll knocked down a stop-and-pop triple, Tavares added a put-back layup and Thompkins sealed the outcome at 64-48 midway through the fourth quarter. Jankunas kept pushing Zalgiris, but he didn't find much help around and Deck buried his fourth shot from downtown to make sure Real cruised to a well-deserved win.

Pivotal performer

Gabriel Deck helped at both ends and stepped up when the going got tough. He finished the game with 14 points on 4-of-5 three-point shots plus 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 2 fouls drawn for a team-high PIR of 19.

Game-changing moment

Zalgiris rallied from a double-digit deficit to get within 39-38 soon after the break. Gabriel Deck rescued Real with a couple of three-pointers in an 8-0 run in which Fabien Causeur added a fastbreak layup. The hosts restored a 47-38 margin and went on to dominate the game until the final buzzer.

Stellar stat

Rebounds and three-point shots made the difference in this game. Zalgiris, the best three-point shooting team in the EuroLeague entering this game, hit 4 of 12 shots from downtown (33.3%) and was outrebounded 38-22. Real buried 14 of 29 three-pointers (48.3%).

Did you know?

Jaycee Carroll reached another milestone in his EuroLeague career, becoming the 18th player to score 2,500 points in the competition. He now has 2,503 points and passed Mike Batiste (2,496) and Dimitris Diamantidis (2,495) on the scoring charts. Three of his current teammates are ahead of him: Sergio Llull (6th, 3,144 points), Felipe Reyes (7th, 3,022) and Rudy Fernandez (15th, 2,614). None of them played in this game.

Next game

Both teams return to EuroLeague action early next week - on Tuesday, April 2. Real visits Khimki Moscow Region, while Zalgiris hosts LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

Gabriel Deck - Real Madrid - EB20
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: JAVOR, DAMIR; JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; KONSTANTINOVS, KRISTAPS
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Real Madrid21151519
Zalgiris Kaunas13181116
End of Quarter1234
Real Madrid21365170
Zalgiris Kaunas13314258
Real Madrid
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 CAUSEUR, FABIEN 18:59 5 1/4 1/3     1 1 2 1 3     1    
6 ABALDE, ALBERTO 15:17 5 1/1 1/2     1 1 2   1       1 7
7 TYUS, ALEX 9:33   0/1     2 1 3   1 1 1   1 2 4
8 LAPROVITTOLA, NICOLAS 21:18 9 0/2 3/6     4 4 5 2 1     4 3 13
9 REYES, FELIPE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11 VUKCEVIC, TRISTAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12 ALOCEN, CARLOS 18:42 4 2/3 0/1     3 3 6   2 1   1 2 11
14 DECK, GABRIEL 29:10 14 1/3 4/5     6 6 1 1 2       2 19
16 GARUBA, USMAN 15:27 3   1/1     3 3     3 1   1 1 4
20 CARROLL, JAYCEE 20:51 12 3/6 2/7   2 1 3 1 1 2     2 2 7
22 TAVARES, WALTER 26:37 6 3/4     3 6 9 2 3 6     4   9
33 THOMPKINS, TREY 24:06 12 3/5 2/4     4 4     1     2   9
Team           1   1               1
Totals 200:00 70 14/29 14/29 0/0 8 30 38 19 9 22 3 0 16 13 84
        48.3% 48.3% 0%
Head coach: LASO, PABLO
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 WALKUP, THOMAS 23:23 8 3/4 0/3 2/2   3 3 1   1       3 10
1 BLAZEVIC, MAREK DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 19:23 8 4/9           2 1 1   2 2 2 3
10 HAYES-DAVIS, NIGEL 30:06 11 1/4 3/3   1   1 2 3 1     3   10
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 22:40 13 2/2 1/2 6/6 1 6 7 1 2 3       4 23
16 LUKOSIUNAS, KAROLIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
23 GEBEN, MARTINAS 5:25 2 1/3                          
24 RUBIT, AUGUSTINE 22:11 4 1/4   2/2   3 3 1 2 3   1 1 1 3
31 JOKUBAITIS, ROKAS 24:11 4 2/5 0/1     3 3 4 1 3     3 3 5
32 VASTURIA, STEVE 10:05     0/2     1 1             1  
40 GRIGONIS, MARIUS 29:11 6 2/4 0/1 2/2   1 1 2 2 1     2 2 7
77 LAUVERGNE, JOFFREY 13:25 2 1/5       2 2     1     2   -3
Team             1 1               1
Totals 200:00 58 17/40 4/12 12/12 2 20 22 13 11 14 0 3 13 16 59
        42.5% 33.3% 100%
Head coach: SCHILLER, MARTIN

Head Coaches

LASO, PABLO
Real Madrid
"First of all, congratulations to the team for the victory. We knew it was going to be a difficult game. I believe that our defensive work was great, making some minor mistakes, but in general terms, our defensive work was very, very good even on rebounds. We were able to force them to make shots, rebound and have the control of the game. Offensively, we were not that fluid. It was not that we were missing shots, but because our turnovers, 22 turnovers are too many. Above all, we had the feeling that some of those turnovers could have been easily avoided. But I leave being really happy about the work the guys did in a game that we knew was tough. I have a lot of value to the work all players did to pull out this win. Before the game, I was asked about its importance. For me, all EuroLeague games are very important and very difficult. We played against a team that is fighting to reach the playoffs, just as we are. It has the same value as the first game of the season in Vitoria, but the more you get closer to the end of the regular season, games become more important and all teams are fighting for the goals. This is why it was very important to have the feeling that we dominated the game, which I think we did for many minutes despite our many turnovers, which is something we must improve on."
SCHILLER, MARTIN
Zalgiris Kaunas
"First of all, congratulations to Real Madrid for winning the game. If you look at the rhythm of the game and the entire play, I thought they deserved to win the game. I was satisfied with our defensive efforts and I compliment my guys for defending very focused, very hard, especially after coming off a game 48 hours ago. The challenge for us was obviously scoring the basketball and we did that in the beginning. We knew it was going to be tough because Real was extremely long, extremely good defensively, and we couldn't figure it out, how to put the ball in the hoop. Again, therefore I think Real deserved the win, and congratulations."

Players

LAPROVITTOLA, NICOLAS
Real Madrid
"It is a big win for us. I think this team is working every day and knows which is our goal, which is being in the Final Four, to win the EuroLeague. I think we need to refresh and improve our game. We have been doing it in practice, I think, and today we showed it. We have to know which our spot is, where we are."
CARROLL, JAYCEE
Real Madrid
"[Reaching 2,500 points] is pretty cool. I didn't know I was coming up to that milestone. It means that I had the opportunity to play at this level for a while and I am excited about that. I think it is pretty cool."
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