Real Madrid — CSKA, 18 March 2021

Real Madrid – CSKA: 89-96 (+7)

Real Madrid: Causeur (14), Alocen (2 + 5 as + 4 pf), Deck (12 + 5 rb), Tavares (12 + 13 rb + 6 as + 3 bs), Thompkins (20 + 4 rb + 2 as) – start; Abalde (7), Tyus (0), Laprovittola (2 + 4 as), Reyes (DNP), Garuba (3), Carrol (17), Taylor (0)…

CSKA: James (22 + 4 as), Hackett (4 + 3 rb + 2 as + 4 pf), Voigtmann (18 + 9 rb), Shengelia (14 + 2 st + 5 pf), Kurbanov (3) – start; Lundberg (4), Bolomboy (4), Ukhov (DNP), Antonov (0), Strelnieks (4), Clyburn (23 + 4 rb + 2 as + 2 st), Eric (0)…

First of all, I want to congratulate my team. I think that, from the beginning, we had a crystal clear idea of how we have to defend, but also how we have to play in our offense: try to get everything that we can, what was given, especially from the perimeter, but defensively, I think we were giving our fights. We had some problems that we had to solve on pick-and-roll defense because Tavares became a secondary creator and their primary creator with the short roll and the deep roll, and he was sharing the ball as a secondary creator very well. But I think we were very composed and scored a lot of points in the first half, 55. We had the same idea in the second half and we talked at halftime that now is the time for Carroll, because we had been scouting that Carroll gets in in the second half, especially when they have a problem. Carroll has been giving a lot, but today, he really had an amazing performance, 17 points. He tried to break our celebration, but I think we were composed in the end, playing small ball, playing some matchups and hitting big shots. I think we also had our moments in our offense, trying to take Tavares out of the paint as much as possible. We started that with Toko [Shengelia] and he hit crucial shots, and then Jo-Jo [Voigtmann] and other players from the perimeter. Overall, it was a good road win for us. We were struggling lately and that's a good, I hope, turning point for us. Congratulations to my team, congratulations to the players, and good luck to Madrid.