Maccabi Tel Aviv lost yet another close heartbreaker of a game that they should have won this time against Panathinaikos 93-87 at the OAKA Arena in a matchup that they were in control of for the majority of minutes.

But once again the player exhaustion set in and the yellow-and-blue couldn’t make the necessary plays down the stretch to hold onto the lead and notch the victory. Getting outscored in the final frame to the tune of 33-24 isn’t exactly going to help you pick up any W’s as Maccabi couldn’t get the stops they needed and saw the fans urge the greens on to push and push hard as the hosts eventually took the lead and held on to it until time ran out.

This was a game that Head Coach Oded Katash’s players did almost everything right from the tipoff as they controlled the pace of play right into halftime with a 47-37 lead that silenced the OAKA faithful. However, one didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that PAO was going to make a run which they did out of the break to cut the lead down to just a trio of points before heading into the fateful fourth quarter.

Kendrick Nunn, Cedi Osman and Matthias Lessort all came through in the clutch as Roman Sorkin’s career game of 21 points and 7 rebounds went right down the tubes very quickly.

Katash complained after the game that his charges were dead tired by the final ten minutes and how he didn’t have much of choice, however, Ergin Ataman also went with his main men over that same time and played them pretty much for the entire quarter.

The difference is that the Turkish tactician went with 11 players who all had over 6 minutes of playing time and the Israeli used just 9 players in his rotation with captain John Dibartolomeo, Jake Cohen and Rafi Menco all riding the pine for the 40 minute affair.

Not sure how much Katash’s complaint can hold water with the above being the case.

Certainly an overtime loss on Sunday against Bnei Herzliya didn’t help matters and an injury to Jasiel Rivero is a killer in the frontcourt, but the bench boss could have used his bench in the first half to take a load off of his players that would have kept them fresh in crunch time when he really needed them. All three players who didn’t see the court could have played 5-6 minutes which would have reduced the load when all the chips were on the table.

Another overarching issue is Saben Lee who has yet to step foot and kiss the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport. Lee played only 17 minutes and could have most definitely played more than that also relieving the likes of Sorkin, Rokas Jokubaitis, Jaylen Hoard and Levi Randolph who all put in serious time over the past 48 hours.

It’s clear that Katash is not thrilled that Lee stays in Europe when the rest of the team heads back to Israel and can’t take part in the practices and domestic league games. It’s probably against every one of his moral values as a head coach, but as he said in the post game press conference of the win over Hapoel Beer Sheva over a week ago that he had no clue that this was part of his agreed upon contract.

Lee is a game breaker and dynamic player who is a top of the line talent who arrived earlier in the season from Manisa, but Katash is only getting a small percentage of what the guard can provide him and the team and that is a crying shame.

While Lee willed Maccabi to a pair of victories, it must be internally killing the bench boss that he can’t prepare properly for one game after another in Europe as the club’s record now dropped to 3-6.

Somehow, Maccabi management needs to convince Lee to get on that ELAL Sun D’Or flight on Friday and touch down in Israel so that the entire continental campaign this year doesn’t head the way of the dinosaur.

Up next is a “home” date against Olympiacos in a game that will be played in Belgrade on Thursday night with what looks like a very small chance for Maccabi to come away with the win. Of course, that was the case after the yellow-and-blue fell to Fenerbahce in the last Euroleague Double Week but were then able to beat Real Madrid, so it’s definitely not mission impossible for Katash and crew.

ASVEL just played the Piraeus based club toe-to-toe and down to the wire in which Theo Maledon, yes Theo Maldeon scored 31 points to keep the French squad close and in fact ahead with under 3 minutes to go at the Peace and Frienship Arena. But Georgios Bartzokas has plenty of firepower and depth with a roster that he used all 12 players in the win and split up the minutes in order to not head into the back end of the week with their tongues hanging out.

Evan Fournier and Sasha Vezenkov both came in from the NBA, Thomas Walkup, Shaq McKissic, Luca Vildoza, Nigel Williams-Goss and Tyler Dorsey will all cause Maccabi problems while Nikola Milutinov is back to his old tricks in the paint not to mention Alec Peters. This team has oodles of talent in what will be a brutal gut check for Maccabi.

Can the yellow-and-blue find a way to get that W that they do desperately need to stay relevant or will they drop to 4 game sunder .500 after almost a third of the season and see their campaign slip sliding away?

Katash has been a miracle worker thus far, but can he pull another rabbit out of the hat?