While your machinery is greased to reach the top of its performance with the expected regularity and consistency, the Real Betis Basketball win and win. You are on your way to labeling that verb as your favorite. In fact, he has not stopped doing so in the half dozen official matches he has already played between the Cup and Primera FEB. Pray with brilliance, pray without the distinctive touch of good play, but with the common denominator of triumph. So the landing of the green and white team in the domestic competition cannot be faulted, although if you put a magnifying glass on the fine print, you will miss more points, perhaps a bit more spectacle. Of course, it’s not a question of going into sybarite mode either, taking into account that in June it was not known what type of project there would be and that in mid-October The team is at the top of the table, with full victories and equal with the first (Ourense) and the third (San Pablo Burgos). Oh, and with the addition of crediting the least porous defense in the League. We will avoid describing it as the best because of the number of possessions and the advanced statistics, but the truth is that there is no team in the category that receives a lower average of points than the green and white: 65.
With such armor, the day must be very bad for the Betic cavalry of Gonzalo García de Vitoria to not move forward with the games. You never know, however, where the first bar to choke will be. That day will come although Betis, stuck in victory lane, will try to make sure it never does. With the desire to prolong the streak, the green and white team appear this Friday in Torrelavega, where they will face the Alega Cantabria Group. A team that has gone off the rails in the previous three days. They do not know victory after falling to San Pablo Burgos (86-67), Hestia Menorca (86-87) and Ourense (93-65).
As can be seen, they have faced two of the first three and now they will do so with Betis Baloncesto, so the start of the season could not have been more difficult for the disciples of David Mangas. The coach, by the way, is on medical leave and the team will be coached tonight by Alejandro González and Alberto Sáez. Back on his court, the Vicente Trueba pavilionthe current bottom of the competition will try to avoid the elusive fortune, rebel against the initial complications of its calendar and, supported by the warmth of its audience, become the first executioner of this Betis Baloncesto that is one of the rivals to beat in First FEB. If the motivational incentives can carry the Cantabrian team in flight, the green and white team will have to neutralize them with a solid stagingif possible as convincing as the one drawn in Alicante.
Without Rubén López, injured
Regarding the duel at the Technique Center, Betis will present a loss. The one of Ruben Lopez de la Torrewho will remain in the dry dock for at least two weeks due to a grade two sprain of the collateral ligament of a metacarpal in his right hand. A setback that reduces the resources of the inside game, leaving an important piece of the rotation out of play. Because the Madrid native, in his average twelve minutes on the court, provided intensity, energy and offensive rebound, being the best of Betis in this section, on an equal footing with Radoncic. The Montenegrin, precisely, has many options to play more minutes inside, although the squad is long, in principle no temporary player will be signed and it is also trusted that Sunday Help in the administration so that the absence of the former Gran Canaria player is noticed as little as possible in the equation.
Despite that donut in the defeat box after three days, the Betis Basketball has room for improvement. And a lot besides. This is how it should be because the season is still sputtering and there is still time for the teams to reach the boiling point. Betis has not done it, although the level of demand with this squad is logically high. The one that the club has imposed on a team of very capable professionals who come from competing in higher leagues in most cases and now, as quickly as possible, they must get used to other rules, another style of basketball and other rivals. Those of the First FEB.
Betis is in that process, If he has surprised at this start of the season it has been because of his defensive efficiency. A priori, and given the bunch of scorers he has, it was thought that his games would break out in a high volume of scoring. Nothing could be further from the truth. Betis has won two of its three matches without reaching 78 points in favor and, as noted, is showing a lot of commitment and cooperation in defensive work to clip the wings of its rivals. They stopped Gipuzkoa in 62, Tizona in 77 and Alicante in 54.
Concreting in defense usually gives benefits not only in the short term but also in the long term. El Betis, which faces its third away game in four days, is amply available at times, but does not play with that mentality. There is no arrogance in his basketball but a stonecutter’s work in many phases of the games, which cooks over low heat. At the pace that interests you. In Alicante he played in spurts, with intermittence, bad in phases, losing the rebound and giving up sets, but he held his own and on a day without inspiration he clung to the maturity of his players, but also to defense and control, to scratch another triumph.
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Alega Cantabria Group: Hundt (1.80, 33); Littleson (1.92, 5); Voytso (2.00, 3); Bulic (2.07, 7); Kande Kieli (2.05, 34) -possible starting five-; Germán Martínez (1.89, 9); Javi Vega (2.05, 10); Kabasele (2.08, 14); Rakocevic (1.91, 22); Romaric (2.02, 35).
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Real Betis Baloncesto: Renfroe (1,91, 32); Benite (1,94, 8); Radoncic (2,02, 88); Suárez (2,06, 93); Kasibabu (2,03, 13) -possible quinteto inicial-; Hughes(1,93,3); Cvetkovic (1,88, 4); Pablo Marín (1,90, 6); Domènech (2,08, 12); DeBisschop (2,06, 22); Jelinek (1,94, 25).
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Referees: Checa Nebot, Chueca Moreno, Sierra Carrillo.
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Time and TV: 9:00 p.m. (LaLiga Plus app)
An exverdiblanco in the rival
In the Cantabrians there are three starting players who repeat from last year: Littleson, Voytso y Bulicthe power forward from which they often build the game. In the five position he has athletic ability and in the rotation he has very expert players already in the category such as Javi Vega or his own Rakocevicwho played for Betis Baloncesto at the beginning of last season. This Group Alega Cantabria has its arguments, whose wavelength in this League is an unknown due to the roadmap that has run over it. Gonzalo García’s boys would be wrong to be overconfident because they were at the bottom of the table playing with fewer revolutions than necessary. On seemingly uncomfortable nights and on courts like the Cantabrian one is where the foundations of the ambitious goal that Betis Baloncesto has set are laid.
