The Valencia Basket recovered today thanks to Fernando San Emeterio's guidance from a bad start to the match, and after a brilliant last twenty-five minutes, they achieved their second consecutive victory (81-64) against Real Madrid in the final of the ACB League. This win puts them in a position to win their first title on Friday, once again at the Fonteta.
The Valencian team ended up overwhelming the Madrid team, which, after losing its initial advantage, became stagnant and completely blocked in the last fifteen minutes, unable to find another way to try to make a comeback other than three-point shots.
Valencia started the game in a frenzy. Their rush to score caused them to lose control, giving Real Madrid the lead on the scoreboard, although the team led by Pablo Laso was not particularly brilliant in the beginning either. In fact, the visiting team was at its best when they protected their own basket, completely collapsing the local team's attack (7-16, min.10).
A time-out called by Pedro Martínez and the entrance of Pierre Oriola and Will Thomas slightly redirected Valencia's game, but not enough to challenge Real Madrid's control of the match. The Madrid team's score was fueled almost exclusively by the daring Luka Doncic, who used his repertoire and personality to lead his team (19-28, min.16).
San Emeterio kept Valencia afloat during their worst moments, and his tenacity paid off. Two three-pointers from the player from Santander boosted his team's confidence, and with the Fonteta roaring, the home team managed to turn the game around and reach halftime with a minimal but unexpected and valuable advantage (36-35, min.20). And Doncic reappeared.
The match turned into an agile exchange of baskets, in which two three-pointers from the incredibly inspired Will Thomas gave Valencia their maximum advantage and started to crack the visitors' confidence, as they couldn't find a way to dismantle Valencia's increasingly solid defense. Another three-pointer from San Emeterio made the Fonteta explode (55-46, min.27).
Ayón's work in offensive rebounding prevented a complete collapse for Real Madrid, but Pablo Laso couldn't motivate his team. Neither Doncic's entrance nor Carroll's gave the visiting team a stable scoring reference because Valencia's defense became an undecipherable spider web for them.
A three-pointer from Vives at the beginning of the last quarter put Real Madrid on the ropes, with eleven points behind. The Madrid team insisted on cutting the deficit from behind the three-point line, but their lack of accuracy and Valencia's good defensive rebound control kept the game in the same terms or even better for the home team (67-53, min.34).
When his team was at their worst, Llull appeared, as always, but he did so without the accuracy of other times. And although he scored, he was unable to stop the 'orange tidal wave', which found its new heroes in Luke Sikma and Romain Sato (77-59, min.37).
The party exploded in the Fonteta and didn't stop until the end of the match, with the fans standing up and shouting 'Yes, we can'.