Sometimes the headlines just have to get to the point. While their comeback against Anadolu Efes was spirited, the problems with Real Madrid right now are deep and substantial. Chus Mateo appears to have a whale of a task on his hands. Whatever you call their style of basketball right now, this is not the play that befits a Euroleague giant.
I woke up in a weird state this morning. Despite going to bed at a reasonable hour, getting up wasn’t an option. The malaise stuck with me through the afternoon. Then I got some decongestant. Within about 15 minutes, I was fine. Still, I didn’t get everything that should have been done today over the line.
Yeah, watching Real Madrid tonight reminded me a lot about my day.
Why we talk about flow
Flow is one of those terms where we can’t quite define it but we know it when we see it. We also know when it’s not there. In truth, flow is the level of what we see when things aren’t going wrong. They may not be going amazing but the five guys on the floor look like they know what they are supposed to be doing. As a result, they are executing to a degree that we wouldn’t describe as bad.
The first quarter monstrosity that Real Madrid delivered was an example of lack of flow that had less subtlety than a brick to the face. Large slabs of meat moved with nothing approaching cohesion into the half court. Who was meant to carry the ball? Who was meant to be the first option for the pass? Was anyone meant to make a shift to stretch the defence?
We’re talking about basic basketball stuff. A team that is a superpower, the superpower in Euroleague, should be generations of thought beyond this point. This isn’t to discredit the defensive work of Anadolu Efes. The visitors did a fine job. Even a team this talented needs help to restrict an opponent to 6 points. Real Madrid’s style of ‘play’ was more than adequate assistance.
What are they even doing?
Yes, there are injuries. We also all know about the retirements from last season. That still doesn’t excuse Mario Hezonja turning the ball over by throwing it directly to an Anadolu Efes player while inbounding it.
Real Madrid seem incapable of putting anything coherent together. For the last two seasons, comfort was obvious. All the critics of Chus Mateo are overlooking that aspect. This team won a Euroleague title and reached the championship game in May. The roster that was there wasn’t just talented. It was a blend of guys who looked extremely aware of what they were meant to do at any given time.
This version of Real Madrid somehow had Facundo Campazzo record only 1 assist before they were deep into their rally. While the most obvious challenge for this roster is in terms of shooting, certainly a front office issue, it also lacks focus on how it is supposed to create. If Facu can’t do what he’s one of the best in the world at in this system, how is anything else supposed to work?
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Yes, they rallied
For all of Real Madrid’s faults, they very well could have won this game. A spirited performance in the third quarter carried into the fourth. Los Blancos, spurred by Sergio Llull going ‘coach on the floor’ mode, looked like they could pull this off.
One block by Darius Thompson and one three by Rodrigue Beaubois was enough for Anadolu Efes to put out the fire. Even before that, the comeback lacked the usual vibe that comes when Real Madrid are rolling.
This is a club that other fans hate for, above all other reasons, the inevitable sense of dread. An impending sense of doom is an actual medical symptom for many maladies. It’s one fans of clubs across the continent know all too well. Real Madrid find a way, it’s just what they do. Everyone knows when it is happening and feels helpless to stop it. That feeling isn’t evoked by the current iteration of Los Blancos. Right now, nobody in Euroleague is afraid of Real Madrid.
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How it ends?
A couple of weeks back, I told a few other journalists that Real Madrid winning the treble would be a most Real response. Los Blancos could look poor in October and November, maybe even December. Still, they’d find a way to show we should never write them off and they’d grind out all the titles.
That belief came from the sense of inevitability. This version of Real Madrid looks more lost than the one that was swept in the 2016 Euroleague playoffs. That side was just finding itself after an exhausting run with effectively no off-season. This one has no such excuses. More importantly, you can’t find yourself if you’re not even looking.
There’s still time of course, lots of it. Los Blancos are just a game out from the play-ins. There are several teams, most notably Partizan, that would trade records with them in an instant. Yet Real don’t look like a team that can flick a switch. It doesn’t seem poised to pull a 7 straight win or 8-2 run out of nowhere.
No, this is a tired and apathy fuelled mess that doesn’t want to get out of bed. It will eventually. There’s too much talent for it not to. By then, it might have left too much to do in order to get all the work that’s needed done.
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