[Sport]Sergio Rodríguez destroys a Real Madrid that does not raise its head

[SougarLord]

 

Real Madrid does not fuel in this troubled Euroleague. Who has seen him and who sees him, three defeats in four games and the only win, on Tuesday, against a diminished Khimki at WiZink. He returned to his old ways in Milan, a horrible second half, beaten by a devastating Sergio Rodríguez. [78-70: Narration and statistics]

 

The Chacho danced, as in his best days, in this extraordinary maturity that curdles in Milan under the command of Ettore Messina. He, an MVP of the Euroleague, signed his best night in valuation (37). And he had reason to smile, his third child on the way. But above all it was the feeling of dominance on the stage, with a Campazzo weighed down by fouls and a disastrous Laprovittola. It all started, precisely, with a triple by Sergio Rodríguez on the halftime horn ...

 

Because before, perhaps a mirage, perhaps renewed intentions, it was Madrid that commanded the Mediolanum, this field of bad memories, where, now empty, the whites played their last away game in the last Euroleague, where Trey Thompkins caught the coronavirus when everything was like a horror movie.

 

DELANEY AND ABALDE INJURIES

The whites woke up in Milan with a renewed air and not only because of the unusual quintet, a nod to the future of Pablo Laso. It was a different staging, with clear minds and loose wrists. Spirited and determined. At the time, little to do with the sleepy team of this Euroleague start. And in front there was not just anyone.

 

The Armani thing is an ordeal, the most ambitious attempt to return to the glorious past of Olympia. Already with Messina and Sergio Rodríguez two summers ago it was a declaration of intent, but there has not been a team in all of Europe that has been strengthened more and better during the last months of the pandemic. Hines, Datome, Delaney, Leday, Shields ... A squad that, however, fell flat at the start against white vertigo.

Because with Alocen, Abalde and Garuba starting, he left the Italians frozen. The Galician, who would later be injured, added three triples in a run, Delaney twisted his ankle to avoid returning and when Campazzo and Thompkins jumped onto the track, with the resounding and tireless work of Tavares, Madrid flew in the Mediolanum at the rhythm of triples. Quite the opposite of the locals, who had only found a loophole with which to do damage in Tarczewski. But there is always a suitable spark. Sergio Rodríguez's trip-shot on the horn, the first in the entire first half for Armani - in contrast to the rival's 8 of 15 - was more than a relief (31-42). A starting point.

 

The chip change was radical. On the return, a 7-0 to extend the set, a Madrid now entangled in the much more aggressive defense of Messina's (barely 28 points in the entire second half), who did not take long to get fully into the battle. Chacho was the leader of everything, very comfortable in the face of an unfocused Laprovittola. Two more triples of the canary were going to turn the tables (50-49) without finishing the third act.

 

Not even the return of Campazzo, who had had to sit down for fouls, had no effect. Madrid stalled completely, destroyed by the 17 losses, and in the Armani the protagonists joined the car: Roll, Datome, Shields ... And the advantage soared (66-57, min. 35). Not even a pure caste 0-8 was going to work. With El Chacho back, his smile, his imagination, his seniority too, the victory did not escape the Armani. A triple from Moraschini, in Sergio's seventh assist against his exes (plus 25 points), was the finishing touch, the last brushstroke of a work of art.