Looking to the positive thing in a bad night, writing of the third loss in a row, we immediately must say that Xavi Pascual's FC Barcelona saved the leadership in the ACB ranking, even if tied at 23-6 by Real Madrid thanks to the 77-72 win in overtime in the derby, because of the +20 win of the first derby played in the season. And that difference could be the key for the future composition of the playoffs ranking, in case of arrival with the same record for both the teams. It was a very nervous and tough game, it was a kind of a fight between two big rivals, with opposite but strong motivations: Real Madrid wanted to demonstrate to compete with Barça after the two losses in the season (95-75 in the first derby of ACB and 60-68 in the final of Copa del Rey), while FC Barcelona wanted to go out of the tough moment conditioned by the elimination in Euroleague. For sure the blaugrana players showed to be "back" to their top quality level, arriving very near to win the game in the last actions of the fourth period, and then losing the ball in the last actions of the overtime on -3 - even if they missed the win.

Xavi Pascual: "I am glad for the job done by the team, even if of course I can't be of the result of the game. I want to congratulate with Real Madrid for the victory, we defended correctly, showing to be competitive as we wanted and having the options to do it, but in offense we didnt' but the ball where we had to, even if we had the shot to win the game. At the end, both teams could have won this game. The important thing is that the team is recovering from a blow as the European elimination, only who doesn't know how sports go could be surprised about it".

VIDEO - Highlights of Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona 77-72 (OT)