Digging a deep hole and outplayed, Katash has Maccabi’s number as Papapetrou closes out win

By Joshua Halickman

Mar 11, 2021 | 2020-21 Game Reviews, Game Reviews, Holyland Hoops

DIGGING A DEEP HOLE

Maccabi Tel Aviv dug a deep, deep hole in the first quarter gong down 25-9 but were able to dig out of it in quarters two and three, pulling to within 3 points, 58-55 heading into the final frame. However a 9-0 run out of the gate in the 4th ended any chance of Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad finding their way to the promised land. The loss effectively eliminated the Yellow & Blue from the playoff picture and will have to play out the string of games going forward with primarily pride on the line which is exactly what Ante Zizic said following the game, “We weren’t aggressive tonight for 40 minutes like we should be. 2nd and 3rd quarters were good, but we couldn’t keep it up going into the 4th, and we came out flat in the final minutes. It’s a tough loss but we will keep on fighting and playing with pride for each and every game.” There have been many game this season where Maccabi came out flat from the get go and with just 9 points in the first quarter that was yet another example of just that. Euroleague basketball is 4 quarters of ten minutes each for a total fo 40 minutes and you have to be ready to play every single second of those 40 minutes or else you won’t get the desired results. Maccabi once again couldn’t put in a complete game and paid the price for it as Sfairopoulos explained, “I want to congratulate the team of Panathinaikos. They won because they played better for most of the game. It’s obvious, from the score, that we didn’t start and we didn’t finish the game well.”

OUTPLAYED

The Yellow & Blue looked like a team that had never played together for many minutes of the game with sloppy ball handling, poor passes, turnovers and static play. They were out-rebounded 44-34, had fewer assists 21-13 and steals 11-8 while the overall efficiency rating was 104-54 in favor of the Greens. YIKES! Only Scottie Wilbekin scored in double figures while Maccabi shot a paltry 33.3%. They were able to mount a comeback and get back into the game but Oded Katash’s squad was able to ward off his former team and take the victory. If you want to take a moral victory that can be the one, but it’s really pushing it as Sfairopoulos said, “I think that in the second period and mainly in the third period we tried to play more aggressive on defense, we scored in open-court situations. We came back and got within 3 points, but we should have been more aggressive to fight for the game. They showed the quality they have, we missed some shots and we had 2-3 minutes that we were not good, and that was the game.” Captain John Dibartolomeo echoed his coach’s sentiments, “It’s a tough loss for us tonight. We couldn’t execute like we wanted, but in spite of that we fought. We came close and we were 3 points behind going into the 4th quarter with the momentum on our side but we were not able to keep pushing.” And as Bugs Bunny said, “That’s all folks”.

Oded Katash – Photo Credit: Panathinaikos

KATASH HAS THE NUMBER

As for the wining coach Oded Katash, he couldn’t be happier chalking up a victory with his Panathinaikos squad, the team he had won the Euroleague title with against the team of his youth, Maccabi over 20 years ago. Katash has had success against his former club in the past on the sidelines whether it was winning the Israeli league championship with Hapoel Gilboa Galil or dominating the Yellow & Blue last season with Hapoel Jerusalem. Many times he had their number and this game was yet another example of that. “It is a great win for us. I think we won the game defensively, on the set game we did a good job, our big guys played amazing against their guards, on switching defenses according to our game plan. As long as we didn’t turn the ball over, and we played slow offensively, we could control them. I really like how the guys reacted to the game plan. I’m very proud of the players.” Katash’s crew certainly was able to stifle Maccabi with the switches as their bigs dwarfed over Maccabi’s guards time after time and despite not having Nemanja Nedovic, the Greens were still able to control the game to their liking. “Even when Nedo was playing we played a lot of switching defense and we played with a bigger lineup, sometimes it works better and sometimes we miss the quality of Nedo.” As for what Katash is looking to do going forward he said, “We are trying to do the best we can and we are thinking about how we can have the best for Panathinaikos next year with the budget we have. But I am happy with the way the team in fighting and we adapted to the situation.”

Ioannis Papapetrou – Photo Credit: Panathinaikos

OPENER & CLOSER

PAO had two players that were above the rest in this game, Aaron White and Ioannis Papapetrou as the former opened the game while the former closed it. Papapetrou who was out with COVID was an integral part of the win and he sounded thrilled to be able to be back on the basketball court. “I love basketball, I love to play basketball. It was a hard period for me, obviously. There was the COVID and my injury before that. In the last month, I haven’t been playing and enjoying the thing I love the most, but now I’m back. I feel like I still have to lift my psyche and my readiness, because I’m not 100%, but I feel good I was able to come back.” White, who proved to be unstoppable from the beginning of the game, seems to be very content with his new head coach and the situation he finds himself in, “The secret of the victory is that we had the right options in offense from the beginning. We had energy. Maybe our only bad point is some mistakes we made in the second half. However, from the beginning of the game, we made a dominant appearance that helped us reach an easy victory. I feel great in Panathinaikos. I really like Coach Katash and the way he plays.”