With a fourth victory out of the last five games, Maccabi Tel Aviv hopes to generate positive momentum in the Euroleague, and in the next round may even record for the first time this season a third consecutive victory. The Yellows are very pleased with last night’s (Tuesday) victory over Panathinaikos, at the end of a game that will go down in history thanks to the performance of Nemanja Nadovic, who became the player who scored the most against Maccabi Tel Aviv in one game with 39 points – a record since the Euroleague in 2000 – but the victory remains yellow.
Finally Scottish. Scotty Wilbkin saw Nedovich bomb and on the other hand gave a beautiful performance of his own, with 22 points in 25 minutes. “Nadovic doesn’t have to score all the points he scored for me to want to win the game,” Wilbkin said at the conclusion. “When I kept him and he scored a three on me, then yes, I felt the need to return with a three of my own. No matter how you look at it he scored 39 points, I scored 22. He played great and efficiently, but we got the win and that’s the most important thing for me.” .
This is only the second time that Maccabi has won with its biggest star leading the list of scenes. Coach Yannis Sapropoulos said: “This time, the key was that a lot of players scored. We didn’t have a player leading the gap, especially in the first half, everyone scored and that was important. We will be good when all the players are good and know what to do on the pitch.”
Sapropolus v. Sussman. Sapropoulos was asked about the slow integration of the players who have recovered from injuries, especially John Dibertolomeo who was not a partner yesterday, and Yuval Sussman, who played only 7 minutes, and after another three by Nadovic received screams from his coach. Even at the Greek end he chose to send a strong message to Sussman when he said: “The players who recovered from the injuries are not in good shape and not at a good pace. We tried to put Sussman on Nedovic and he scored twice in a row. It happened in the first half, then again in the second half. Once, then you’re not in a position to continue playing. My job is not to make the players happy, they have to do what I want, if not, they will not play. As for Dibertolomeo, he did not play because Pao has size in the back line and I needed players with Sizes are better suited to maintain them. “
The third recovering man, Omri Caspi, actually recorded his best performance since returning from injury. Not a big statistical line, a total of 4 points in 12 minutes, but lots of positive actions, smart defense, good play from friends and control of the passing game. “I agree it’s his best game, until next time,” Sapropoulos said. “Omri adapts himself slowly to a good playing pace. The fact that I have a rotation helps the players to be focused and gives them a rest and it helps them mentally. That’s why we are focused and not make the same mistakes we made before.”
The one who goes down, and those who go up. Yesterday’s game once again highlighted the trend from the start of the season, according to which when Othello Hunter is good, his teammate on the front line Ante Žižić fails to express himself, and vice versa. Yesterday Hunter gave an excellent game with 13 points and the highest index in the team (20), and Žižić was again weak with only 4 points in 16 minutes.
Another player whose stock is on the rise is Dragon Bender. After the good performance in Barcelona, the forward once again looked focused and aggressive, and in an interview at the end of the game, Sapropoulos admitted that Bender had indeed earned his place at Maccabi by the end of the season, and it seems that an official announcement is only a formal matter.
“I tried to play my way, be aggressive, pay attention to the little details, start strong on defense and move on from there,” he said. Bender. “As long as we continue the same way I think we can do wonderful things this season. I think there is a different energy here in recent weeks, we should all be in the same mind and with the same goal after the last game. We had difficulties in the summer, we came back early, I arrived late, we had players “Injured key. Tonight Sussman and Caspi participated and gave us good minutes and pushed us as a team.”
