Deprived of three players including its leader, TJ Shorts, Paris Basketball suffered a second defeat in a row in the Euroleague on Tuesday, at home against Real Madrid (96-85) which caused it to lose its place as sole leader. The Parisians now share it with Monaco (11 wins for five defeats), winners in the style of Bayern Munich (93-74) when they conceded their second defeat in C1 at the Arena Porte de la Chapelle.
After the opening suffered against Red Star Belgrade (80-77) at the beginning of October, another era: that of the discovery of the Euroleague, before a series of 10 successes which ended Friday in Villeurbanne (98-93 ).
They did not manage to bounce back, due in particular to the absences of Shorts (2nd best scorer and 2nd best passer in the competition), Yakuba Ouattara, weakened by a virus like Mikael Jantunen who played barely minutes before leaving the floor.
Despite Lô
Paris did not have the depth of the bench nor the long-distance skill (11/38) to take the scalp of Real, even sluggish since the start of the season (6 v./9 l.), far from its status record holder of titles (11) and finalist over the last three seasons (victory in 2023).
The capital club suffered in the racket against the giant Walter Tavares (10 pts and 14 rebounds), particularly in the rebounding sector (31 holds to 49), and could only rely too little on the contribution of Tyson Ward (7 pts and 5 rebounds) and Collin Malcolm (11 pts and 5 rebounds) to support Maodo Lô (30 pts at 4/7 at 3 pts and 7 assists) and Nadir Hifi (21 pts but 3/11 at 3 pts).
The two wisps from behind several times allowed Paris, which almost never led, to get back into contact and glimpse a victory that would have been miraculous. Thus, an acrobatic shot from Hifi at the buzzer of the third quarter (67-70), then two consecutive winning arrows from the French international and Lô (78-80) made the Arena roar at just over three minutes of the siren.
It was calmed down immediately by Facundo Campazzo (19 pts at 3/6 at 3 pts and 6 pd), the man of the evening with Tavares and Mario Hezonja (17 pts at 4/9 at 3 pts), who got their hands on the end of a folded match when Real took an 11-length lead with 1 min 30 sec remaining (91-80).
