The non-stop collapse of Laso's Real Madrid

The collapse of Real Madrid in basketball has already accumulated 17 defeats in the last 28 games;

12 in the last 16 if we count from the Cup final in Granada.

The open catharsis in the Madrid dressing room after Pablo Laso's drastic decision to separate Thomas Heurtel and Trey Thompkins from the team's discipline, in a "definitive" way, to safeguard the group's ecosystem and try to rearm for the end of the season , it does not complete.

On Sunday, Madrid fought proudly at the Palau to shake off the crisis, but ended up succumbing in extra time against Barça in a tight and controversial outcome (108-97) —with which Jasikevicius added his eleventh victory in 14 duels against the whites— and, this Wednesday, against Bilbao Basket, the inconsistency reappeared, the nap,

MORE INFORMATION

Laso confirms the "definitive" expulsion of Heurtel and Thompkins from Madrid

“The first ones screwed by the game are the players, but

I was screwed too and I had to let him know”, said Laso in the Miribilla press room, where he appeared an hour after the match ended and, contrary to custom, after the local coach had done so. , Alex Mumbru.

Laso asked "forgiveness

for not having attended the tribute paid to Mumbrú, with the withdrawal of his number in the pavilion, and which his players did attend.

“I was a bit crossed and I moved away

but I will congratulate him personally for this tribute, it is more than deserved”, the Madrid coach managed to explain, with undisguised disbelief and anger, as he showed in several passages of the match.

“Bilbao have played with a lot of energy and have been superior in aspects beyond basketball.

The most important thing is that a team has to be recognizable and, right now, there are situations in the game that punish us a lot.

It is something that we must recognize and improve”, reflected Laso.

"My obligation is to look forward and seek a reaction," he closed.

Madrid recorded their ninth defeat in 28 games in the Endesa League in Miribilla, more than ever in an ACB regular season during the Laso era, worsening the record of the Vitoria-born coach's first season, 2011-12, than the whites they closed with a balance of 26-8.

Faced with such a sequence (eight defeats in the last 13 league games), Madrid is already threatened with its second place in the standings, now within sight of Joventut and Baxi Manresa (with the same defeats as Laso's) and even Valencia Basket and Lenovo Tenerife, who have only accumulated one more puncture than the Madrid team, which barely survives by draining the shiny piggy bank that it accumulated at the beginning of the season.

Inertia could even dislodge the whites from the positions that give home court advantage in the

.

Until January 23, Madrid led the ACB and the Euroleague —with a record of 16 wins and a single defeat in the League, and 16-3 in the continental competition—, had won the Super Cup and chained a sequence of 21 wins in 22 matches.

But Barça's visit to WiZink that day unnerved the whites and opened a quagmire that threatens to become a precipice.

The madridista collapse does not stop.

In the attempt to stop a hegemonic Barça, Madrid gradually lost the anchors of the game —rhythm, solidity, automatisms, style, solvency, aim (9 of 38 in triples against Bilabo)—, then the psychological, emotional and later those of internal cohesion.

“Only hard teamwork and perseverance will allow us to return to good results.

We have to keep going",

The Madrid captain, Sergio Llull, wrote this midday in a message reinforced by a "Together!"

released by Rudy Fernandez.

The departure in the last year of benchmark figures from the whites' dressing room, such as Felipe Reyes (17 seasons at the club), Facundo Campazzo and even Usman Garuba (example of identity signings and youth squads with a career), leave Llull and Rudy at the head of the remange to straighten out a crisis of unexpected and unknown proportions in the section for more than a decade.

The calendar does not let up.

they leave Llull and Rudy in charge of the remange to straighten out a crisis of unexpected and unknown proportions in the section for more than a decade.

The calendar does not let up.

they leave Llull and Rudy in charge of the remange to straighten out a crisis of unexpected and unknown proportions in the section for more than a decade.

The calendar does not let up.

On Sunday, the surprising Breogán de Dzanan Musa arrives in Madrid, on the whites' list of future prospects, and next Wednesday the Euroleague quarterfinal tie begins (best of five games in a 2-2-1 format) against Maccabi Tel Aviv, who arrives launched to the

after adding seven wins in the last eight games of the regular season.

While Madrid continues to beat their chests on the couch after their 17th defeat in 82 days of perdition

Four of those defeats also with unprecedented scores, less than 60 points, seven in total below 70 —when in seven of the previous 10 courses the whites closed their statistics on the border of 85 points and never fell below 79 —.

Laso's Madrid was a successful basketball team and is now an unfathomable enigma.

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