Real Madrid beats Barca for 25th unbeaten

Real Madrid welcomed Barcelona to the Madrid Caja Magica last night and secured a 98-84 victory over their great rivals. The “El Clasico” was another blockbuster game befitting one of the biggest fixtures in European Basketball as the two giants of Spanish Basketball clashed in the league. The victory was Madrid´s 13th so far in an unbeaten start to the league season, while the club has gone 25 unbeaten in all competitions since the season started.

It is the kind of unstoppable form that makes Los Blancos clear favourites for both the Spanish Liga Endesa and the Euroleague. The club now leads the way in the league sitting comfortably at the top of the standings with a 13-0 record. Barcelona still has plenty to fight for both in Spain and on the continent. Blaugrana slips to third in the league with a 9-4 record, but is still on course in the league while of course having the Euroleague Last 16 to look forward to.

First quarter
The hosts set off at a quick pace, as they have for much of the season and led by the ever impressive Rudy Fernandez they were always in control. Indeed, despite Barcelona taking a brief 7-9 lead early in the first quarter, Madrid led for the entire match and won every period. Los Blancos kept the temp high to land a 10-2 run and to take early command of the game. Fernandez hit nine points in the first 10 minutes to put the home team 17-11 in front, and despite a Barcelona fight back the quarter ended 23-18.

Second quarter
Madrid´s Sergio Rodriguez is one of the Euroleague´s form players and the point guard continued to impress in the second quarter, pacing Madrid for a greater advantage. Real Madrid began sinking three pointer´s for fun and had soon opened up a 13 point lead over their big rivals. Barcelona managed to cut the flow of points being shipped but still headed into halftime losing by 12 points with the score at 48-36.

Third quarter
Pascual Xavier´s team talk helped the Barcelona players come out fighting in the third quarter as the Catalans bounced back with Álex Abrines taking the visitors to within five points from the free throw line. However, once again Real Madrid and Rudy Fernandez responded in devastating fashion by compiling a crushing 18-5 run to all but end Barca´s hopes of winning the game. Despite trailing by 18 points during the 3rd, Barca deserves credit for cutting the deficit to 76-65 after 30 minutes of play.

Fourth quarter
Barcelona continued to fight in Q4 and even slashed the gap to just seven points, but Madrid has proved this season that they have plenty of gears to move into and so it proved again. Los Blancos put the lead back to 12 points and then saw out what turned out to be a comfortable El Clasico victory.