Difficult feelings at Maccabi Tel Aviv after last night’s (Tuesday) defeat to Anadolu Zero 90:66 as part of the Euroleague’s completion cycle. This defeat was the highest and worst in the history of the club in Europe in the home games and if that is not enough, it is the fourth defeat that the Yellows experience this season and the second in five days.
A little over a year ago, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Anadolu Efes met in what was to be the last game played with a crowd in the stands in the Euroleague, the basketball season in Europe was stopped not long after, but what set the same game apart was the result. It was the fifth close win in a number of nine close games the Yellows had last year, in a season that seems to be all that connected when it comes to what happens on the hardwood floors in the Euroleague. This season all the “almost” as well as the positive basket ratio that has become negative in recent games, are in fact the symptoms of a connection that seems to be missing, as well as the stability in the ability of the Israeli champion in the Euroleague this season.
After last night’s defeat, the club’s members clarified that “if we lose all six of the remaining games in this way, it is likely that the changes in the staff will be great.” One of the candidates for next season is forward / center Jordan Mickey (26, 2.03) who was at Real Madrid and returned to Moscow Khimki last year. In 2018, negotiations were conducted with him but did not reach the Yellows in the end.
Maccabi tried to point out what did not work on the way to a result that became historic, and the team to the last “victim” of Anadolu Efes. 16 on Valencia. The national champion gave credit to the Turkish team that started its journey two years ago, but could not ignore the display of threes allowed by the yellow defense on the way to 12 of 19 at the end of the third quarter which was equal to 63% and a 24-point advantage maintained until the end of the game.
The ability of the top teams on the continent is no less than a wake-up call for all the other Euroleague teams, including Maccabi Tel Aviv. This is because of the near future and more precisely next season, the teams that will make up the Euroleague 2021/22 season could include Virtus Bologna, along with remaining teams at the budget level. At Maccabi, it is not inconceivable that there will be a situation of screaming from a contractual point of view – a player with a contract of a certain height against a contract at the same height for another player, or alternatively, the budget cake will be divided slightly differently. At the same time, the team environment made it clear that, as has happened in the past, if a window of opportunity is created to land a player of a size that is considered theft, then the club will go for the move.
John Dibertolomao He said after the game: “Obviously it hurts, frustrating. To sum it up it’s not good. Our crowd brought a lot of energy, even as the gap grew, they supported us, but that’s not how we wanted to react. We need to continue to understand how we can improve. We did everything we can We could, but obviously we could have played better. In the Euroleague we should not be a rival of this kind. The game ran away from us at some point, they felt comfortable and easier to score when you feel comfortable. “On a button and change everything. We need to stay together and stay positive.”
Elijah Bryant: “We will come to every game until the end of the season to win. They came to play and we could play better defense, they scored more than 50 percent to 3, some of the threes were very difficult threes, they were the better team. A lot of things happened in the last year outside “Basketball, there are bad days in basketball, we will have to work hard and look for our pace back. Every team has ups and downs, this is not a new thing, we will have to find our pace again as a team.”