Sparks of Hope: On the big evening of Maccabi Tel Aviv
Žižić responded to criticism of Vujicic, Evans returned to run the game ("Hopefully this is the spark that will move everything anew") and Maccabi Tel Aviv equaled a club record in the Euroleague and recorded a season record in losing balls on the way to the big victory over Olympiacos: "If We'll be in the picture in two weeks, we can go back to dreaming "
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21/01/2022
Friday, 21 January 2022, 06:45 Updated: 07:01
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Basketball Player: Partisan Belgrade - Hamburg 77: 102 (Sports 1)
1.
64 days after its last Euroleague victory, and 22 days after the last game before the Corona problems, last night (Thursday) Maccabi Tel Aviv recorded its eighth victory of the season in the European factory when they defeated Olympiacos 69:84 at home. The victory, which broke a streak of eight losses for the team in Europe, raised Maccabi to 11th place in the Euroleague table, two wins away from eighth Monaco, so far.
The Yellows dominated the game from the end of the first quarter, but made their escape towards the end of the third quarter, and in the last quarter locked the basket and did not let the Euroleague top rival score a field goal for more than 5 minutes. Ante Žižić was the scorer with 23 points, with most scoring until the middle of the third quarter, with Keinen Evans (14), Scotty Wilbkin (13) and James Nanley (11) scoring in double digits.
At the end of the game, the people of Maccabi seemed very happy about their home achievement, hoping perhaps for another significant run that would bring them back to life in the Euroleague. "We really pushed each other during the weeks of training we had during that break," Keenan Evans said. "In the whole game. I hope it's the spark that will move everything back. We are hungry and the losses made us look in the mirror and understand what was wrong. We saw videos, the coach gave me an important review. It was almost like a training camp, we went back to basics."
Žižić himself sounded happy: "I want to congratulate my teammates and the coaching staff. We did a great job, especially defensively. Offensively we scored the shots - my teammates found me for easy layups, the difference was in the team effort. We stuck to the game plan, we responded "We did not lose much of the ball and overall we played well in the passing attack. We will have a difficult game board from here, but most of the games at home and we will try to do our best."
More on Walla!
Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Olympiacos and interrupted the losing streak in the Euroleague
To the full article
Returned like the muzzle of a cannon.
Ante Zizic (Photo: Danny Maron)
2.
The great hero of the game was as mentioned Ante Žižić. 23 points and a Euroleague record of 33 Croatian chin scorers that led the Yellows to their significant victory. There is a lot of talk about Žižić's change this season, the weight loss, the better understanding of the game, and the fact that Maccabi can finally see the fruits of its investment in it.
Along with professional improvement and summer work, Ziza also had some luck. Of all the top players on the Yellows' roster, he is the only one who did not contract Corona in the two waves that passed the team, and was absent for a period of several weeks at the start of the season due to injury, but this did not affect his fitness, Of cannon to the crucial stages of the season.
The one who can still smile at the chin's performance is Nikola Vujicic.
The professional manager probably has not heard in real time about the dozens of flyers handed out by some of the fans who were tired of his professional conduct before the game.
But while the small protest does not make too many waves, the player for whom he himself is responsible and for his arrival at Maccabi, has stopped the club's long streak of losses.
Navigation and execution.
Keenan Evans (Photo: Danny Maron)
3.
Only four losses were recorded by the players of Yannis Sapropoulos on the way to last night's victory, the least this season for the team in the Euroleague, and the least in the history of the club along with two more games in the Euroleague in the past.
Maccabi this season is not one of the teams that often loses balls, in fact it is ranked in the middle of the table with 12.5 losses per game, a completely reasonable number.
When looking at the data in depth, one realizes how important the figure of minority ball loss is to the team’s victories.
In six games, Maccabi Tel Aviv managed to lose up to ten balls - in five of them they won, when only against Olympiacos away, in a game that was for the most part Garbage Time, lost a little and lost.
A winning streak is needed to return to the playoffs (Photo: Danny Maron)
Last night's game was the first in a very busy series waiting for Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The Yellows will arrive by February 3, Thursday in less than two weeks, completing six more games, and after this grueling streak awaits them in the deciding stages of the State Cup.
Maccabi knows that if they want to return to life in the Euroleague, something that would have seemed almost imaginary before the game against Olympiacos, they will have to make it through this series with almost no losses.
On the face of it, this is a very complex task, but it seems that the last game in the series, against Bayern Munich away, is the most difficult and for the rest Maccabi will arrive at best in a tie against the opponent.
"Obviously in two weeks we will know if we have another chance," the club said last night, "it will end our comfortable streak of games, and if we are in the playoffs after this series, we can go back and dream of great things."
Still waiting for his premiere.
Kyrie Thomas (Photo: GettyImages, Jim McIsaac)
5.
Who should be part of the grueling series of games is new guard Kyrie Thomas who did not dress for last night's game against Olympiacos.
Thomas is also expected to sign up for Maccabi's squad for league games at the expense of Cameron Taylor who has been disappointed since his arrival, at least on the offensive side.
Maccabi is expected to find a team to which Taylor will be loaned until the end of the season, when the player has a contract for another season, but the issue should only happen after the difficult sequence of games, when the club wants to use as many players as possible up to this point.
Assisted in the preparation of the article: Ohad Schwerman
sport
basketball
Euroleague and European basketball
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Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball
Yannis Sapropoulos
