Maccabi Tel Aviv celebrates the victory over Basconia/Maccabi Tel Aviv's official website
1.
Maccabi Tel Aviv has recorded great victories in recent years, but the celebrations seen last night (Tuesday) in the yellows' dressing room at the Belgrade Arena were the closest to championship celebrations. A few minutes after Maccabi humiliated Basconia with a crushing 85:113, in one of its biggest games in the last decade in the Euroleague, the dressing room danced. The first to receive the celebrations was Lorenzo Brown, who received the honor of kings for a huge presentation. Second followed by Wade Baldwin, and finally also coach Oded Ketch. Everything in the eyes of the management and the people of the club who marked a very difficult season in terms of the conditions, but one in which Maccabi stood up to the task in a big way.
As early as next Tuesday, Maccabi will open its third playoff series in a row against Panathinaikos in Greece. After the losses to Real Madrid and Monaco in the previous two years, the Yellows finally want to take the next step forward and return to the Final Four, ten years after the previous time.
There was quite a bit of pressure on the eve of the match for the Yellows, who believed within themselves that they were a better team than Baskonia, "and in a significant way", as one of the Maccabi people said yesterday. Maccabi didn't know how the pressure would affect, but from the start of the game the Yellows were much better than Basconia, especially Lorenzo Brown who scored 13 points in the first quarter en route to an incredible evening of 29 points. Wade Baldwin was there to help and little by little, with the help of Basconia's weak defense, Maccabi opened a big gap from which the Spaniards were not close to coming back.
Besides Brown who added 5 rebounds and 5 assists on the way to a 35-point score, Baldwin scored 26 points, Bonzie Colson added 14, Antonios Cleveland 11 and Tamir Blatt 10. Hasiel Rivero contributed 8 points and 6 rebounds in a non-dominant night for Josh Nieveau with 4 points only. On the losing side, Cody Miller-McIntyre scored 32 points along with 8 rebounds and 7 assists on the way to a 45 (!), but Marcus Howard was held to 14 points, and Chima Monka was injured in the second quarter and did not return to play.
"A great team effort, from the scouting through every player who stepped on the court. The team came and executed the game plan. The most important thing is that we had fun. It will be difficult against Panathinaikos, they are a good team, but this is a good opportunity for us. We are going to play playoff basketball, nothing more Better than that," concluded Antonios Cleveland.
2.
Many players in Maccabi Tel Aviv recorded a very good game or better last night, but in a few years, when they think of Lorenzo Brown's time in Maccabi Tel Aviv, they will first of all remember his performance last night.
Only less than a week ago, the entire Israeli media, including the writer of these lines, was concerned with the question of whether Brown is able to recover after his decline in fitness. Oded Ketch was sure that it was, as were his teammates. And Brown? He answered with two 3-pointers in the first minute of the game, 13 points in the first quarter, 7 total 3-pointers en route to 29 points, a huge performance. The celebrations and hugs in the locker room caught Maccabi's iceman with a huge smile.
"I thank everyone for the compliments," Brown said at the end, "I needed this game for my confidence, and for my teammates. People don't know how much pain I had in my hip nerve, but now I feel much better. The pain is gone."
The Maccabi men took their hats off to Brown. Chairman Shimon Mizrahi shook his hand and congratulated him at the end and one of the team members said while the team was dancing in the dressing room: "Lorenzo is here to do something big. If he plays like this, he can be the one to bring us to the Final Four."
3.
Professionally, at Maccabi Tel Aviv they ate, drank and breathed Marcus Howard since Saturday evening. The professional team had different plans how to slow down the great scorer of Baskonia. Wade Baldwin started the game as his point guard, Antonios Cleveland continued and did a great job, and James Webb contributed as well.
"An amazing game for all of us, it was a game we had to win. The coaches did a great job with the scouting, we focused on Marcus Howard, and whoever guarded him did a great job on him. You have to give them credit for the work on him," said Brown.
One of the Maccabi people said that: "We have players in the team who need to be 'turned on' to certain players. Letting Wade Baldwin guard Howard is telling him, 'The responsibility is on you, you are going head-to-head with the opponent's star.' Not every team does that That, but Wade has the character and the drive to break the opponent."
4.
The one who was finally not registered for last night's game was captain John DiBartholomew, who actually held the final training session on Monday in Belgrade. DiBartholomew warmed up before the game, but did not feel relaxed enough and finally, in a conversation with Oded Ketch, the two decided not to risk him, and to give him a rest.
Maccabi landed in Israel this morning and will meet Hapoel Haifa tomorrow (20:45) in a game that brings them closer to the end of the regular season in the Premier League. The Yellows will have one game left until the end of the season, Hapoel Be'er Sheva at home, with the date still not being finalized and Maccabi would prefer not to play it during the Euroleague playoff series.
DiBartolomeo is not expected to play against Haifa tomorrow either, when Maccabi will keep some of its stars and allow the players who played less minutes to get on the field in Rome to try and take revenge on Haifa who beat them in the first round, in a game in which the Yellows played without foreigners.