Maccabi Flattens Givat Shmuel, 81 – 61

By Amy Samin

Five days before the crucial game against Malaga at Nokia Arena, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv faced off against Maccabi Givat Shmuel in the fifth round of Winner League games, with the goal of starting a new winning streak.

The opening whistle found Tal Burstein, Carlos Arroyo, Lior Eliyahu, D’or Fischer and Marcus Brown on the court for Maccabi.
Givat Shmuel opened with Corry Carr, Jonhatan Nir, Roye Berkovitz, Ronald Ross and Steffon Bradford.

It’s impossible to say that Maccabi played against a threatening opponent in Sunday’s game, but four and a half minutes after the start of the game, Maccabi was barely leading, 6 – 5.
It was the same old story of problems on defense and disorganization on offense.
Two three-pointers by Carr brought the score to a tie, until Arroyo took matters into his own hands, scoring two from outside the arc and making an assist to Eliyahu, which gave Maccabi a 19 – 11 lead with two minutes left in the quarter.
That was the start of Maccabi’s wave of momentum, with Brown and Burstein scoring, to the dismay of their opponents, and the quarter ended with the score 24 – 11 to Maccabi.

Maccabi kept on coming in the second quarter, with three-pointers by team captain Derrick Sharp and Arroyo bringing the score to 34 – 15 after three minutes of play.
Omri Casspi and Yaniv Green also played a part, overwhelming the weaknesses of the visitors.
With four and half minutes left in the half, Maccabi had almost effortlessly risen to a 42 – 19 lead.
The only thing keeping Givat Shmuel in the game was Maccabi’s known difficulty with defensive rebounds, which enabled the visitors to keep scoring easy baskets.
Arroyo, refreshed after several minutes’ rest, came off the bench near the end of the second quarter and, together with Jason Williams, gave Maccabi a comfortable 46 – 27 lead at the half.

The tireless Carr continued to irk Maccabi with the start of the second half, and helped his team close Maccabi’s lead to 48 – 32 after two and a half minutes in the third quarter.
A series of beautiful offensive and defensive plays (including 2 blocked shots in a row by Fischer) were erased by three-pointers from Carr and Moshe Brener, and five minutes into the quarter the score was 56 – 40.
Some weak defense and lack of confidence on offense by Maccabi saw Givat Shmuel coming back strong into the game, and Maccabi’s lead was cut to 56 – 46, causing Maccabi’s head coach Efy Birenboim to call a time out.
Maccabi came out of the break re-energized, and a beautiful assist by Arroyo and points by Williams saw the third quarter close on a 60 – 46 Maccabi lead.

At the start of the fourth quarter, Efy kept in the same players who had stopped Givat Shmuel’s scoring run in the previous quarter, but Jermaine Hall scored a quick three-pointer, and after two and half minutes of play in the quarter, the score had gone to 60 – 52.
Efy was slapped with a technical foul for his courtside antics, and Givat Shmuel took advantage of his wild behavior by closing the gap with 4 free throws and a basket by Bradford.
Three minutes into the quarter the score stood at 60 – 57.
The Maccabi players, who couldn’t understand where their comfortable lead had gone, began to fight for every point, clawing their way to a 66 – 59 lead after a basket by Brown.
The pressure began to sink in, and as in every game so far this season, Maccabi looked to Arroyo.
The point guard scored and made beautiful assists to Fischer, announcing Maccabi’s return to an effective offense.
Burstein and Fischer came to life at exactly the right moment, and ensured a Maccabi victory with a 14 – 0 scoring run right up until the end of the game.
The visitors didn’t have chance, and the game ended with the score Maccabi 81, Givat Shmuel 61.

Box Scores:

Maccabi:
Arroyo 19 points, 8 assists; Eliyahu 18 points, 7 rebounds; Brown 13 points; Fischer 10 points; Burstein 8 points; Casspi and Williams 4 points; Sharp 3 points; Green 2 points.

Givat Shmuel’s top scorers were: Bradford 17 points; Carr 16 points; Ross 9 points; Hall 7 points.

“We lost our focus, it wasn’t pressure.
We needed to calm down,” explained Maccabi team captain Derrick Sharp.
“It’s dangerous to lead by 20 points; I start to relax.
We haven’t led by twenty points very often this season, and we’re not used to it.
We have to find our killer instinct, in order to close the game.”

Marcus Brown denies that there is stress among the team members: “You guys need to quit asking about pressure.
Basketball is fun; it’s doing what I love.
Sometimes I enjoy it more, and sometimes less, but pressure is to come from a small town like I did, to try and succeed in life and survive.”

Tal Burstein: “I don’t think it was anything professional.
We opened up a big lead and I guess we lost focus and relaxed.
Without paying attention, they closed the lead to three points.
We got back down to business like we should have been doing, and brought the lead back up.
I hope and want to believe that there’s no connection to the festival in the media lately about Efy.”

Veteran Givat Shmuel player, Corry Carr, said, “Some bad plays here and there, and Maccabi got away from us.
Maccabi is a team still searching for itself; but our young players deserve credit.
We put up a good fight for 35 minutes.
We wasted an opportunity to win; we were too much in awe of Maccabi.
They not only represent themselves, they represent the whole country.
It was a good test for us to show where we belong in the league.”

samintranslations@yahoo.com