Backs against the wall, do or die, it’s now or never.

It’s all that and more for Maccabi Tel Aviv as they head into a must win game three Tuesday night against Real Madrid in their Euroleague quarterfinal series after having fallen in the first two games in Spain by a whopping total of 39 points. The only positive that came out of the opening two contests is that total points don’t count in this best of five series; it’s wins and losses. However, after being bested in game one 84-74 and manhandled in game two 95-66, the gap between the two teams is quite glaring.

The yellow-and-blue had their chances in game one but were always a step behind playing catchup especially when Los Blancos couldn’t miss from downtown with veteran snipers Fabien Causeur and Rudy Fernandez doing the majority of damage. In game two, Avi Even’s troops came to play for most of the first quarter but then Sergio Llull entered the fray with a vengeance as he looked to put his scoreless performance in game one to bed. And boy did he ever to the tune of three straight triples to end off the first frame and hand his team a 35-26 lead with they never looked back from.

Maccabi was shellshocked and never recovered from the Llull blitz as they headed into halftime down by 19-points and without any ounce of confidence. Pablo Laso’s Real continued to pour on the offense as big men Vincent Poirier, Guerschon Yabusele and Walter Tavares scored at will to put the finishing touches on a dominant 29-point win that left Even shaking his head in disbelief as to how his team was outplayed and totally outclassed.

“We lost in almost every aspect of the game,” the bench boss said. “We need to find a way to come back from this loss, from these two losses. We are heading back to Tel Aviv to get the first win of the series and go game by game.”

Maccabi captain John Dibartolomeo was at a loss for words following the game after having started out well, “I don’t know exactly (what happened). They got hot we didn’t respond, we didn’t come together, we didn’t get stops, we didn’t get rebounds or 50/50 balls. All those things just compiled into a run and something that we never stopped.”

In both of the games the yellow-and-blue couldn’t find a way to stop Real’s 3-point shooters as they went 16/29 in game one and 14/35 in the second. The amount of shots hit from beyond the arc have been staggering and unfortunately for Maccabi Tel Aviv this is nothing new as they have had trouble all season long defending the perimeter as one shooter after the next have taken full advantage of the porous defense.

“We has some rough defensive minutes and they translated that into easy points,” Even explained. “They took advantage of the game that was in their hands and increased their lead. Their 3-pointers, the volume and their percentage and also the offensive rebounds that they were taking.”

Poirier himself grabbed 6 of the 13 offensive boards that Maccabi allowed Real to snatch as the Frenchman recorded a 16 point and 10 rebound double0-double. In fact, Maccabi had no players that finished in double digits in game two which is a definitely a recipe for disaster when not one single player steps up to the occasion.

“I’m frustrated and upset,” a thoroughly disturbed Dibartolomeo stated. “I didn’t think we deserved to play like that at this stage. We have been through a lot this season and we have been challenged numerous times and I think that we deserve to show a better picture than we did. I am frustrated as to how we reacted when times got tough, It’s not something new for us. We have learned how to deal with these situations and we didn’t do that in the biggest game of the year, let’s be honest. Now we have another challenge and we need to step up.”

Maccabi will be certainly challenged in game three. On one hand the yellow-and-blue will be at home in front of their own crowd who will play the 6th man to perfection, but Real Madrid is on the other side of the court raring to go as they know that one more win will send them to the Final Four and a chance to take home the continental crown.

“We know that we have a lot of work ahead and we are headed to Tel Aviv,” Real coach Pablo Laso said. “But, of course, I am really happy because we have a 2-0 advantage. I expect a great environment and the fans support their team a lot. A team like this is very dangerous and they will be even more dangerous because they will be on their home court. I want to make sure my players feel that they have done nothing yet as we need to win one more game to win the series.”

Poirier echoed his coach’s thoughts, “The job is not finished. We know that Tel Aviv is a tough place to play. So it will be two tough games. We need to take one, so we will see. We used the home-court advantage well and won.”

Maccabi point guard Keenan Evans is well aware as to what the squad needs to do, “We’ll try to reset and put this game in the past. Not to think too much about it. We can’t do anything to change this game. We’ve just got to wait till the next one. We have to get in the gym, get on the same page and be ready for a big fight.”

Even agreed that Maccabi have to out the two games in Spain way out of their heads in order to be able to get back into the series and regain confidence, “It’s a totally different game. We need to forget these games and go back to Tel Aviv – a place where we feel much more secure. I feel we will find a way. I know we will find a way. We have a few days to prepare ourselves and we’ll do it.”

Finally, Dibartolomeo went straight to the point as to Maccabi’s precarious position, “We put our backs against the wall and we can’t afford anymore losses or anymore mistakes in that sense. We need to come out and play our basketball and I think if we play our basketball we can live with the result and I think we will have a better result. We weren’t ourselves and didn’t play to our strengths and our ability. That is what made the game two loss that more frustrating.”