Sao Paulo defeats Flamengo and takes the lead in the NBB semi-finals | NB

Flamengo and Sao Paulo met on Friday night in their first duel in the semi-finals of the playoffs. The best for the Sao Paulo team, which won 80-72 away from home, and without the presence of the star of the team, Malcon Mueller. The first game of the series was held at the Tijuca Tênis Clube in Rio de Janeiro. The second match, next Monday, will be played at Sao Paulo’s home in Morumbi. All matches are broadcast on SporTV2 and covered in real time by General Electric.

This was the third time the two teams had met in the current NBB season. For the first time, he gave São Paulo. At the classification stage, the Red and Black teams have already won the other two games. In the first round, away from home, the Rio team beat São Paulo by 91 to 66. In the second leg, at the Tijuca Tennis Club, they won 79 to 70.

In the regular season, Flamengo finished second, one place ahead of São Paulo which was in third place. In the NBB Playoffs, the team with the best record has a home field in Games 1, 4, and 5, if necessary. Since the series is five matches, whoever wins three matches first advances.

Even without the suspended Malcon Mueller, leading in points per game with an average of 15.3, Sao Paulo advanced. After a balanced start, the Tricolor opened up a seven-point lead and finished the segment with a 25-19 win. Bennett dominated the paint, scoring 11 points in the first ten minutes alone. Siewert also shone on rebounds with 6 also in the first quarter.

Flamengo reduced its high error rate to balance the scoreboard. The team started the second quarter to make the score 11 to 2. Soon, Bruno Mortari, coach of São Paulo, stopped the game to realign the team. The tricolor returned to close the blockade in the defensive system, although it often relied on errors. With a 7-0 down for São Paulo in the final minutes, the first half ended 42-41 for the São Paulo team.

The tricolor came back from the locker room just as quickly to fix a new sequence, now 9 to 0. Flamengo took 5 minutes to convert the first ball. When the gear kicked in, he was at his best, with shots from outside the perimeter. Coelho, Martinez and Mineiro had a good sequence of 3-point shots. On the Sao Paulo side, Marquinho also kicked from the outside on two occasions and converted, stifling the reaction of the Red and Black.

Sao Paulo’s advantage of 9 points was dissipated in the final minutes of the match. Flamengo’s leader in points per game this season (12.5), Gabriel Gao took over to light the game. But the night had another name. Bennett, the most regular player of the match, reappeared at the most important moment of the game, when Flamengo managed to reduce the deficit to just one point. Chamel even came off the bench to run two 3-pointers and preserve the Tricolor victory by 80-72.