“We missed an opportunity, we were in the game,” Maccabi Tel Aviv said last night (Thursday) after the 84:77 loss to the Red Star Belgrade in the 29th round of the Euroleague. The Yellows knew they had an opportunity that could bring them significantly closer to the playoffs, probably after the decision was made regarding the voting system, but in the end the drought of the national champion continued, failing to beat the Reds in Belgrade since the 2013/2014 season.
“We were not able to make significant stops when we needed to,” Maccabi said when the issue of defense was again in focus. The opening was not good for Avi Even’s trainees, who found themselves 16 points behind and although they managed to make stops on defense on the way to the comeback, in the end did not achieve the desired victory.
The Red Star arrived at the meeting at Alexander Nikolic Hall with a streak of three home wins in the Euroleague, two of them over Fenerbahce and Real Madrid. “We knew it would be difficult,” the yellow club said after the game in one of the home halls on the continent, emphasizing for the umpteenth time that “Scotty Wilbkin, Ante Zizic and James and Nanley can not be alone.”
In fact, beyond the three only Derrick Williams scored in double digits, but his percentage to 2 stood at only 25%. The club was disappointed with the assisting team, and especially McKinnon Evans, who on the very evening when the team needed him, got into a foul problem and in his 06:48 minutes on the floor scored four points and delivered two assists.
“We snatched too many threes from an offensive rebound, it’s hard to win like that, they scored too many baskets on a second chance,” Maccabi tried to explain to Maccabi the main reasons for the loss. 46:27 The Yellows surrendered in the return ball balance, when out of the 46 rebounds picked up by Diane Radonic’s players, no less than 21 were on the attack. The loss was the 11th in the number of Israeli champions in the new ranking system, and the 14th overall if you consider the games against the teams from Russia. The yellow-blues can still qualify for the playoffs, but the task will not be easy at all.
John Dibertolomao He said after the game: “A difficult game for us, we wanted to come back with the win, they deserve credit, they played well in the fourth quarter, it’s a hard field to play on, we were ready but we were behind most of the game and the rebounds killed us, we are all responsible and we need to be better “. Ante Zizic He added: “We are very disappointed, we did not start the game well, and when you have to chase them it is difficult, their attacking rebound was the key to their victory.”