Gabriel Deck is champion with Real Madrid of the Spanish Basketball League

Led by Gabriel Deck, from Santiago, and with an exceptional pivot Walter Tavares, born in Cape Verde, Real Madrid won their 36th league title this Sunday by winning, in the fourth game of the final, for 81 -74 at Barça which tried everything, he remained in the fight thanks to his triples and presented himself with options at the decisive moment, but it was impossible to counter the overwhelming dominance of the Cape Verdean center, under the circles.

With 25 points, 9/11 shots on two, 7/7 free, thirteen rebounds – including seven offensive ones – and 41 PIR credits, the inside of the Whites was crucial to avoiding a fifth game at Palau Blaugrana, as well as his partner Fabien Causeur, author of 17 points. For his part, Gabriel Deck scored seven points, two of which are essential to give Madrid air and conclude the victory.

With a 7-0 start, Real Madrid seemed to jump more connected to the pitch. One more day, the offensive rebound is his and he shows up at the WiZink Center with the clearest ideas of his opponent, who took three minutes to score his first basket, a comfortable shot by Nikola Mirotic that was Barça’s poor boot after seven minutes of madness and constant losses.

Barça did not find solutions in attack to the desperation of Sarunas Jasikevicius, who did not stop addressing some players who tried to compensate, on the basis of the defense, the irregular start, despite suffering even before the domination of Tavares under the baskets.

Only Rokas Jokubaitis, from the bench, contributed with points and judgment to a Catalan team who, without rebounds, at least managed to stay on guard at the end of the first quarter thanks to the error from outside the whites in the first ten minutes, in which they are managed to score only one of his seven shots from the perimeter (13-10, min 10).

After the first break, Sergio Lullo reached boiling point and, with six points in a row and one of his impossible baskets, spurred his team on and led a new burst of growth on the scoreboard. Another veteran, Rudy Fernández, increased the gap to fourteen points with a triple that brought the starting set to 11-0 (24-10 min 13).

The alarms were triggered at Barça, which, found on the ropes, pulled from the outside success to redirect the situation. And he did it great, with five triples signed by an inspired Dante Exum (2), Mirotic, Kyle Kuric and Nick Calathes to which the hosts – who by then were already losing the battle for the rebound – could only respond with a couple of Tavares actions, so on the counterattack the battle is balanced to the maximum (34-33, min 20).

The final has entered a phase of maximum equality. After moving into the locker room, Real Madrid continued to bring out the good time of Cape Verdeans and Causeur, but Barça responded from the 6.75 line with Kuric and Mirotic. The center of Madrid, with another six points on the account and a stratospheric stopper to the Hispanic-Montenegrin who raised the stands, went on the bench loose and to applause, leaving his team ahead.

Nothing was decided because the azulgranas remained in search, aware that a new defeat would leave them untitled. Whenever the Chus Mateo players threatened to escape, the defenders of the title reacted, leaving the outcome for an ending that had to be of high tension.

With nine seconds left in the third quarter, Corey Higgins gave Barça the lead for the first time, although Vincent Poirier had time to return the lead to Real Madrid from a free-kick in the last ten minutes (57-56, min 30 ). ).

The tension builds as the moment of truth approaches. The points come with a dropper and, with the scoreboard in hand, each basket costs a world. The whites, with a triple from Hanga, a 2 + 1 from Tavares and a basket under Deck’s hoops, took a break after a 10-3 run that started to make people dream of the title.

Once again Jasikevicius’s men tried to get close with the triples, but this time the strategy didn’t work for them. Four minutes from the end, the Juventus lead was eight points (69-61), forcing the Lithuanian coach to stop the game to ask his men for a last effort.

But neither Tavares nor Causeur were willing to play a fifth game. The French striker, with eight points in the last chapter, has put on a victory that means a new championship for Real Madrid. A year later, Barça gave up their crown.

Data sheet: Real Madrid 81 – 74 Barcelona

Real Madrid (13 + 21 + 23 + 24): Hanga (7), Causeur (17), Deck (7), Yabusele (4) and Tavares (25)-starting team-, Rudy Fernández (5), Poirier (7 ), Llull (9) and Taylor (-).

Barça (10 + 23 + 23 + 18): Calathes (12), Higgins (4), Kuric (8), Mirotic (14) and Davies (4) -starting team-, Sanli (3), Sergi Martínez (- ), Smits (9), Laprovittola (2), Abrines (-), Exum (13) and Jokubaitis (5).

Referees: Daniel Hierrezuelo, Óscar Perea and Martín Caballero. They eliminated Fabien Causeur and Roland Smits.

Incidents: Fourth match of the Endesa Basketball League final played at the Palacio de los Deportes (WiZink Center) in Madrid in front of 12,315 fans. EFE

With information from EFE