Real Madrid DNA: Pablo Laso and his army follow Carlo Ancelotti's footsteps / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Laso: Zumapress-Scanpix Ancelotti: Twitter Credit Laso: Zumapress-Scanpix Ancelotti: Twitter

When the EuroLeague regular season ended, many thought that if there could have been room for an upset in the playoffs, it would have probably been related to Real Madrid.

3-pointers this season

36%9,7Points made:9,7Accuracy:35,8%Place in standings:3Record max:18Record min:1Most made 3FGs:Rudy FernandezTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

Los Blancos finished the regular season in fourth place with a final record of 18 wins and 10 losses. But most of those defeats came in the final part of the regular season.

Until February, coach Pablo Laso's side was cruising, losing only three games up to that point (which then became 2 because the loss against UNICS Kazan was voided after the EuroLeague decided to suspend the Russian clubs from the competition).

But in February, things started to change, and Los Blancos began to show several weaknesses, including a stagnant offense. Real Madrid lost 8 of the last 10 games of the regular season, winning only against AX Armani Exchange Milan and LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

The most concerning thing was that Real wasn't only losing games, they were doing it in a terrible way. They had lost by 15 points against Fenerbahce, by 18 points against Barcelona in El Clasico, and by 19 points against Zalgiris Kaunas - the team which at that time was dead last in the standings.

Against the Lithuanian side, Real Madrid also had the worst offensive outcome of the season, scoring only 47 points.

After averaging 81 points per game in the first 23 matches of the regular season, Real Madrid's offense dropped to an average of 72.8 points per game in the last 10 games. After losing the last four games of the regular season, Real finished in the fourth place, finding the pairing against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the playoffs.

Contrary to the Spanish powerhouse, Maccabi Tel Aviv was living a fantastic moment. The Israeli side had won 7 of the last 8 games played in the regular season, overcoming Barcelona, AX Armani Exchange Milan, and Real Madrid itself.

Coach Avi Even did what until a few months ago looked almost impossible: revitalizing this team and bringing it to the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

On paper, all the elements could have led to an unexpected Real Madrid exit. But as we know, EuroLeague playoffs are a different beast.

It doesn't matter how much you could have struggled during the regular season or what kind of issues you could have gone through, in the playoffs, you have the opportunity to bounce back with a clean slate.

And most importantly, teams with tons of experience like Real Madrid understand when the games really matter, when there's no room for mistakes, and it’s really time to shine and deliver the results. And that's exactly what Real Madrid did in the series against Maccabi.

It's even more impressive considering how Real Madrid arrived at this playoff series in the midst of a locker room crisis. Coach Pablo Laso had decided to keep both Thomas Heurtel and Trey Thompkins out of the group for the foreseeable future. In contrast, Guerschon Yabusele, one of the most important players on the roster and fresh owner of a three-year contract extension with the team, had received a severe fine after a night out in Athens.

But despite the issues on and off the court, Real Madrid delivered what it's expected from a team of their stature.

They were the only team in the playoffs to sweep their opponents and finish the series in just three games, winning every single match by 10 or more points, while Barcelona and Olympiacos had to go through do-or-die Game 5s against Bayern and Monaco.

In Game 2, Real Madrid won with a final score of 95-66, a 29-point margin, the largest one of their EuroLeague season. In Game 3, in Tel Aviv, they silenced the crazy atmosphere generated by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, taking control of the game almost immediately and never looking back.

The offense returned to the splendors of the first part of the season. Real Madrid averaged 88.7 points per game during the series, even better than the 81 points they averaged in the first part of the season.

An impressive exploit in a season part in which the offensive numbers went down for most of the teams.

In just three games, Los Blancos erased most of the doubts that had emerged during the final part of the regular season, including the idea of a broken locker room that had no will to fight together.

Long-time veterans like Sergio Llull and Rudy Fernandez led the way. Lull had 17 points in Game 2 and 18 in Game 3. Meanwhile, Fernandez played a key role all over the season, scoring 13 points in Game 1.

Fabien Causeur proved once again how important he is for this team. Even without Thomas Heurtel and Trey Thompkins, the team looked just fine, relying a lot on the interior presence of Vincent Poirier and Guerschon Yabusele, the other two members of Real's French division.

According to a lot of pundits and commentators, the Real Madrid football team wouldn’t have gone far in the Champions League knockout stage. They were considered too old and not stylistically good enough to keep the pace of other major contenders in the competition.

But Carlo Ancelotti and his old guys eliminated Paris Saint-Germain first, then reigning champions Chelsea, and in the semifinal, they made an amazing comeback in the final minutes to send Manchester City home.

Now they will play in the final against Liverpool, once again starting as underdogs but with a will and motivation that few other teams in the rest of Europe have. They just know how to win important games, it's in their DNA.

Just like Carlo Ancelotti and his guys, Pablo Laso and his players will go to Belgrade with something clearly impressed in their minds: they know how to win important games, it's just what Real does.

The doubts that emerged in the past few months are no longer important because now they'll have the chance to be in their favorite environment where only one thing matters: winning.

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