Maccabi Tel Aviv celebrates victory in Game 1 over Monaco (Elad Goldstein, Maccabi Tel Aviv)
1. "I probably wouldn't have been such a bad guard"
In one of his first games on the lines, some time 19 years ago, Oded Ketch's Hapoel Galil Alyion scored a hundred and twenty points.
I called to ask him what was up.
"They say great defensive players always make bad defensive coaches... so I was probably a better defender than everyone thought I was," he replied with typical sarcasm.
So true, Ketch was one of the greatest players seen here, and come on, his guard wasn't really threatening.
And maybe that's why when he's 48 years old, the rumor about his iron defense starts to spread around Europe.
Maccabi Tel Aviv, the same one that is known for its love of running, speeding up and flashing, eliminated Monaco's home advantage yesterday (Tuesday) thanks to excellent tactical preparation and a performance that flirted with perfection.
She held her opponent to 67 points, almost the fewest she had during the entire season.
Only Olympiakos and Barcelona - AKA "the best defensive teams in the EuroLeague" - conceded less.
6:45 minutes to the end, Mike James shot a three-pointer that didn't really affect the course of the game, but deserves to go in the books.
It was the first the American star scored this season against the Yellows, after 0 for 14 in almost three games;
And no less amazing than that, it saved Monaco from a resoundingly negative record.
Until that moment, the team was 1-for-19, the same as the lowest recorded in the playoff games for generations.
It ended up with 4 of 26, 15.4%, the lowest percentage recorded at this stage in the last six years (since the 11.1% issued by Anadolu Zero in 2017).
20 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists.
Is there anything else to say?
Wade Baldwin in front of Mike James (photo: official website, Maccabi Tel Aviv)
So one might mistakenly think that the status made James, Jordan Lloyd, Eli Okobo sweat, or that they were just having a particularly shocking day and the goddess of luck flashed her face to the cachets.
But no: the Maccabi Tel Aviv defense pounced on the guards in black and blocked their penetration paths to the basket (and along the way also neutralized the team's offensive rebound).
She didn't just "bet" on their three-pointers, but knew very well three facts:
1. Monaco is the team that throws the fewest three-pointers in the Euroleague (21.1 per game).
2. She makes the fewest 3-pointers in the Euroleague (6.7).
3. She hits the lowest percentages for three of the 18 participating in the Euroleague (31.7%).
And if that's the case, why don't we make her give birth to as many boys as possible out of the three?
That's why she decided to take her away from her regular habits and tempt her to throw more and more and more from the outside - to the outside.
So wait, after Monaco's 26-4, Želgiris Kovna's 23-5, Olympia Milan's 29-8, Baskonia's 32-5, Anadolu Efes' 28-4 and Fenerbahçe's 34-7 - and all that Only in the last seven weeks - is it already allowed to openly assimilate the term "Ketch's three-point defense"?
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Memories of yesteryear.
Sophocles Xorzanitis in Maccabi's previous playoff victory (Photo: Barney Ardov)
2. The counting stopped after nine years and two days
And so, after an excessive wait of 3,289 days - which is nine years and two days - the Yellows finally got to experience the taste of victory in a European playoff game.
On April 23, 2014, they defeated Olympia Milan 66:86 and celebrated the promotion to their last Final Four so far, on April 25, 2023, they beat Monaco 67:79 and even the most pessimistic and skeptical are already allowing themselves to dream.
It was Lorenzo Braun's first win in a playoff game in the Euroleague (after 3:0 with Fenerbahçe previously).
And it was Wade Baldwin's first away win (after 3:0 with Bayern Munich).
John DiBartholomeo, Jake Cohen and Roman Sorkin, graduates of last season's sweep of Real Madrid, marked their first W during a series - and were joined by Jarel Martin, Bonzie Colson and Josh Niebo, who had never appeared in that capacity.
