After a seven-month absence, the Tel Aviv derby returned yesterday (Saturday), although not with a big basketball.
Maccabi Tel Aviv kicked the bucket again.
Do you remember what happened in Belgrade?
True, this time she did not lose a 24-point lead, but she did surrender after already leading by 12 in the last quarter and by 10 with less than 5 minutes to go.
When it repeats again and again - you can already call it a low breaking point.
This loss adds to Maccabi's retreat and erosion in the Euroleague, and comes before a difficult series of games.
On an individual level, Antonios Cleveland is a big question mark.
If even when Lorenzo Brown doesn't play he gets 4 minutes - then Oded Ketch's situation is not good.
It is possible that if these were normal days and normal conduct, we would begin to hear complaints about his status.
Hapoel, on the other hand, won this derby after giving Maccabi an "advance" of three quarters, in which Xavier Manford did not score a single point.
A coach can build a game plan and prepare tactics, then the game comes and everything is left aside because a player who didn't exist suddenly wakes up in a big way.
7 quarters in a row (including the previous game in Ramat Gan) Xavier Manford did not score a point.
Then came the fourth quarter in the derby - and he scored 17 points without looking in the eyes.
A real scorer is one with a short memory - he quickly forgets how much he missed.
Where Maccabi left character, Hapoel knew how to take it.
This is how you win games when you play mediocre almost all evening.
By the way, Maccabi certainly cannot blame the loss on the lack of Lorenzo Brown because Hapoel's (Jacob Brown, Jaylen Hurd, John Holland) lacks more.
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Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Kicked the bucket, again. Photo: Alan Shiver
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