Gabriel Deck bounced back to lead Real Madrid to win
Real Madrid entered Round 28 of the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season on the back of a shock 81-85 defeat to Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz on Tuesday evening. In need of a bounce-back win against a well-known opponent, Gabriel Deck rescued his team in crunch time, leading Real to a 95-91 win against Valencia Basket at WiZink Center on Thursday night.
In Los Blancos' defeat to Baskonia, Deck did very little in the first 30 minutes. Curiously, the first three quarters saw Deck fail to attempt a shot or grab any rebound. He finished the game with 4 points, no rebounds and a PIR of 0. He did, however, score a critical basket to give Real its last lead, 81-79, but Matt Costello scored the last 4 points of the game to ensure that Baskonia escaped with the win.
Deck had a very different type of performance against Valencia, as he actively looked for the ball and attacked the rim from the very beginning of the game. The 28-year-old led Real in scoring with 18 points on 5-of-8 two-pointers and 8-of-8 free throws, while he also tied teammate Petr Cornelie for a game-high 7 rebounds and drew 5 fouls for a PIR of 26. Deck stepped up big in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 points and going 4-of-4 from the free-throw line in the final 70 seconds, before finding Walter Tavares for a critical slam to make sure Real kept hold of the lead in crunch time. Los Blancos went on to record their 18th win of the season to remain second in the standings, and Deck's overall activity made the difference.