Only two players in Maccabi's squad were already well acquainted with the job, and it is actually two who were not really involved throughout the entire season - each in completely different circumstances: Darren Hilliard and Alex Poithers.
First win in a playoff game in the Euroleague.
Lorenzo Brown in Monaco (Photo: GettyImages, Roberto Finizio)
3. Comatose, Hilliard Corner
Entire legends have been written and woven around the underdog stars, who failed, disappointed, benched and dried up for months, only to rise to the top in Money Time.
David Bello invented the patent in his version as David Bluthenthal (from 3.5 points in the 2004 season to 14.7 in the decisive games), Nestoras Komatos imitated him (from 3.6 points in 2005 to 13 in the finals), and for one small moment even Kirk Penny and Milan Metz Where were those?
Hilliard will return to his home in the USA in the summer, and after everything that has happened this season, he will be convinced that he played for 15 years in Israel. Two weeks ago, in the critical moments of the game against Real Madrid, he was called up following Brown's injury and the canal; yesterday he shared almost 20 minutes (a record of five months , against opponents other than Virtus "minus 31 difference" Bologna) and brought with him the depth, the experience and the ten points that brought another missing layer in the back line, especially on one of these days when John DiBartolomeo does a lot, but doesn't really manage to score.
Poithers, who returned to activity last week after four and a half months of downtime, looked good in the games against Hapoel Galil Alyion and Ironi Nes Ziona, and the question was when, how much, if at all, would he see a field in Monaco;
The coach certainly did not want to upset the balance in the front line, but the possibility of introducing a third center of the quality of the American into the rotation is not one that should be ignored.
So he incorporated it into short segments ranging from a minute to three, in almost every quarter, and got six points from him in eight minutes - and perhaps just as importantly, four fouls as well.
What is he already preparing for the second game in the series?
Eli Okobo (Photo: GettyImages, Nikola Krstic/MB Media)
4. Welcome to Limoges and Pesaro of the 1980s
The principality of Monaco is given the somewhat offensive nickname "tax haven" by unofficial authorities (it's not that the officials deny or deny, we just didn't bother to ask them), so it is an extraordinary gem, full of shiny yachts, enviable luxury cars and a small but wealthy population in a frenzy
And somehow, it was precisely there that a basketball hall was built whose parquet is reminiscent of the courts in Limoges and Pesaro in the 80s of the last century.
The happenings on this floor, or at least their result, reminded in the first half of the basketball of the 90s.
A lot of fouls, quite a few fights and prostrations on the floor, a crowd of 50/50 balls - and especially pressure and nerves that betray the fact that this is the start of the playoff phase.
Maccabi remembered very well what happened to it in the early meetings with Monaco: at the hands of Eliyahu, it found itself behind 42:23 during the second quarter, and was required to make its greatest comeback of all time on the way to victory;
In Riviera it fell to 21:7 already in the sixth minute, recovered and went down defeated after 28:8 in the last quarter.
So this time she made sure to avoid prolonged falls: Monaco's record advantage (if you can even call it that) was only four points, 2:6;
17 Did you want a difference?
In none of the quarters did she score more than 17 points;
And during the entire game, she led for only five minutes and 45 seconds, until Baldwin's first three-pointer came at the end of the first quarter.
There - by and large - the story ends.
What's the punch?
No punch.
It was just an excuse to mention Baldwin again, the man who has already been written about here all this season, and yet it would be a crime to ignore him after another huge display of 20 points, 70% for two, six rebounds, six assists, a 25 index and a lot of responsibility .
Yes, warranty.
5. Submitted as a service to the Euroleague Coaches Organization
Yesterday, the Euroleague coaches' organization published a banner in which it congratulated its members ahead of the series;
Seven appeared in it, and only one was missing.
It turns out that Katesh is not a full-fledged member of the organization, so - in a puzzling and not very wise move - they decided to ignore his existence.
So there you go, we're here to help with the opening night playoff winners picture.
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