The yellows struggled to find their groove and dropped their first practice game this summer. Brown scored 14 points, Rivero chipped in 13
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv dropped its first game of the season, losing 77:89 to Panathinaikos in the conclusion of the Nick Galis Tournament in Rhodes, Greece. The yellows suffered from understandable mistakes in their third preseason game, and will try to fix them until next weekend, when they will participate in another tournament in Cyprus.
It was a typical preseason affair, full of missteps and and signs of rust. The Israeli champs struggled from beyond the arc all game long, and had a hard time stopping former yellow Mathias Lessort.
Yet even in this setting, Maccabi showed their fighting spirit by cutting a 12-point deficit to 7 in the final frame, led by Lorenzo Brown. But it proved to be too little, too late, and Juancho Hernangomez iced the game late.
Brown was Maccabi’s leading scorer with 14 points, with Jasiel Rivero close behind with 13.
“It was a good tournament for us”, concluded head coach Oded Kattash, “Today we didn’t play well, we lacked focus on both sides of the court. But this is why these games are so important – we learn from them”.
