Pedro Martínez's Real Madrid has made the three-pointer their winning formula. A week ago they hit 20 against Surne Bilbao, their best mark in the Liga Endesa. On Thursday they made 21 in the comeback against Maccabi, a club record in the EuroLeague. This Sunday, at Espai Fruita Barris Nord, they reached 24 to beat iLERNA Lleida 86-122 and maintain their perfect record (5-0). Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot finished with 31 points and the white team has eight consecutive wins across both competitions.
The game also featured a historic milestone. Sergio Llull took the court in the second quarter and reached his 690th game with Real Madrid in the Liga Endesa. That's one more than the 689 games Juan Carlos Navarro played with Barcelona, making him the player with the most games for the same team in the competition's history. The captain, who turns 39 in November, had already reached 700 games in the league and 7,000 points as a Real Madrid player a week earlier.
First Quarter Sets the Tone
Madrid didn't allow Lleida to get into the game. Andrés Feliz took control from the opening tip, Nick Smith contributed off the bench, and Alberto Abalde helped close the first quarter with a ten-point lead (21-31). The Lleida team found their best resource in Dani García in the second period and cut it close for a few minutes, but Theo Maledon's entry restored the distance. Luwawu-Cabarrot and Facundo Campazzo finished opening up the gap before halftime (40-54).
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Lleida came out of the locker room with a different attitude. Oriol Paulí, McGhee and Hughes led a comeback attempt at the start of the third quarter, but Madrid never lost control. Maledon and Luwawu-Cabarrot continued scoring, and Mikael Jantunen sustained the final stretch of the quarter until the game was out of reach for the home team. In the final period, with Lleida running on empty, the lead continued to grow until 86-122.
Luwawu-Cabarrot, the Liga Endesa's leading scorer last season with Baskonia, delivered his best game in white since waking up in Belgrade on Thursday. For Lleida, who had lost all four previous matchups with Madrid, this is their fourth loss in five games.