Maccabi Tel Aviv will arrive tonight (Friday, 21:30) in a low mood at the Hall of Peace and Brotherhood, after the painful loss in the derby, and especially without its star, Lorenzo Brown, on whom it depends - some would say too much.
On paper, even so, its chances are not high against the experienced and stable Olympiakos, which leads the Euroleague table.
One of the most prominent examples of the difference between the yellows and reds from Piraeus can be seen in the home and away games.
Every team prefers to play on its home court in front of its supporting fans, and usually there are gaps between the away games and the home games, but with a good and trained basketball team, the gaps are not large.
Experienced and connected players know how to win outside as well.
Pay attention to the differences between Olympiakos and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The Greeks have a home balance of 3:7 (70%) and a similar away balance of 4:6 (60%).
The Yellows, on the other hand, enjoy an impressive home balance of 1:9 (90%), but a horribly negative away balance of 8:2 (20%).
A look at the attached table will further illustrate how big the differences are between Maccabi of the Menorah Hall and Maccabi of the away games.
When you look at the schedule of games in the coming period, you realize that there are no easy challenges waiting for the Yellows.
After Olympiakos, Oded Ketch and his players are looking forward to a double Spanish week away against Barcelona (the only Euroleague team to beat Maccabi in the hall this season) and Valencia.
Menorah Hall.
Maccabi Tel Aviv's sixth player in the Euroleague, photo: Alan Shiver
Just keep the percentages
Despite everything we said, if Maccabi Tel Aviv maintains such high success rates at home, it will be in a good position in the fight for the playoffs, even if it does not achieve many more away victories.
Of the 14 games remaining for the Yellows until the end of the regular season in the Euroleague, seven will take place outside and seven in Tel Aviv.
Today, Maccabi has 11 victories, ranking it in eighth place (before the current cycle).
The statistics since the change of the format at the factory show that a 60 percent success definitely guarantees a place in the quarter finals.
This means that 20-19 wins is the desired goal.
In other words, if the yellows maintain the percentages in the hall and achieve 7-6 home victories, only 3-2 away victories will be enough for them to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Corey Higgins.
The only Barcelona in the Euroleague that won this season at the Hall, photo: Alan Shiver
That the novel will not end
The latest loss in the derby should worry Ketch and his team not only because it is another loss to a direct rival for the titles in Israel (the previous one was in the hall against Hapoel Jerusalem), but also because of the poor contribution from the Israeli squad.
Except for John DiBartholomew, no Israeli contributed.
Guy Panini was completely deleted from the rotation, Jake Cohen was reasonable only in a few games, Ziv Balt will start for the better in a few league games, but his coach's disbelief stood out even more, and Rafi Manko is also having trouble getting out of the bad period (5 points in 0 from 4 outside per arc and measure 3 in 18 minutes in Derby).
The biggest question mark is Roman Sorkin.
The Israeli forward-center produced several record games in the Euroleague, became a fan favorite and they have already started talking about a new long-term contract for him, but in the last few games he also disappeared like the rest of his Israeli teammates.
Sorkin in the Euroleague.
Went back, photo: Alan Shiver
In the attached table you can see the drop in his status and his contribution in the last Euroleague cycles, a drop that also directly affected his output in the league - in the derby he got only nine minutes, threw once from the field, took only three rebounds and finished with an index of 5.
The decision stages on all fronts are approaching (Final Four of the Cup in two and a half weeks) and Ketch will have to give more opportunities to the Israelis, and of course also receive much more from them.
This will help him mainly in the local frameworks, and also in Europe.
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