Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv 
Olympiacos Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv
Made/Att
Made/Att
Made/Att
DEF OFF TOT
CM RV
FV AG
Olympiacos
Made/Att
Made/Att
Made/Att
DEF OFF TOT
CM RV
FV AG
On Tuesday: Maccabi faces Olympiacos in Belgrade
The yellows will look for a third straight EuroLeague win against last season's finalists (9:05 PM Israel time, 2:05 PM ET). Kattash: "The key is rebounding"
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv will look to extend its winning streak on Tuesday, hosting last season’s finalist Olympiacos in a “home” game in Belgrade (9:05 PM Israel time, 2:05 PM ET). The Israeli champions are coming off of a 93:90 victory over Bayern Munich last week, which was their second straight triumph.
Olympiacos, who were one Sergio Llull shot from winning the EuroLeague title last season, lost their two leading players over the summer in F Sasha Vezenkov and G Kostas Sloukas. They replaced them by bringing in F Luke Sikma and G Nigel Williams-Goss, along with veteran C Nikola Milutinov. Yet so far, the reds from Piraeus are struggling to replicate last season’s success and sit at the 10th place with a 3-4 record.
“We are coming off of two wins and we would like to continue that against a very strong opponent”, said Maccabi’s head coach Oded Kattash, “The key is controlling the rebounds which is critical for us to be able to run and score easy points”.
“Playing in an empty arena is tough so we have to come out with the right energy from the start”, commented C Josh Nebo, “We also need to be able to execute the game plan the coaches prepare for us”.
F Bonzie Colson also chimed in ahead of the contest: “We need to rebound the ball on both sides of the floor, play hard, limit our turnovers, continue to move the ball offensively and just play the game that we love”.
Maccabi's late rally not enough against Olympiacos
The Israeli champs closed a 15-point gap but could not complete a comeback in Belgrade. Sorkin excelled with 16 points. On Thursday: Fenerbahce arrives
In many ways, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv had no business fighting for a victory against the EuroLeague finalists until the final seconds on Tuesday. The yellows lost Wade Baldwin IV to a stomach bug, received nearly zero offensive output from Lorenzo Brown and Bonzie Colson (combined for 4-out-of-21 from the field) and made only 6 threes out of 30 attempts.
Yet the Israeli champs nearly eked out a third win in a row, narrowly conceding a 74:79 loss to Olympiacos in Belgrade. Maccabi rallied back from a 15-point halftime deficit and made it a one possesion game, but failed to capitalise and fell to a 4-3 record.
“We lost the game in the first half on defense”, admitted head coach Oded Kattash postgame. “We fought in the second half, did a good job defensively, played with the right energy in the second half and gave ourselves a chance to win but it wasn’t a good enough game offensively”.
With Brown (8 assists) and Colson (9 rebounds) having an off shooting day, other players stepped up. Roman Sorkin had what is easily his best game of the season, leading Maccabi’s scoring with 16 points – including a three-pointer in the final minute. Tamir Blatt scored 13 while new forwards James Webb and Jasiel Rivero each added 10 points.
Coach Kattash will have less than 48 hours to prepare for another challenging EuroLeague matchup on Thursday, when it will be Fenerbahce’s turn to visit Maccabi in Serbia.
