A strong fourth quarter allowed the Spanish giant to overcome Pierric Poupet's spirited squad
Trey Lyles leads lackluster Real Madrid to late-developing road win at ASVEL
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 20 of 38
Regular Season
LDLC ASVEL VilleurbanneASV
6980
Real MadridRMB
Overview
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Real Madrid’s victory at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne on Tuesday night was far more challenging than the deceptively wide final scoreline, 69-80, might suggest.
The French team was superior for long periods and led at the end of the first, second and third quarters, maintaining for the majority of the game an advantage that climbed as high as 10 points early in the third period.
But Real, despite playing way below its best for nearly all the contest, hung in there and gradually fought back to take a small lead, 63-65, early in the fourth quarter.
And then Trey Lyles took over.
The Canadian forward scored 10 consecutive points in just over two minutes, single-handedly turning what had been a tight game into a comfortable conclusion by netting four straight scores, while also helping out on the defensive end with a couple of rebounds and a big block.
His final tally of 21 points and 7 rebounds, for a game-high PIR of 26, continues the Canadian forward’s strong first season with Real following 10 years in the NBA, and after the contest he joked that coach Sergio Scariolo should count on him for more game-winning exploits in the future.
“Coach came to me a bunch in the fourth quarter, and I showed him why he should keep doing that,” he smiled.
More seriously though, Lyles added a reproach to his teammates for getting themselves into such a tricky position in the first place, complaining: “We’ve made it a habit to play lackadaisical in the first half, and then in the second half we pick it up.
“We need to start doing that from the beginning of the game. If we do that, we will make games a lot easier for us and we won’t have to dig ourselves out of a hole like we did today and in the last few games.
“We’ve got to stay accountable to one another and go out there and play with a lot of energy.”
Lyles has a point, because his outstanding burst helped Real overcome an often sloppy and occasionally lifeless collective performance. But although Coach Scariolo did not even attempt to pretend that his team had played a good game, he also wasn’t particularly unhappy about that as he reasoned: “It’s difficult to look for perfection. Perfection is to come, when it’s time to play for a championship.
“Right now, this is a process where every couple of days you have a game. There are difficulties, there is travel, there are many factors… When you play every couple of days, there are difficulties. For people who are professionally into this, it’s not something difficult to explain at all.”
This mindset – accepting that no trophies are won in the autumn and that momentum needs to be gradually built over the course of a season rather than burned out when it’s too early to count – has been a key aspect of Real’s habitual success over many decades.
Without saying it directly, Scariolo is also suggesting that the struggles of top teams to find consistency explains the current parity of the EuroLeague, as we head into the midway point of the regular season with only two wins separating first place from tenth.
Behind that line of thinking, of course, there is also the expectation that the cream will eventually rise to the top, and that the strongest teams will find a way to pace themselves and hit their best form when it matters the most.
With an unmatched tally of 10 Final Four appearances in the last 15 years, Real has repeatedly benefitted from that philosophy.
Scariolo’s calmness suggests he has every belief that everything will come together for his team when the time is right: hit your peak in May, not November.
And, in a way, the evidence was provided on a smaller scale on Tuesday night: early struggles, gradual improvement, a powerful late surge, and ultimately a deserved victory. If this win proves to be a microcosm of the season in general, Real’s race could be perfectly timed.
