Real Madrid takes a home win against Zalgiris 20
Zalgiris Kaunas came back to the EuroLeague after winning Lithuanian Cup with a 69-96 loss against Real Madrid in Round 25 at Wizink Center in the Spanish capital.
Real improved to 17-7 in the standings to rank second overall. Zalgiris dropped to 13-12 and is 4-8 on the road this season.
Ignas Brazdeikis led Zalgiris with 16 points.
Dzanan Musa led the winners with 17 points off the bench. Walter Tavares added 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, Gabriel Deck and Nigel Williams-Goss each scored 12 while Vincent Poirier had 11 for Real, which finished the game with 23 assists and 12 turnovers.
Isaiah Taylor and Rolands Smits each struck from downtown to give Zalgiris an early 6-2 lead. Deck and Williams-Goss rescued Real and Tavares’ alley-oop slam put Los Blancos in charge, 11-13. Zalgiris found a go-to guy in Tomas Dimsa, who got help from Brazdeikis and Laurynas Birutis to help Zalgiris to a 24-22 lead after 10 minutes.
Mario Hezonja scored twice early in the second quarter and fed Poirier for an alley-oop slam. Guerschon Yabusele soon boosted his team’s margin to 27-34. Poirier, Yabusele and Musa each dunked to make it 30-45. Bradzeikis kept Zalgiris within 38-53 at halftime.
Deck had 4 points in a 6-0 run that made it 38-59, soon after the break. Real kept running its offense through Tavares, who scored four times in the paint, including an uncontested dunk, to break the game open at 45-72. Little changed after that, as Real kept a 52-76 margin at the end of the third quarter and did not find much trouble adding an important home victory.
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