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ULEB Cup Final: Real Madrid returns to glory
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Anyone who suspected that Real Madrid players might have felt too much pressure going into the ULEB Cup Final did not see them a few hours before the game at their hotel in Charleroi, Belgium. Driving by on the highway outside the airport hotel would have been sufficient to see them, too. From ground-floor rooms that opened onto a lawn, several Madrid players led by local boy Axel Hervelle spilled out to kick a ball around on the grass. They were interrupted not by the fans and media who followed them almost everywhere, but by one of their very own stars, Felipe Reyes, running buck-naked out of his room to have a kick at the ball. The world champion streaker would be a ULEB Cup champion, too, before the evening was done.
The pressure was surely there for Madrid. First, there was the weight of history, as Europe's most-decorated team arrived with 10-year drought since its last continental trophy. There was also the precedent of Madrid having lost the same title game two years previously. Indeed, this was the only trophy in its title-filled history for which Madrid had played a final but never lifted. Losses in two such finals might or might not have created a ULEB Cup taboo for Madrid, but it certainly would have prolonged the club's continental trophy drought. The pressure was certainly there, but the way the Madrid players handled it was impressive. To a man, they said that pressure is part of the
Which is not to say they were not nervous. Among those who could not rest well before the game were head coach Joan Plaza, who took a walk under gray skies a few hours before the game, and evenutal MVP Charles Smith, who is not accustomed to such restlessness, but as he said later, "I just wanted to play the game." He sure did. As the game got closer, Madrid staffers went on a search for the Coca-Cola, preferably in a can, which Smith drinks as a rule before every game. In the Spiroudome, it would have been easier to find a corked  bottle of Belgian beer, but eventually the Coke was located and Smith - to the joy of many thousands later that evening - was ready. The first player from either team to hit the court at the Spiroudome to warm up was Hervelle, the player who might have felt as pressured as anyone. In addition to everything else, Hervelle was back in the town where he grew up as the first Belgian ever to play in the ULEB Cup Final.
For the opening jump ball, the sold-out Spiroudome was like a living rainbow, with 5,800 fans turning from the green and yellow of Lithuania to the black and red of Lietuvos Rytas on one end of the court to the white and purple of Real Madrid and the yellow and red of Spain on the other. Madrid's world champion teammates, Reyes and Alex Mumbru, were the early protagonists, banging the boards together to put their team up 3-7. Lietuvos Rytas showed it wasn't going to back down as Matt Nielsen confronted Alex Mumbru after the latter fouled Marijonas Petravicius. L. Rytas soon got untracked and took its first lead at 10-9 on a jumper by Arturas Jomantas. Reyes, Mumbru and Hervelle restored the Madrid lead to 16-19, having combined so far for all their team's points until then. Sub point guard Kerem Tunceri, recovering from a big block by Petravicius on his first shot attempt, hit Madrid's first outside shot from beyond the three-point arc to finish the first quarter at 18-22.
The intensity and high pace continued into the second quarter with the added attraction of sharp shooters. Nielsen and Kareem Rush sandwiched triples around the first one from Smith to close the gap to 24-25. Louis Bullock joined the scoring, and by the time Reyes finished a perfect pick-and-roll with Raul Lopez, Madrid had jumped ahead 24-30. L. Rytas needed bench scoring now and got it from the duo of Tomas Delininkaitis and Eurelijus Zukauskas, who had a pair of fascinating baskets. Delininkaitis followed a triple with an  alley-oop to himself. Stuck at the top of the lane looking to pass, he finally tried to shoot, but the ball was tipped by Smith; Delininkaitis followed it, caught the shot in the air and banked it into the basket. Zukauskas got the ball in low, seemed ready to make an easy dunk for a 2.16-meter center, but saw a Madrid defender flying to block him and instead pirouetted 360 degrees spin to make a spinning hook shot. Again Madrid got away, however, this time with Bullock's first triple, to lead 35-39. Into the scintillating pace now stepped L. Rytas rookie forward Joao Paolo Batiste, the first Brazilian in a ULEB Cup Final. Batiste made his presence felt immediately with 6 straight points around the basket that left L. Rytas the sudden leader, 41-40, at the half.
L. Rytas had nine scores by that time to Madrid's five, but when the teams came out from the break, the first sign of change was Smith opening the third quarter with a sweet shot from the arc. He was going to like the second-half basket a lot. Petravicius tied it up 43-43 for L. Rytas, but things changed quickly after that. One key to that change was Jomantas, his team's top perimeter defender, picking up his third and fourth fouls in the span of a minute. Bullock had 5 points until then in the game, but starting with the go-ahead layup at 45-43, was unstoppable. Suddenly he and his Madrid teammates were flooding the basket while their defense left L. Rytas taking desperation shots. By the time Bullock's next triple fell, it was 48-58, forcing an L. Rytas timeout after which he also drove to the basket for a layup. Smith had added a triple in the meantime, and now rattled in his third of the quarter, making it 48-63, ending a 5-20 run over less than 5 minutes that very much decided the game.
L. Rytas used 3 triples by Ivan Koljevic and Delininkaitis to trim the difference to 58-69 after three quarters and build some hope for another rally.
 When Rush opened the final quarter with his team's fourth consecutive three-pointer and a driving layup, L. Rytas was within 63-71 and ready to make a run at the lead. But Smith had other ideas. He launched his next triple attempt from the corner over the outstretched arms of two L. Rytas defenders - nothing but net. Next trip downcourt, Reyes pulled an offensive rebound and passed to Smith, wide open on the arc. This, too, he rattled in for his fifth three-pointer of the second half, sixth of the game, a new record for the ULEB Cup Final, and more importantly, a 63-77 lead for Madrid. Although more than 7 minutes remained, Madrid wasn't giving up that many points now. The closest L. Rytas came after that was 72-80. Bullock then made a tremendous shot, stepping back on the dead run at the basket to arc a fall-away shot over Jomantas. Normally stoic while playing, after that one even Bullock was pumping his fist on the way back downcourt toward the Madrid fans. Next, Lopez struck from downtown to give Madrid the team record for three-pointers made, 10, in a ULEB Cup Final. They also broke the record for blocks, 6, half of those by Smith, who was voted MVP. Appropriately enough, the ball was in the hands of Hervelle, the local boy whose early dreams of glory no doubt took place on the same court, when the clock ran out of time and the celebrations started. Europe's most-decorated basketball club returned to the podium to collect a new continental trophy. Real Madrid was back.
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Frank Lawlor, ULEBCup.com
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