Real Madrid scraped by FC Barcelona in the semifinals despite losing starting point guard Nigel Williams-Goss to injury. Now Coach Pablo Laso must add a player to the roster for Saturday night’s main event.
Coach Laso’s point guard dilemma
News
4 Mins read
We’ll never know exactly what Laso’s plans for the point guard role were at the Final Four because it all changed when Williams-Goss suffered an injury on the team’s first possession. He was helped off the court after play stopped through a foul at the other end and shortly thereafter was taken to the locker room.
“Nigel is a player who was providing us with a lot of consistency. He played the point guard position and set the tone in defense, he was running the offense well, and losing him is really bad luck,” Laso said on Friday. “It’s a setback, but that’s all, we cannot do anything. We have to make up for that situation somehow, the best we can.”
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Real solved the matter the best it could in the semifinal with Sergio Llull playing 29:10 minutes and contributing 15 points and 3 assists. Adam Hanga and Alberto Abalde, who are both listed as forwards on the Real roster, contributed minutes and fine plays at the ‘1’ as well. Hanga tied Llull for the team lead with 3 assists and also scored 4 points in 14:19. Abalde scored 7 in 12:44.
If the team wants to improve its playmaking after dishing just 14 assists – 4.2 below its full season average – in the semifinal, it could call upon one of its two point guards who did not dress on Friday. Veteran Thomas Heurtel has been inactive since early April and teenager Juan Nunez has appeared in only 10 games all season.
Perhaps the biggest issue for the Real backcourt in the championship game will be on defense against Anadolu Efes Istanbul’s All-EuroLeague guards Shane Larkin and Vasa Micic. Hanga is a former EuroLeague Best Defender and may have the speed and the length to stick with Efes’s stars, but without Williams-Goss, perhaps Llull is the only other player with experience guarding an ace playmaker.
In theory, Heurtel could help fill that role. When asked on Friday about that possibility, Laso answered briefly that it was possible.
The direction Laso takes with Williams-Goss’s roster spot and how to defend against Larkin and Micic will surely have a major impact on the championship game.