Why Madrid has not won the 'basket average' with Barcelona in the Euroleague

The classic in the Euroleague was experienced with passion on the track and confusion outside of it.

Real Madrid prevailed 91-86 after extra time and knocked Barça out of the Euroleague lead, now the Whites one win ahead in the standings.

However, what was believed to be a double victory was not due to a peculiar section in the tournament regulations.

Madrid believed that with the five-point victory the

particularly with Jasikevicius's team, since the blaugrana won by two points (75-73) in the match between the two teams at the Palau, in October, when Llull had a three-pointer to cap an 18-point comeback.

It is not like this.

Point 20.4 of Chapter IV of the Euroleague regulations states the following: "All points scored in overtime will not count in the standings or for any tiebreaker situation."

In other words, Madrid won 91-86, but the result that counts is the one recorded at the end of 40 minutes, without extra time: 73-73.

For this reason, Barcelona retains the

won with the whites in the event that both teams coincide with the same number of wins.

Now, Madrid has 14 wins and seven losses, 13-8 against Barcelona.

The factor can be decisive in a tournament as even as this edition of the Euroleague.

.@RMBasketball made a BIG statement in Round 21 as they came from behind to beat rivals @FCBbasket in OT

Highlights... pic.twitter.com/o8KWlGsY9x

— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) January 26, 2023

The case created such confusion, also among the media, that even Real Madrid published on its website that the white team had the score difference in their favour: "Llull, from the personal line, certified a great victory by 5 points with which we also won the

”.

Even the coach, Chus Mateo, expressed at a press conference: "We have exceeded the

and that is important."

It was the Euroleague itself that warned the white club of the error.

The regulations on this matter were modified as a result of a grotesque final match between Maccabi from Tel Aviv and Darussafaka from Istanbul, played in Turkey in December 2015. The Israeli team needed to win by 11 points to continue in the competition and move to the

, but the game was even in the final moments, so Maccabi tried to force extra time to get those five more minutes to try to reach their goal.

With a minute to go and with a tie at 65, Maccabi let time go by based on long possessions and shooting to miss.

In that scenario, he committed a foul, which led the Turks to the free throw line, where they deliberately scored one and missed the other with the purpose of making it difficult to tie.

Maccabi then needed a personal foul but no Turk even came close to touching the Israelis.

In the end, with hope lost, Maccabi scored five more points, useless for their purpose.

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