Last night, Maccabi Tel Aviv opened its EuroLeague season with a resounding 96-81 victory over Partizan Belgrade in front of 10,500 fans at Yad Eliyahu. Lorenzo Brown (22 points, 1 rebound, 8 assists and 2 steals), Josh Nebo (14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal) and Roman Sorkin (14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals) led the way for the Yellow & Blue, while Aleksa Avramovic (24 points, 2 assists and 1 steal), Perry Dozier Jr (13 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists) and Kevin Punter (11 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 steal) led the way for the visitors.

Here are a few of my reflections from Round 1.

The Good: Good All-Round Effort
Fans had waited six months for EuroLeague action to return and last night in Tel Aviv they were not disappointed. Off the court, there was a lot to be excited about as a Maccabi fan: walking to the stadium with thousands of brothers and sister draped in yellow and blue; singing Hatikvah before the game; getting together for the evening prayers at halftime next to Section 12; and hugging the people around you with whom you spend two hours with every two weeks on a Thursday night in the winter.

On the court, there were a lot of concerns for Maccabi coming into the game, with Wade Baldwin IV out injured and Nebo also injured following the disappointing loss to Jerusalem in the Winner Cup Final on Sunday night, which including a disappointing performance from Brown (Maccabi’s representative on last season’s All-EuroLeague First Team). Both coach Oded Katash and captain John DiBartolomeo spoke prior to the game about players needing to step up and plenty of players came to the table.

In Baldwin’s absence, Brown starred, scoring all of his points in the first half to set up the win. Tamir Blatt (8 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists and 1 steal) and Jasiel Rivero (11 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists) particularly impressed, especially with the energy that they brough coming off the bench. It was pleasing to see that other than Rafi Menco (who only played 6 and a half minutes), all dressed Maccabi players scored, and there was a relatively even split between the points scored by the starters (54 points) and the bench (42 points).

“Especially when we don’t have Wade, I think that’s a great start for us and offensively,” Katash said after the game. “I think Lorenzo [Brown] in the first few minutes pushed us for the right tempo that we need. I think offensively we were great in the first half. We played against a very talented team and I’m very happy for the W.

“We stuck to the gameplan and I’m proud of the guys,” Katash continued. “We shared the ball, we had 31 assists, we won the rebounds battle and I’m very happy. Obviously, we have a lot of things to improve on, but I’m very happy.”

“For sure, I just do the work people don’t see,” Brown said of his game. “I try to make myself better and my teammates. The basketball gods were in my favor in the start of the game. I’m in here every day working hard to be that type of player it was my night.”

“He had a great start to the game,” Nebo said of Brown. “He is our leader, we expect that from him. He is our point guard. I’m very happy he came and played big tonight.”

“Feels really good,” Jake Cohen (2 points, 1 rebound and 3 assists) reflected. “You saw the atmosphere tonight. Credit to management for not just bringing great players, but also high-quality guys. Everyone in this league has talent. What separates teams in this league is how you play together. And a lot of that starts in the locker room. Playing with the new guys and watching them fit in is great.”

“It was a team effort,” Blatt said of the win. “All of us together with the right energy.”

Blatt’s teammates were also happy to have him on board. “Tamir is the quick trigger,” Brown said of his fellow guard. “He has a quick shot he’s like a Ray Allen type of guy. He also for a small guy makes the tough passes. He will be big for us this year.”

“I am happy and excited,” Sorkin said of the win. He then spoke about Blatt’s first game for the club: “I have played with Tamir from the age of 14. He is a huge addition. He knows Oded’s system which is great. He plays at a high level and we are happy he is on our team.”

“He is a player who brings something a little different,” Katash said of Rivero. “I’m happy that during the minutes when we were stuck offensively he helped us escape that pressure. I’m happy that he gives us another type of class, of aggressiveness, post-up, offensive rebounding. He is a tough player and he’s important to us. As time passes we will be able to use him more, but relative to the stage of the season we used him well in the second half and there were 3-4 minutes during which he really helped us win the game.”

The Bad: Struggling New Faces
While Blatt and Rivero shone on debut, Antonius Cleveland (4 points, 4 assists and 2 steals) and James Webb III (3 points) struggled in their first performance for the Yellow & Blue. Cleveland did start to look more comfortable during the game and he came up big defensively for the team – which is one of the main reasons that he was signed over the summer – but he started off looking nervous and Webb looked out of sync at times with his teammates. This is expected when playing with new teammates under a new system and so it will surely improve as the season goes on.

“He is an amazing person, he really wants to prove himself and he wants to learn every day,” Katash said of Cleveland. You can feel that the intensiveness of the EuroLeague are still new for him – not necessarily today – but I say it positively as it shows he has an upside. He is one of the players that I have hope that will make us a better team.”

“I never really played in an environment like this since maybe college,” Cleveland said after his EuroLeague debut. “Everything else I felt comfortable. I had to get on the board. I was a little bit excited. I was really excited.”

Cleveland’s teammates had praise for him after his first EuroLeague performance.

“Cleveland is the EuroLeague Kahwi Leonard, man,” Brown said. “Defensively he is a beast. He can push the ball as well. He is a guard from 1 through 5. He is so athletic.”

“Cleveland played amazing today on defense,” Nebo concurred. “Things you can’t see in the stats.”

“It felt great we protected home court we hit some shots which let us break away,” Webb said after the game. “In the second half we started a bit slow, but we picked it up. Guys getting used to each other and working on it as we go.

“They pretty much have the same core along with the new guys like Jasiel [Rivero] and myself,” Webb continued. “We learned our roles and the team embraces us. We were able to switch a few things and we have bigs who can move their feet. We need to play line ourselves we need to keep our identity. Everything else will take care of itself.”

The Ugly: Free Throws
When a team wins convincingly, it’s hard to find the ugly. If there’s one thing that caused the crowd to moan in unison, it was the missed opportunities from free throws. Overall Maccabi shot at 75% (15/20), which may not seem that bad, but when the game was in the balance at the start, there were some misses in the first quarter which left fans wondering whether this was a sign of things to come: Nebo missed one of his two free throws a little under three minutes into the game, with Maccabi holding a slender 8-7 lead; Bonzie Colson (12 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals) missed one of his two free throws with a little over four minutes left in the quarter, with Maccabi up 16-9; and Rivero missed one of his two free throws with 90 seconds left in the quarter and Maccabi up 24-13. From 3/6 at 50% in the first quarter it got better, with Maccabi’s last 30 minutes resulting in 12/14 from the penalty (86%), so the nerves did subside as the game went on. Next game, everyone will be hoping that they can maintain a high percentage from the free throw line from the get-go.

Up Next: Opening of the Winner League at Home and a Trip to Italy
Maccabi now prepares to begin its defense of its Winner League championship, with a home game against Kiryat Ata and Israeli teen sensation, Ben Saraf, on Sunday night (17:30 IDT / 10:30 EDT). Then they’ll fly to Italy for the second round of the EuroLeague, where they will be hosted by Milan on Thursday night (21:30 IDT / 14:30 EDT).