Tiktekno: clip summarizing today's events in sport, 19.1/sport1
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Maccabi Tel Aviv last night (Thursday) recorded its second Euroleague loss in a row and tenth of the season when it was defeated 89:72 by Olympiacos Piraeus at the Hall of Peace and Brotherhood.
Oded Ketch's team dropped following the loss to eighth place in the Euroleague table, while victories by Partizan Belgrade and Monaco this evening may drop it down a few more places.
Maccabi lasted a little more than 20 minutes in the hot atmosphere in Piraeus.
Despite appearing without Lorenzo Brown, and receiving an unimpressive ability to say the least from Wade Baldwin, the Yellows managed to stay in the game at halftime and only trailed by 6 points.
At the beginning of the second half, Olympiakos scored 4 consecutive 3-pointers and ran to 54:38.
Maccabi responded, going down to 12 at the end of the third quarter, but again a 0:9 run by the locals closed the story.
Apart from 13 three-pointers that Maccabi took on the head, she received a painful lesson from center Nikola Milotinov, one of the quality bigmen in the Euroleague who is having a bad season.
Milotinov scored 20 points last night and added 20 rebounds when Josh Nieveau, Roman Sorkin and Hasiel Rivero have no solution for the big man.
Baldwin led the Maccabi scorers with 18 points in bad percentages, Blatt and Colson recorded 10 points each.
"It was a tough game for us, we responded well in the second quarter, but in the second half they raised the level a little more and we didn't match it," said captain John DiBartholomeo who started in the five in place of the injured Lorenzo Brown and scored 6 points.
Roman Sorkin said for his part that "Of course we are disappointed. We were not able to do our things tonight and let Olympiakos take over the game, but we have to look ahead. There is not much time to rest, on Saturday there is a derby, that is the most important and that is what we will focus on from now on."
No answer was found.
Blatt and Maccabi/official website, Elad Goldstein, Maccabi Tel Aviv
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During the days before the game in Maccabi Tel Aviv, they feared a breakup as happened to them in the last two visits to the Hall of Peace and Brotherhood.
Although Maccabi was not defeated in the last game, the second quarter in which they lost by 16 points decided the match.
The yellows talked about staying focused and trying to bring the game to a decision at the end, and even when the Greeks started better, and ran to a double-digit difference in the opening, Maccabi was able to respond with good minutes from Tamir Blatt and John DiBartholomew and twice stopped the runs and reduced the difference to only 6 after 20 subtlety.
At halftime, the team strengthened their desire to stay on top of things, and Wade Baldwin, who was involved in a foul problem and was not focused, returned to the field, but a sequence of three-pointers by Alec Peters, Isaiah Cannon, and two by Thomas Walkup opened a gap of 16 from which Maccabi was no longer able to come back.
"We knew we had to be focused, and stop their shooting from the outside, and in a few moments in the third quarter we weren't able to do that," said one of the team members after the game, "when we talk about stopping their shooting and they hit 13 three-pointers at 45 percent, it means we Not doing a good job. We scored exactly the average they score at home, the whole difference should have been the defensive game, and we failed in it."
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The team play of the yellows just didn't work.
Baldwin didn't manage without Brown/official website, Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball
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Maccabi appeared in the game without Lorenzo Brown, who remained in Tel Aviv for treatment.
The team had difficulty estimating before and after the game exactly when the veteran guard would return to action, but the hope is that he will not miss too many games in the near future.
Brown began to feel the discomfort in his back only a little over a week ago, and played both games in the double week with a shot, a move that surprised many Maccabi people.
Last week he rested from activity and Maccabi tried to get him back to work ahead of the trip to Greece, but Brown signaled that he was not feeling well yet, and it was decided not to take him out with the team and to continue treating him in Israel.
Maccabi hoped that the trio - Baldwin, Blatt, DiBartholomew - would be able to carry the team even in the absence of Brown, but the first signal received from the star, with the technical foul at the start of the game, and the poor ability in the first quarter marked the continuation.
Apart from Blatt, who gave 7 assists, all the other players of the team only gave another six, and the team play of the Yellows simply did not function.
"Last season there was a short period of time when Wade carried the team without Lorenzo, it's not always easy for him," Maccabi said, "some of our hard defeats last season were when one of them was out. This duo needs each other."
Last year, without Brown, Maccabi recorded a record of one win and three losses, and in the games without Baldwin, they won three and lost two.
The season without Baldwin Maccabi recorded four wins and three losses.
Brown or Baldwin?
The numbers show who's lack is more significant/GettyImages, Roberto Finizio
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Last night's loss gave Olympiakos a double advantage over Maccabi heading into the rest of the road, with both teams having the same balance, as well as Baskonia who achieved a big away win over Red Star.
Fenerbahce and Panathinaikos, who will arrive in Belgrade next week for the match with Maccabi, have the possibility of opening a gap of two games from this tie, which may be joined by Monaco and Partizan Belgrade tonight.
The difficult schedule of the yellows will continue as mentioned in the game against Panathinaikos, when the following week the yellows will play a double week of games in Spain against Basconia, a direct rival for the coveted sixth place leading to the playoffs and not to the play-in and a game that seems to be lost in advance against Real Madrid.
After this difficult schedule, an easier series awaits Maccabi against the teams that seem to remain outside the top ten.
"The goal is to achieve victories in the upcoming games, it is clear to us that three losses have created a very problematic situation and will significantly distance the chance of reaching the top six, anything but three losses and we will be in the picture," said the club.
Will he play in the derby?
Web/official website, Elad Goldstein, Maccabi Tel Aviv
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Maccabi will take off this morning from Greece back to Israel, and in the evening the team's squad will be announced for the first Tel Aviv derby of the season which will be held on Saturday night (7:00 PM) at Hichal Shlomo.
The team refused to officially confirm, but Lorenzo Brown is not supposed to take part in the match, and Maccabi is expected to decide who among Antonios Cleveland, James Webb or Hasiel Rivero will find himself outside of the five foreigners who signed up.
The game will be the first of two this week for the team in the league, with the second one hosting Ironi Kiryat Ata, with the club hoping that a large crowd will come to see the team with an almost full roster at Menorah Hall, and in the meantime they want to get through the derby successfully.
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