Real Madrid suffers first loss at Liga ACB

It was a wild and exciting weekend in Spain’s Liga ACB or Liga Endesa as Round 9 action was. Out of the eight games played over the weekend, definitely none other was more thrilling, and surprising than the upset victory of now-7th-ranked Retabet Bilbao Basket over the previously undefeated league leaders Real Madrid 82-81, on Sunday.

Real Madrid’s 8-0 win streak was impressive to start the season in the highly competitive Liga ACB, but alas, as they say, all good things come to an end.

To the victors, go the spoils. Now at 5-4, Bilbao climbs to sixth place in the standings. They are one of six teams that have the same record, but out of the lot, they’re the only ones who have the distinction of being the “Giant Slayers” in the league.

By all accounts, it was a game for the record books. Literally. The combined 112 rebounds between the two teams smashed the historical rebounding record in one game, which was at 110 set on November 20, 1988.

As expected Sergio Llull was the top performer for Real Madrid, spearheading the team’s offense with 24 points, 10 of which he managed to secure from the free-throw line on 11 attempts. Walter Tavares had 13 rebounds to his name as well as four blocks on the defensive end.

On the side of the blacks, Ondrej Balvin secured an individual record with 16 rebounds in the game. But it was Frenchman Axel Bouteille who was the hero for the hosts, managing 22 points and six rebounds. American Jaylon Brown shot an amazing 7-of-9 from 2-point range to finish the night with 21 points.

To give credit where it’s due, the boys from Bilbao were in control of this game. All Real Madrid could do was try to keep up.

This was just one of the many exciting games already played in the nine rounds in the Liga ACB.