Madrid loses Rodriguez

The latest developments came out of the Spanish captial, where Real Madrid received a double-dose of bad news among its perimeter players. Point guard Sergio Rodriguez suffered a thigh muscle tear that will make him miss the team's best-of-five series against Power Electronics Valencia. Rodriguez (189, 24) suffered the injury in the first half of a Spanish League road loss in overtime at Unicaja in Malaga on Saturday. In the second half of the same game, Madrid shooting ace Clay Tucker was wheeled off the floor on a stretcher. Tucker (196, 30) suffered a contusion on the right side of his back that left him motionless on the floor for several minutes. The club announced later on Saturday that Tucker's participation in Game 1 against Valencia on Tuesday is in doubt.

Rodriguez was averaging a team-high 3.3 assists and 6.9 points over the first 16 games of the Euroleague season for Madrid. His absence in the playoff series against Valencia leaves the team to rely mainly on veteran Pablo Prigioni at point guard, although combo guard Sergio Llull can also share ball-handling duties. During the Top 16, Prigioni had taken over from Rodriguez as Madrid's starting point and had increased his minutes to almost 26 per game.

In terms of minutes played, though not position, Madrid's loss of Rodriguez is roughly equivalent to the one that Valencia suffered in the break after the Top 16, with rebounding specialist James Augustine having been sidelined for up to a month. He, too, is expected to miss the entire series. It was only a month ago, during the middle of the Top 16, that Valencia lost its top performer this season, forward Victor Claver, to a season-ending knee injury. Although the team moved to get help last week by signing 44-year-old forward Darryl Middleton, he will not be eligible for the team's Euroleague roster.