Morabanc Andorra-Real Madrid: the leaders return to action in La Liga
Chus Mateo's side face a difficult outing today in league game 23 (12:30pm CET).
Real Madrid return to league action three weeks after their victory at Río Breogán and after winning the Copa del Rey. Today, the leader of the competition has another demanding outing in game 23 against Morabanc Andorra. The first game of an important month of March for our team, in which we could seal qualification for the playoffs in both competitions.
Madrid face an opponent that always makes things difficult for them due to their fast, direct and very physical style of play. After the high of the Copa del Rey and the break for the FIBA fixtures, our team has to get back to winning ways. While we had some good moments against Panathinaikos, it is true that we lacked steam at the end of the game. As visitors, we have won 9 out of 11 games. Morabanc Andorra are more needy of a win given that they are only two points clear of the relegation places. They did however beat Basket Girona at home by 27 points in their last game to end a run of three consecutive defeats.
Madrid will have to demonstrate their dominance in the statistics on the court. They are the highest rated team (110.5 PIR), the best offensive team (89.1) and the team with the most assists (20.5), among other aspects of the game. Tavares (17.9) and Campazzo (17) are in the top five most highly rated players in LaLiga. But there is much more depth in the roster. Musa, Poirier, Hezonja and Yabusele are also in double figures. Our opponents stand out for their ease of scoring and in defence they recover a lot of balls. Jean Montero is having a great season (20.1 PIR), they have an outside threat with Harding and Borg (best three point percentage) and inside they have height and muscle with Perez, Maric, Dos Anjos and their latest arrival: Madsen.
A game every three days
Today we start March, a month in which we will play 10 games in 29 days, five in LaLiga and five in Euroleague. After visiting Morabanc Andorra, Madrid will face two crucial games in the domestic competition to consolidate their lead against Lenovo Tenerife and Unicaja. They are in a fierce battle for first place with the Malagueños. In the first round, our team beat the Andorran side 85-76 at the WiZink Center with an imperial Tavares, who scored 30 PIR that day.