Liga Endesa: Madrid and Barça lose at home

Herbalife Gran Canaries’ Brad Newley takes the ball to the hoop against Barça’s CJ Wallace. Newley scored 18 in leading Herbalife to a 70:73 win.

With just five weeks to play in the Liga Endesa, the top of the standings are now fighting for home court in the playoffs, while those in the middle are trying to assure their club’s inclusion in the post-season. In Week 29, the top clubs took a serious hit with Real Madrid falling to Blusens Monbus, 61:64, in Madrid, and FC Barcelona Regal dropped a home match to Herbalife Gran Canaria, 70:73. The loss was Madrid’s second in two weeks, third in five weeks, and Barça loss is the second this week after falling to Panathinaikos in Game 1 of the Euroleague quarterfinals on Thursday.

Madrid is still four games up on Caja Laboral in the standings, but with their recent string of loses, they’ve hardly locked anything up as of now. In Week 30 Madrid will travel to take on Herbalife Gran Canaria, who knocked off Barcelona in Week 29. The loss this week drops Madrid’s overall league record to 25-4, followed by Caja at 21-7. Caja has yet to play their Week 29 contest, they take on Uxue Bilbao Basket on May 1st. Still in the No. 3 position is Barcelona at 19-10, just one game ahead of Valencia Basket at 18-11. Valencia pounded FIATC Joventut 74:92 on the road and pulls back to within a game of Barcelona. In Week 27 Barça defeated Valencia to move to two games ahead, only to have the results of Week 29 eliminate the advantage.

Sitting on No. 5 spot is Bilbao, who is off this week since their Week 29 game with Caja Laboral has been rescheduled to May 1st. Bilbao is currently sitting with a 17-11 record, tied with Herbalife and CAI Zaragoza with 17 wins.

Herbalife’s big win over Barcelona on the road keeps the firmly in the playoff race being two games up on No. 8 Blusens Monbus at 15-14, three up on No. 9 Unicaja at 14-15, and four up on No. 10-No. 12 (Asefa Estudiantes, CB Canaries, and FIATC Joventut), all sporting 13-15 season records and still having a shot to get into the playoffs. Unicaja and Asefa Estudiantes are both on two-game slides, with Unicaja having lost big to CAI Zaragoza, 88:68, this week and CB Canaries in Week 28. Asefa Estudiantes has dropped four of their last five, with the Week 29 loss coming at the hands of Mad-Croc Fuenlabrada, and in Week 28 they lost to Herbalife Gran Canaria.

Spain Liga Endesa Week 26

Week 29 Liga Endesa Matches[matches league_id=4 match_day=29 template=summary dateformat=”M. j, Y”]

Liga Endesa Standings as of Week 26[standings league_id=4 show_website=false template=nolink]

Next Week’s Liga Endesa Matches[matches league_id=4 match_day=30 template=sumnoscore dateformat=”M. j, Y”]