Reial Madrid 97-78 Barça: Loss in first game of series

A defeat for Barça in the first game of the series against Real Madrid (97-78). The blaugranes were unable to win the first point in the play-off and will aim to restore parity on Friday, again at the WiZink Center, before the ACB semi-final series moves to the Palau Blaugrana.

Poor first quarter

The all-whites were first to strike and take control of the game, buoyed by a great atmosphere and led by Facundo Campazzo, who scored 7 of his side's first 11 points. Barça found it hard to get into the game in the first quarter, and despite a Satoransky three making it 17-12, a poor end to the period saw the gap grow to 24-14.

Blaugranes react but still down at half-time

The second quarter saw Oscar da Silva step up the pace and the team responded, with a three from Brizuela levelling the game (28-28) before they soon went ahead for the first time (30-31). Just when Barça had done the hard work, however, Real Madrid were fired ahead again by Campazzo and Yabusele. 44-36 at the break.

Still in the game going into the fourth

The third quarter saw the Catalans' attack misfire, which Real Madrid took full advantage of to go into the biggest lead of +23 with the score 61-38. It could have been over there and then, but Nico Laprovittola grabbed the game for the blaugranes, scoring eight points almost in a row to bring it back to 13 down. Ultimately Barça reduced the lead to just 10 (72-62) at the end of the quarter.

Loss to start the series

However, Llull netted three from distance almost in a row, which meant Barça had a very difficult challenge to come back (81-66) and with less time to do so. Roger Grimau used a time out to try to quell the home side, but Llull and Yabusele (87-71) didn't miss from downtown and finally put the game to bed.

Barça were running low on gas by this point, demonstrated by the very wide margin of victory (97-78), which didn't really do justice to the blaugranes' efforts to win the first point of the series.

Game stats

Real Madrid 97
Barça 78

Real Madrid: Campazzo (20), Causeur (2), Hezonja (10), Musa (10) and Tavares (18) - starting five - Rudy Fernández (0), Abalde (3), Sergio Rodríguez (2), Poirier (2), Llull (14), Yabusele (16) and Ndiaye (-).

Barça: Rubio (8), Satoransky (5), Abrines (8), Parker (11) and Vesely (4) - starting five - Da Silva (10), Brizuela (3), Kalinic (1), Hernangómez (12), Laprovittola (13), Jokubaitis 80) and Parra (3).

Quarters: 24-14, 44-36, 72-62, 97-78.

Referees: Carlos Peruga, Jordi Aliaga and Luis M Castillo.