Real Madrid lost their first three games of the season. They have won the five since, which nobody else in the EuroLeague has done, and they are now fourth with the second-best points difference in the competition.

The shooting is where it changed.

Before and after

In the first three games Real took 24.7 threes a game and made 35.1% of them. In the five since, they have taken 34.0 a game and made 42.9%.

More of them, and far more of them going in. That is nine extra attempts a night at a rate seven points higher, and it drags everything else along with it: 86.3 points a game became 102.4, and their offensive rating went from 113.8 points per 100 possessions to 130.7.

They also stopped giving the ball away, 13.7 turnovers down to 10.6, and started winning the offensive glass, 10.7 rebounds up to 13.4. The defence improved too, from 120.4 to 112.8, though it is still the part of this team that needs work.

The second quarter

After Round 4 we wrote that 1-3 undersold them: good third quarters, lost fourths.

Net points by quarter in the first three games: minus 11, minus 15, plus 18, minus 7. In the five wins: plus 10, plus 41, plus 7, plus 12.

A team outscored by 15 in second quarters is now plus 41 in them. They have stopped needing comebacks because they have stopped falling behind.

Who is doing it

Andres Feliz leads the run with 18.2 PIR and 16.0 points a game across the five wins. He is shooting 48.5% from above the break this season, and only two of his 72 shots have come from mid-range, so his diet is simple: get to the paint, or shoot a three.

Theo Maledon is at 16.2 PIR, the same as Walter Tavares, who is doing it the way he always does, 9.6 points and the paint closed behind him. Facundo Campazzo adds 12.8.

The wins are not soft, either. Three of the five came away from home: at Milan, at Maccabi, where they scored 113, and at Baskonia on Tuesday, where they scored 104.

What it means

Eight games is still early, and a 42.9% three-point run is the kind of thing that cools. The defence at 112.8 per 100 would not win anything in May.

But the version of Real Madrid that lost three straight was losing by one, by ten, and by four, with a points difference that said the results were lying. The results have now caught up with the numbers. Nothing about that is a surprise, except the speed.