Maccabi Tel Aviv 2021-22

[felix_r]

Keenan Evans G
Yiftach Ziv G
Scottie Wilbekin G
John Dibartolomeo G

Kameron Taylor G/SF
James Nunally G/SF

Angelo Caloiaro F
Oz Blayzer F
Derrick Williams F

Roman Sorkin E/C
Jake Cohen F/C

Jalen Reynolds C
Ante Zizic C

[MikeMaccabiFan]

Tzvika Sharf article for ONE sports site

Sorry for long post - that's Google Translate (I edited it a bit, but sorry if I missed something) of Tzvika Sharfs post in Hebrew after Maccabi's win. And may be certain troll thinks that Sharf is "mediocre", in my opinion he is one of most knowledgeable specialists in European basketball:
Zvika Sharf in a personal column for ONE: The Greek and Maccabi disrupted the exercises of Sharas and Barça by exploiting the weaknesses in their defence. When Wilbekin and Nunnaly are fit, the opponent has no answer.

Maccabi Tel Aviv against Barcelona. The two biggest teams in Europe and the Euroleague in particular and a prestigious history of meetings. This time, the Spanish team arrived with its coach Sharas, who has led them so far to a perfect season opener in the Euroleague and the league, but he, and frankly no one else, expected the amazing display of Maccabi. The first quarter that ended at 18:31 for the Yellows and scoring against Barça such an amount in one quarter it almost does not happen. This is joined by the great second quarter with 18:25 and this completed a perfect half that we did not see very much time from the Yellows.

One has to praise Yannis Sfaipropoulos and the players for an amazing basketball display, not only offensively with incredible shooting percentages, but more than that with great ball movement and a ratio of 15 assists. In the first half we got a distribution of points between everyone, each player was looking for his free friend and we witnessed the movement of the players without a ball to free positions when they actually break the defence that is still considered the best in the Euroleague.

Yannis managed the game excellently and Sharas had no solutions and answers and he seemed at a loss. I do not blame Sharas because I consider him the best coach in Europe, but as of tonight, Maccabi and Yannis have beaten Barça and him in every part of the match. The game, Maccabi's excellent tactical preparation, the great defence while disrupting all of Barcelona's exercises, an excellent team attack with the exploitation of every weakness that the Catalans' defence has and as mentioned, a dreamy and perfect first half.

Move to the second half. In the third quarter, where Maccabi is a bit down in abilities, it did stop and Barça managed to shrink a bit, but the Yellows and Yannis acted while moving and built a hierarchy. The Greek coach has decided that James Nunally and Jaylen Reynolds are coming off the bench and it is going great. Today he brought up Cameron Taylor in the top five to keep Kyle Koric and it was more successful than expected as Taylor also got into the offensive pace of the whole team. Ante Zizic, who returned from injury, also played well under the basket and suddenly Barcelona also do not have two players for position five, as Maccabi has with the current fitness of Zizic and Reynolds.


When the teams put effort into closing Scotty Wilbekin, Nunally comes off the bench in both the first and second halves and does his job, and the opposing team finds no answer to two such scorers when they are as fit as tonight. Keenan Evans in the guard position is also starting to connect to his role and get to know his teammates better and how to run them, when tonight he was on the floor for 31 minutes, most of all.

Brandon Davis, center of Barcelona, every time he received the ball in the low post, he received a double team that not only prevented him from scoring, but also prevented him from delivering and the defensive coordination in these situations was successful and impressive by Maccabi Tel Aviv. True, Barcelona came from a difficult week and they looked tired, but most of all they looked overwhelmed by Maccabi's great and versatile ability because they have not yet encountered such an opponent this year.

Some will say that Maccabi made the change in the second half in Milan, others will point to the victory at Villeurbanne, but tonight's game is an important turning point. This is a total victory over a senior team with a high level of team and individual ability, and now Maccabi can lift the bar for itself as early as next week, when an important game awaits them in Vitoria, a place where Maccabi is booming and must strive for victory to continue in the top four. .

And again, well done for an excellent basketball game with an amazing atmosphere that lit up the players and the crowd, and the end result speaks for itself. This is the leap forward.