Moshe Barda 19/02/2021 07:35
Elijah Bryant (Armani Milano)
Maccabi Tel Aviv returned to the Euroleague last night (Thursday) since the postponement of the pair of games (Anadolu Zero and Moscow slips) and the cup break, knowing that the task is not going to be easy at all. The Yellows hoped things would look different, but the team looked bad in the 87:68 loss to Armani Milano in Italy and Maccabi were confident that the fact that they did not play in the Euroleague for a relatively long time had an effect on Yannis Sapropoulos’ players, who could not match the intensity level of their opponent.
The hosts actually took control of the game already in the first quarter, when the Yellows did not find the solutions and the ability to shoot from the outside in the first half was not good as we noted in the team with 1/13 equaling 7.7%. In addition, Yannis’ defense allowed Ettore Messina’s Milan to score 75% for the 2-point range and the road from there to a balance of 10 wins versus 13 losses at the end of 40 minutes of basketball was incredibly short.
“They are not in third place by mistake,” the Yellows said of their rival, who looks like the season for the first time since the 2014 season, because she is on her way to the top eight and more with a home advantage. Sapropoulos’ team took off for Milan with a given situation that Scotty Wilbkin’s thumb, the same thumb that was injured at the start of the season and made it difficult for him to score from the outside at the start of the Euroleague season, was injured again in training. With at least one successful three, when in 23 of them more than one goal came to an end.
The team environment just admitted at the end of the game that they just looked bad as a team. “They are in great shape,” said the Milanese, who have won seven of their last eight games. Indeed, the Israeli state champion did not look good and suffered its second defeat this season, the first to be remembered was against Real Madrid.
Similar to the same game played in Madrid in the ninth round, also last night at the Di Asago Forum, or in its better known name the Mediolanum Forum, the first quarter made the difference and Maccabi could not find the solutions against Milan that the national champions said was just a much better team. The Yellows are now looking forward to the next game against Bnei Herzliya at Menora Mivtachim next Saturday, two days later Yannis Sapropoulos’ team will host Nahariya, and on Thursday they will host Munich for the game against local Bayern.
After the game he said Chris Jones: “Basketball is a game of runs, we did some runs but it was not enough we must continue to fight as a team, pick each other up, get better every day. There are many more games to solve it. I feel we can do another big run, we need Believe in ourselves and things will work out. ” Elijah Bryant He added: “We did not score shots and they did, but we did not get to fight as we have shown in recent training I think we will reorganize and continue to fight to the end regardless of the results.”
