Βy Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid star center Edy Tavares lamented the sloppy entrance of his team in Game 1 of the EuroLeague playoffs against Olympiacos Piraeus that resulted in a loss for the Spanish powerhouse.
“The bad start cost us the game,” Tavares told Eurohoops. “That’s the resume of the game. We didn’t come ready and disciplined to play against them. They led early, we fell behind and stayed there for the whole game. On Friday we got to adjust and be ready right from the tipoff.”
Tavares isn’t lying. Olympiacos made a 10-0 run in the beginning of the first quarter to eventually go up 27 – 14 at the end of the period and Real Madrid had to play catch-up ever since. The Reds kept dominating on both ends and took a 50-29 advantage early in the second half.
Real Madrid erased some portion of that margin but never managed to drop their deficit below double-digit numbers.
While Olympiacos‘ players struck in transition plenty and converted their opponents’ 13 turnovers at halftime into 14 points, Real Madrid also struggled to get stops in “5 vs. 5” situations. It was quite uncharacteristic for arguably the best defensive team in the EuroLeague this season.
“We weren’t ready,” Tavares, himself a three-time EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year, admitted. “As a team we know we can guard anybody and we know we can do better on defense. Today, we weren’t ready for some reason. We are going to try to be ready on Friday to do our best. That’s the key. If we don’t defend we’re not going to win because they are the first seed for a reason.”
With the score 14 – 4 five minutes into the game, Tavares was called with his second foul, moving to the bench and never returning in the first half. He finished with seven points on 3-6 shots and grabbed just two rebounds while committing four turnovers in a quite poor performance for his standards.
Tavares believes that these two quick fouls took him out of his rhythm and didn’t allow him to be as physical and dynamic as he wanted to be in the battles inside the paint when he returned on the floor.
“There were two quick fouls on me,” Tavares said. ” Pffft… I don’t know. In every important game, they always call me with two quick fouls in the first quarter. I don’t know what’s going on. In every important game, I always have two quick fouls in the first quarter.”
Tavares also had two fouls (one of them a technical one) within the first four minutes in the knockout Play-In against Paris Basketball that Real Madrid lost. Last year, he faced a similar issue in the EuroLeague championship game against Panathinaikos Athens, when he was called with two fouls in the first three minutes.
“I try my best to avoid it but it seems impossible,” Tavares added. “When you have two early fouls it’s hard to be aggressive. Every time you are aggressive you are in risk to get a third or fourth foul. It was the fouls. It’s hard but I’m trying my best to not get into foul trouble so early.”
The bench of Real Madrid was vividly questioning calls in several moments during the game. Coach Chus Mateo received a technical foul while protesting Tavares’ second foul and got another “T” just 46 seconds into the third period that forced him to watch the remainder of the match from the locker room.
“We were trying to do our best to play equally,” Tavares commented. “I think we didn’t get a chance to get some calls but it’s normal. They are playing at home so that’s a lot of pressure. For us and for the referees, for everything. It depends really. It depends on the game.”
“But it doesn’t matter. There aren’t any excuses. They were better than us,” Tavares concluded.