Real Madrid beats Hapoel and will play its eleventh Final Four in the last 15 years

Real Madrid is already home, which in Europe is none other than the Final Four. The white team overcame Hapoel this Thursday, finished the quarterfinals 3-1, and will be in the fight among the four best on the continent for the eleventh time in the last 15 years. It will be in Athens, from May 22 to 24, and their semifinal opponent will come from the duel between Valencia and Panathinaikos that this Friday (20:15, Movistar) will experience its fourth match at the OAKA with the Greeks leading 2-1. Olympiacos awaits on the other side for the winner of the Fenerbahçe-Zalguiris clash, with the Turks leading 2-1.

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A very shared protagonism among Garuba, Maledon, Hezonja, and Campazzo helped Madrid defeat a Hapoel hanging on Oturu (29 points and 7 rebounds) and Micic (18 points, 7 rebounds, and 11 assists).

Madrid increased the pressure after the slap of the third game, but it was Oturu who welcomed the whites in the small Arena of Botevgrad. Turnovers and missed outside shots condemned Scariolo’s team to not score a basket in play until after three and a half minutes. Oturu was a headache for Len, the man initially tasked with the impossible mission of replacing Tavares (11-2), and Scariolo called on that ball of energy that is Usman Garuba. The big Spanish player connected the pieces that seemed loose. After three missed three-pointers came three hits, Hezonja woke up, and Campazzo always delivers in direction and also from the perimeter (21-23).

Madrid was different. It had shaken off the rust, and Andrés Feliz, another luxury secondary player, extended that new mood to which the effervescent Garuba had led. The center multiplied again with mastery in defense to rebound, steal, and even block Edwards. And as if that were not enough, he also contributed on offense, and like a shockwave, Maledon and Lyles emerged. Hapoel kept the resource of Oturu, their best soloist, and some flashes of Micic’s quality for passing. Scarce ammunition against a Madrid already transformed, much superior in rebounding, and to whom a Campazzo three-pointer in the last action sent them to halftime with a smile (36-46).

Garuba was so switched on that he even caught a rebound from the floor. On the outside, Scariolo’s bet on the double point guard, Campazzo-Feliz, worked perfectly, a formula that frees and lightens the functions of the two brains. Hapoel was very limited to the points Micic and Oturu could produce, with hardly any scoring production from most of Itoudis’s guys, although with that pair in trance, it served to tighten the score. Garuba oxygenated Madrid with a basket after three and a half minutes of drought and with a block on Oturu, and Maledon showed legs and wrist in a penetration that kept the distances before the last assault (53-63).

Lyles moment. The power forward chained a three-pointer, rebound, and assists to give another spurt to the night in Hapoel’s Bulgarian exile. Scariolo’s team could then play with the clock in hand, patient to find the space left free by a rival with urgencies and accelerated. Oturu led Hapoel’s last charge, a moment for Madrid to show personality. They did so based on a defense that was worth the ticket to a new Final Four.

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Euroliga matchups and results.