Summary clip of the week 1.2/Sport1
1.
1. After the loss to Real Madrid on Tuesday, the Maccabi Tel Aviv players felt a sense of missing out on a game in which they could have gotten a better result.
Last night (Thursday) at the end of the 92:82 loss to Baskonia outside, the feeling changed from a miss to frustration over a weak ability in a critical game, which may finally destroy the yellows' direct playoff dream this season in the Euroleague.
And if the loss wasn't enough, then at the end of the game Wade Baldwin attacked the referee of the game who didn't whistle for the foul to his credit, and is expected to be prosecuted by the Euroleague.
Maccabi believed that they would be able to stop their recent negative away streak, but even in the missing Esconia, they suffered a sixth loss away from home in Belgrade in the last seven games.
The story of the entire game was the third quarter, which Maccabi finished with a run of 0:6, but still lost 34:21.
The Yellows were unable to stop the star of Baskonia Marcus Howard who scored 26 points, nor the shooting of the rest of his friends as the Basques finish with 12 three-pointers at 43 percent.
On the offensive side, Maccabi got a good evening, or especially a good first quarter from Wade Baldwin who finished with 25 points, Lorenzo Brown scored 11 points with bad percentages, Josh Niebo and Hasiel Rivero were efficient with 12 points each.
But the attack was less the problem of the yellows than the defensive laxity.
"A difficult game for us," Josh Niebo concluded, "We didn't come with the right energy, and with the focus needed to win an away game. We allowed them to play to their strengths, and we didn't take out what they are good at. We have to move on and focus on the next game."
Antonios Cleveland, who returned to the rotation and scored 4 points in 14 minutes, said: "We have to better control the defensive rebound and make more defensive stops, we are a good team in the transition game, and we need our defense to create the attacks."
Will he get suspended?
Wade Baldwin/Danny Maron
2.
The disappointing loss became somewhat secondary in the end due to Baldwin's incident with match referee Marcin Kowalski.
In the last move, in which Maccabi tried to match the difference in last night's game with the difference in which they defeated the Basques in Belgrade, Baldwin claimed a foul, which according to the replays is not clear if it was committed on him.
He threw the ball at the referee and approached him in a threatening manner, and even after they tried to move him away from the scene, he returned and approached the referee.
"There are times when we run out of words," said a senior official at Maccabi Tel Aviv about Baldwin's conduct, "We knew that his promise not to receive a technicality in 2024 would not last, that is part of it, but we must accept technicalities, even those that gained us momentum in the games, and there are the This thing. It's hard to digest this behavior, and he probably doesn't understand that this thing is stopping him in a certain place."
The major concern in Maccabi Tel Aviv is that Baldwin will suffer a suspension for one or more games, and the club does not intend to wait for a decision on whether he will be prosecuted before deciding how to behave, and is expected to send a letter of apology for his behavior.
The club estimates that they will not know what Baldwin's punishment for his conduct, if any, will be until at least the middle of next week, and hope that he will finish the event with only a monetary fine.
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Another very weak game by him.
Brown/Official Site, Basconia
3.
For the first time this season, Maccabi Tel Aviv ended a double week not with a 1:1 balance, but Maccabi is currently entering a new streak.
Last night's loss was the yellows' fifth in a row in the second game of a double week, when the last time Maccabi managed to win a second game was against Elba Berlin on November 30 in Belgrade.
The feelings of the Yellows before last night's game were good, the team and the players believed that in light of the circumstances that led to the game they would be able to win on a difficult field, and the start was also appropriate with Maccabi scoring 26 points in the first quarter, with a performance by Wade Baldwin, and leading by 6.
However, the defensive game plan collapsed, Maccabi was unable to stop Marcus Howard who entered the game in the second quarter scoring 18 points and giving 2 assists in a quarter in which his team scored 34 points.
"In the end, in the bottom line, it's a loss of defensive indiscipline," said the club angrily, "it's true that between games in a double week there isn't much time to prepare for special things, but they worked very hard to stop the game between the two of Howard and his movement before he gets the The shot. In practice, it only lasted the few minutes he was on the court in the first quarter (Howard played only 4 minutes in the first quarter, AS). We couldn't stop what they were doing, which is a very bad sign going forward."
Even before the game we mentioned that Maccabi Tel Aviv is the worst defensive team in the Euroleague, but it turns out that their defensive level only drops when there is less time to prepare for games.
In the last five losses in the second game of the double week, Maccabi has conceded an average of 97 points per game, while in total in the second game of the double week they are scoring an average of 90.2 points, while in the other games this season Maccabi is scoring an average of 86 points per game.
Chima Monke in Asconia alongside Lorenzo Brown Maccabi Tel Aviv/Official website, in Asconia
4.
Maccabi is expected to still find itself in the play-in zone even after the completion of the round-robin games tonight, but unlike previous games, the gap between them and the teams that are in the playoffs is getting wider.
In high probability, the team that will be in sixth place will have an advantage of between a game and a half to two games over the Yellows, nine rounds to the end of the season, when the window of opportunity to close this gap is getting smaller.
The Yellows have one more game before the three-week break in the Euroleague, a break dedicated to national team matches and cup matches in the countries, against Anadolu Efes next week in Riga, and after that match the Yellows will enter a more comfortable game sequence.
In the last nine games of the season, Maccabi will only face three teams that are still competing for the play-in or the playoffs - Red Star, Valencia and Barcelona, with most of their games against teams that have already pretty much lost their chance to enter the play-in.
The estimates among Maccabi Tel Aviv people are that the number that will be enough to enter the playoffs is 20 wins, but to get there, Maccabi will also have to be better head-to-head than the opponent they are facing.
At this stage, only two teams that are in the playoff zone are inferior to the Yellows head to head, Panathinaikos, who may tonight be three games away from the Yellows, and Virtus Bologna that may also escape.
Looking forward to him and Maccabi's busy schedule. Catch/Official website, Ángel Martínez
5.
5. As mentioned after the game on Thursday in Riga, Maccabi Tel Aviv will have three weeks without a Euroleague game, but until February 18th, the yellow team's schedule is one of the busiest they will have this season.
Maccabi will play seven games in 16 days during this period, when apart from the Euroleague game another derby awaits them, this time at the Menorah Hall, a game on Friday at noon, February 16, against Hapoel Jerusalem in the Arena and this coming Saturday evening a difficult test against Hapoel Holon away.
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