Dubai beats Real Madrid 78–77: the final minute that settled the opener

Dubai Basketball opened its EuroLeague season with a 78–77 home victory over Real Madrid at Coca-Cola Arena on 24 September 2026. Dwayne Bacon scored 24 points for Dubai, while McKinley Wright added 12, according to the ABA League’s report. The winning margin was small; the changes of momentum were anything but.

The first useful marker is half-time. Madrid went into the break ahead 44–38. Dubai responded and led 63–62 after the third quarter, according to Madrid’s official match report. Looking at those two checkpoints shows why the final score alone gives an incomplete picture of the evening.

The second marker comes late in the fourth quarter. Madrid moved 72–65 ahead with five minutes remaining. Dubai then recovered, and Wright’s three-pointer with 55 seconds left made it 78–77. That shot supplied the final lead, but there was still time for the result to change.

The third marker is the last possession. Madrid had the ball with ten seconds left, and Andrés Feliz missed the layup that could have decided the game the other way. Dubai’s lead held. For anyone catching up on the highlights, watch the closing possession as well as the three-pointer: together they explain the one-point finish.

There is a difference between reading a winning score and following how it happened. For a newcomer to basketball, a simple way into this game is to track the gap at the break, the gap with five minutes left and the final change of lead. You do not need to memorise every statistic to understand the tension.

For Dubai residents, a home fixture can make a different kind of evening out: one with a shared story still being decided in front of the crowd. This result is a memorable opening chapter, rather than a prediction of the season ahead. Anyone considering a future game should check the official fixture listing and venue information for that specific date; this report does not announce the next match or ticket availability.

The cover is an original conceptual illustration of a basketball beside an imagined court. It is not a photograph of this game or a reconstruction of Coca-Cola Arena.