Euroleague - I Feel DevotionIn the only Euroleague game that was taking place on Wednesday night, Real Madrid moved onto a 4-0 record with another impressive win over Dinamo Sassari. Most punters tipped the Spanish side to win by a large margin, but there is still a need to do the business, but this was something that Madrid wasted no time in doing. The defeat left Sassari sitting with a 0-4 record, at the foot of Group A. The two teams couldn’t be starkly positioned and no doubt Madrid fans will already be dreaming of the Final Four and gaining revenge for a final defeat in the 2013/14 season.

Real Madrid v Dinamo Banco di Sardegna 115-94

Even though the game was over as a content long before the end, there was drama to the death with Jaycee Carroll delivering a four point play with just 12 seconds left on the clock, which unfortunately turned out to be bad for our spread tip to succeed. This pushed the Spanish side to 115 points, which was one shy of their own Euroleague record (at least this century), which came against Portuguese side Ovarense. Real notched up 116 points back in December of 2000 and it was also the most points notched by a Euroleague team since the 123 that Panathinaikos of Athens managed to grab 7 years ago.

Real have been in great point scoring form of late and it was only a week since the Spanish giants managed to sink 112 points against Nizhny Nogorod. This means that the combined score of 227 is the most that any team has ever managed to grab in back to back Euroleague games without any overtime being played. With overtime, the highest amount of points scored in a back to back run is 231, which Fortitudo Bologna achieved in January of 2004.

Madrid continue to meet their own high standards

Euroleague - Real MadridFor the second week running, Madrid achieved 33 results, a record in Euroleague, indicating that the Spanish side have a run of consistency about them these days. It would have been easy if Madrid switched off or took their opponents lightly but the fact that they were grabbing big points in the final seconds of the game would suggest that Madrid were fully committed to this game and to racking up as many points as possible. There is no doubt that their fans will have enjoyed the show and it seems as though plenty of the players on court would have appreciated the result as well.

Felipe Reyes was the top man for Madrid with 17 points but there was a raft of players just behind him on 15 points. This was the tally provided by Jaycee Carroll, Sergio Llull and Andres Nocioni, with a number of Madrid players pitching in to ensure that there was a high scoring game for the watching fans. Gustavo Ayon delivered 14 points and Sergio Rodriguez provided 12 assists, which is a career high in the Euroleague.

The main player for Sassari was Miroslav Todic, who offered up 20 points, no mean feat considering he came off the bench to do so. Other players on form for Sassari included Jerome Dyson who picked up 16 points, Edgar Sosa who delivered 15 points and David Logan, who grabbed 14 points for the losing side.

When you think that Rudy Fernandez was absent for this game, sitting it out with a finger injury, you have to say that it was an impressive showing by the team from the Spanish capital. Sassari will be glad that they don’t have to face teams the calibre of Real Madrid every week in the 2014/15 Euroleague season.