They walked them over: how three Frenchmen ruined Barcelona's title hopes / News - Basketnews.com

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Vincent Poirier gave BasketNews a French language lesson after an incredible Final Four win against Barcelona.

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At the same time, three Frenchmen delivered an excellent basketball lecture for Barcelona and all the EuroLeague fans that night.

The passion, intensity, clutchness, and character were focal points of that class, which took Real Madrid to the EuroLeague final 86-83.

"Venez, on leur marche dessus!" In French, it means something like, "Come on, let's walk them over!"

That probably was said when Real started a remarkable EuroLeague title theft.

Barcelona were up by 11 with 5:19 to play in the third quarter (54-43). But Fabien Causeur scored 5 points in a row and sparked the Royal club to a 17-2 run. An experienced guard put his team in front before the decisive quarter, 60-56.

Three French players, Fabien Causeur, Vincent Poirier, and Guerschon Yabusele, scored or assisted in all 17 Real points in that stretch.

Causeur scored seven during that run, 9 in total for the third quarter, to turn the game around.

"We lost Nigel Williams-Goss very early, so I knew that our rotation would be limited. Adam Hanga got quick fouls in the third too, so I told myself I have to be aggressive," Causeur explained.

"I wasn't aggressive enough in the first half. I watched how the game would go, and if [the moment] would come, I'd start going. But it wasn't coming, so I had to get it," he continued.

Yabusele joined him, matching his career-high four 3-pointers to go for 18 points. And these were really tough shots, that required skill and guts.

Vincent Poirier brought his signature energy on the court, which translated into blocks, offensive rebounds, putbacks, and two powerful dunks that destroyed Barca's confidence in the last minutes of the game.

Player of the Game EFF 24 Guerschon Yabusele Points 18 Accuracy 6-9 Rebounds 8 Assists 1

He went scoreless in the first half and finished the game with 6 points, five rebounds (2 ORB), and three blocks.

And when Barcelona returned to the game behind a couple of Nicolas Laprovittola threes with 2:43 to play (75-75), the unofficial 2018 Final Four MVP showed up.

Lapro stumbled on Poirier's leg, and that was all that Causeur needed to drain a crucial three-pointer (78-75).

In the next possession, he stole the ball from Lapro's hands and poured in a fast-break layup (80-75).

Causeur scored 18 points in total, including 14 in the second half.

"He was amazing. We needed somebody to step up, and he did," Yabusele said. "He had this part when he was on fire and helped us come back to the game. It was an amazing performance by Causer."

"Man, I'm a competitor. When I'm on the court, I just want to win. I like to have this tension with another team because it makes me do my best," Causeur, who also had three steals and two assists, smiled after the game.

When Barca made another run and Laprovittola was about to put his team ahead (79-80), Poirier chased down the Argentinian guard and swatted the ball away to save the lead with 50 seconds to play.

If that's not enough, Causeur and Yabusele were under Mirotic's skin when he took a desperate 3-pointer from the logo that could have saved Barcelona.

"We had responsibilities. When you play for Madrid, you have to show up with your game. That's what everybody tried to do," Poirier told BasketNews.

"We are all here to win no matter who did the job on the court. In the end, we just went for the win. That's all that matters," a 28-year-old center added.

"We just stayed together. French, Spanish, American or Argentinian, whatever the nationality is, we're together," Yabusele told BasketNews.

"Today is going to be us, the other day somebody else. We stayed together. We believed in everybody on the team. When somebody needed to take the shot, you felt it was going in. I believe everybody took their ego aside to serve the team, which was very important for us," Yabusele concluded.

But a 34-year-old EuroLeague champion was very proud to see his French teammates delivering on such an important night for the club.

After the halftime, they all combined for 27 of 52 Real Madrid points, almost outscoring the entire Barcelona team (38).

"I'm happy for them. It's their first Final Four, which is an amazing experience. Both of them played a great game," Causer recalled.

"I'm a veteran, so I'm trained to push them. At some point, they were kinda losing it with the refs and everything, but I was like: 'You have to stay in the game because [if not] that's where you're making a mistake.' They played incredibly, and I'm very happy," Causeur added.

Barcelona won 11 of 14 last matchups with Real since the 2020-21 season.

But this rare victory for Real was delightful, leaving them the only one step away from the EuroLeague title.

Mostly thanks to an incredible Frenchmen performance.

"I don't remember about the loss. The loss was in the past," Yabusele said with confidence. "This one was the most important. That's the one we have taken, and we're just happy."

"These were regular games," Poirier recalled Barca's five wins in a row. "We came really focused. That's who we were. We always show up in big games. We did that tonight. That's just us. That's just the mentality of Real Madrid."

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