Even if we take the final 30 seconds of last night’s game at Valencia’s arena into account (and we don’t necessarily have to), one thing still needs to be said: Maccabi Tel Aviv deserved its win over the Spanish side in orange. It’s an achievement shared by only one other team, reigning champion Olympiacos. Beyond the victory itself, this was also the first time I’ve seen the yellow-and-blue show some semblance of quality in its rotation, with the exception of power forward. That depth was crucial against a high-octane team like Valencia.

Make no mistake, Oded Katash’s squad remains several zip codes away from the two teams mentioned above, but last night Maccabi took a significant step forward. For the first time this season, it looked a top-tier EuroLeague opponent in the eye and managed, even if only in stretches, to be the better team.

In stark contrast to Dimitris Itoudis’ approach two weeks ago, Katash decided to play on Valencia’s home court in the first half, in every sense of the phrase. Both teams came out fast and aggressive, with few reservations about letting fly from beyond the arc, no small feat for the yellow-and-blue. Valencia gave Maccabi plenty of clean looks and the visitors fully embraced the hosts’ up-tempo identity. It was not a bad idea, either. As of last night, Valencia was the highest-scoring team in Europe, shooting at an excellent clip and boasting a 4-1 record, the exact opposite of Maccabi’s start to the season.

In the first quarter, Maccabi genuinely played Valencia-style basketball and it worked. Yam Madar cleverly shifted the focus of the offense inside and outside, time and again, much like TJ Shorts does so well. Maccabi’s guard opened the game with seven straight points and carved up the defense almost single-handedly. Roman Sorkin, Jimmy Clark and Bonzie Colson were right there with him, patiently waiting for their opportunities and knocking down open threes, just as Valencia’s Jaime Pradilla, Nate Reuvers and Nikola Mirotic were doing on the other end. Oshae Brissett, meanwhile, waited for his teammates to find him on cuts, much like Valencia’s patient Reuvers.

Maccabi executed better than its opponent, scoring 31 points while shooting 5/7 from downtown and 8/9 on two-pointers. It was the kind of quarter worth saving and revisiting. By the end of it, one perfectly legitimate question remained: Could Maccabi sustain Valencia’s pace?

At some point in the second quarter, the experiment came to an end. Valencia cranked up the aggression and choked off Maccabi’s pick-and-roll game. With the defensive assignment falling to Iffe Lundberg and Daniel Theis, the hosts began chipping away at a lead that had been in double digits just three minutes earlier. Before long, it was gone, punctuated by another Lundberg turnover, not his last of the night and a determined Gonzalo Corbalán racing down the floor for an awkward reverse dunk, accompanied by the familiar trumpets that blared throughout the evening.

If the first half was a dance competition, with eight 3-pointers for each side and nearly 100 combined points, the second half was a full-blown battle of attrition.

Katash’s yellow-and-blue increasingly took the ball inside and enjoyed excellent stretches from Brissett, Clark and Sorkin. Each took a turn helping Maccabi build a small cushion, but the stubborn Spaniards kept finding points from every conceivable source despite struggling badly from beyond the arc, shooting just 3/17 from three-point range. Valencia outscored Maccabi 23-12 in points off turnovers and added 17 second-chance points. Two of those came from Armoni Brooks, helping the hosts carry a narrow lead into a tightly contested fourth quarter.

But Maccabi Tel Aviv had not made the long train journey from Barcelona to lose, at least not if Jimmy Clark had anything to say about it.

After Colson, enjoying his first genuinely strong performance in a while and Sorkin scored for the visitors, while Nikola Mirotic went to work at the free-throw line and Corbalán continued finding points by hook or by crook for Valencia, the game entered crunch time. That was when Clark arrived.

Maccabi’s No. 2 took matters into his own hands, sprinkling a little stardust with two spectacular plays reminiscent of Oklahoma City’s own No. 2, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, to bring home Maccabi’s second win of the season.

That could have been the perfect ending to this column. Instead, Katash’s team endured several more agonizing minutes in the closing seconds, nearly losing its composure altogether. Fortunately for Maccabi, its head remained firmly attached to Jimmy’s broad shoulders as they held on for the win.