The opening of the Euroleague games is a special day in a team’s season, certainly a team like Maccabi Tel Aviv, whose entire components: management, professional team, players, fans and the entire basketball community are eagerly waiting for it, because the Euroleague for those who like the factory and those who don’t – is the best basketball league in Europe .
Many teams want to participate in it and some basketball experts in the world consider it second in the world after the NBA. Well, Maccabi Tel Aviv did a very extensive construction, all the foreigners were replaced and at least two of the Israelis were brought in from Po’el Holon, Panini and Manko, so together with the coach Oded Ketch who is returning to the club after a long time and he knows the tasks, it’s a special day for all of them.
It’s true, everyone goes through it differently, but it goes around in your head, in the last 24 hours not everyone sleeps quietly and continuously and you wake up with all kinds of scenes that run through your head. The players, each one with his own thoughts, and the coach continues to rack his brain until the last minute, thinking about what he had time to do and prepare and what he didn’t, imagining how he manages the game and what formations he runs.
There are coaches who prepare for them in writing on a note in their pocket all kinds of things that he plans and reminds himself, upon entering the stadium the tension and pressure begins and going up to the field with the introduction of the players can have an effect on the players, suddenly the shoulders or legs are heavy, but here the expectation of the professional team is who will be the first to regain his senses and sweep away With him all of them, and what should the coach do to release them.
There has been a debate for many years which is better to play, first game at home or away, and the debate never ends. Remember what happened last year in the first two games at home against Bayern Munich and Red Star, because if something goes wrong, all the pressure goes from the visiting team to the host.
Well, Maccabi, Ketch and the players need to create a team that will bring victories. This is the essence of Maccabi and if you want to reach the top 8, according to history you need 18 to 19 victories, and if you want higher then the number of victories required is higher. It’s a long season, but Zalgiris is ranked by all the experts across Europe 16 to 18 as a must-win. Good game, bad game, team building, everything is fine and dandy – but winning this game is necessary.
It is clear that Maccabi is built around Brown and Baldwin, and the cooperation between the two is important and so far they show that they understand it, but several other elements are important, a hierarchy dictated by the coach will be accepted by the players. The bench should be ready and should accept it, make every effort to enter the game in a smart, smooth way and give the team what it needs in the minutes in question. This is the meaning of a team, and certainly a winning team.
We will get to the interior players. Maccabi Tel Aviv has two fast interior players, Poithers and Nivo. They can go a lot for explosive attacks, are not brilliant at shooting from the outside, but finish great close to the rim, and from there we arrive at position 4, which today also requires shooting from a distance, and here there is a question mark about C ‘Rel Martin, and sometimes with Bonzie Colson, who will also move between the 3 and 4 position, but still a question mark about the three-point shooting of both.
Darren Hillard is a good 3-point shooter and you need to find a way to take advantage of him, even when he won’t be in the top five and create other game exercises for him. Manko, Sorkin and Panini should get on the field and give everything for the team, each in their role, and this will also give them more playing minutes that they so desire, because their good actions will give the coach faith in their strength.
In the Euroleague, a stronger and more aggressive defense is required than in the Israeli league, and Ketch tried in the losing games in the Yiankopoulos tournament an unconventional, but strong and aggressive line-up with the top three Colson and Baldwin, but Brown was not at his disposal in this tournament. So much for the theories, now for today’s game. The game started with a different five than what was planned in the summer, with Poythers and Nieuw with Colson and the two star guards, Baldwin and Lorenzo Brown.
In the first half the attack of course showed the talent of Baldwin and the great decisions of Lorenzo Brown. On the other hand, the defense was soft and Zalgiris took advantage of the soft exchanges that created bad adjustments in defense. Evans did as much as he could on the court and a number of drives were attempted, but also showed some defensive weaknesses and shots from some players out of positions they should throw, such as Poithers from three, which is not his position.
Fortunately for Maccabi Tel Aviv, the first half ended with only a small deficit. At the start of the second half the defense improved and with some bursts with good finishes by Coulson and then a reasonable activation by Nibo, gave the host a ten-point lead, but the Lithuanians came back and started to reduce the score. Maccabi Tel Aviv was disorganized in attack, and if last year everyone was complaining about Vilvkin, today there were so many shots from three that no one knew who should do what.
The Lithuanians prevented Lorenzo Brown from receiving the ball and the business stalled a bit at the end of the game. A late basket by the Lithuanians prevented a losing start, but the team has a lot of work to do. Improving the defense quickly, not making too easy exchanges, and there are incompatibilities. On the other hand, a change and improvement of the order in the attack is required – who does what, who is allowed to make shooting decisions and from what range is correct.
It is the beginning of the season and it is much better to learn lessons after a victory, because there is a lot of work. Some of the compositions were not successful. Manko shared too little, Sorkin and Panini did not share at all and we will see how it continues in the next match in Istanbul against Fenerbahçe of Wilbkin and Itudis.