Maccabi Tel Aviv can’t look the way they did in a 92-71 loss to Barcelona. They just can’t. But they did as the yellow-and-blue looked listless from the get go and by the time they realized their was a game going on they were already down by double digits early on in the opening frame.

There was no effort, no heart and absolutely no guts and guile. The score kept going one way ad it wasn’t going in Maccabi’s favor. It was one of the club’s most embarrassing losses over the last couple of seasons and yes, there have been a number of brutal defeats. But this one was just a disaster from beginning to it merciful end.

In a game that saw really only one Maccabi player in Marcio Santos show up, there is nothing to take other than the loss itself, one that can not ever occur again the way it did. And no one really wants to hear the bench boss himself say that they won they second half as they now prepare for Thursday’s date with Olympiacos.

To go down by over thirty points and to not score a field goal for almost the entire second quarter as it took the opening 8:59 to finally do so, well, you ain’t going to go too far.

Jimmy Clark, Gur Lavy and John Dibartolomeo all put up big fat goose eggs in a combined 35 minutes, TJ Leaf with 5 points in 22+ minutes and Jeff Dowtin Jr. with just a pair of points in only 12:34 is just unacceptable. Add 6 points for Lonnie Walker in 19:09 and you have a recipe for disaster that saw no desire or drive to win the game. Sorry, to even be a active participant in the game.

The Maccabi effort was sad to see for any Israeli basketball fan.

Walker and Dowtin didn’t know what hit them as Barcelona just simply scored and scored and scored some more as the two were unable to make any type of impact on the game after having done above and beyond in last week’s Derby win.

There looked like a bit of apathy was hovering over the players heads over the course of the forty minutes and that there was nary a worry in the world. However, if the results keep coming the way they have been, perhaps head coach Oded Katash will be on the outside looking in.

It can’t be that a professional basketball team, one that is playing in Europe’s top competition looks clueless as to how to play the game that they have been for years and that they have a love for.

Katash had spoken about confidence after his squad’s win over Hapoel Beer Sheva in Israeli league action this past Sunday as well as last week’s Tel Aviv Euroleague Derby which certainly didn’t translate to the Pionir court in Serbia.

How long can Katash get away with the new team bit and how they are unfamiliar with one another and there are growing pains when putting together a squad who have’t really played as a unit in this type of competition before.

That’s all 1000% true, no one is questioning that fact. But was this the “A-Team” that could have been assembled with so little Euroleague minutes under their belt? What purpose did the addition of Uros Trifunovic and Clifford Omoruyi serve who have basically been non-existent, as both are rumored to be on the way out.

Was this the best team that management was able to put together for such a tough continental competition? It’s crystal clear that Maccabi need yet additional players who have played at these levels and while there have been names floated around, no one has yet to join the team and it also doesn’t look like the purse strings will open up top snatch a player or two or three or four at this rate to come in and right the ship. A ship that needs plenty of work as soon as possible before Maccabi won’t be able to steer it in the direction it needs to go in.

It’s hard to see how this season’s version of Maccabi will end up having a better campaign than last year’s side despite having players that on paper seem to have better skills and acumen.

Of course, Maccabi is only 4 games into the 2025-26 season and there are plenty of games to go with yet another one this week, but once the losses start to really pile up, it will be very very difficult for the yellow-and-blue to even think of trying to finish in the top ten of twenty teams and somehow slide into the Play-In.

There is quality on this Maccabi team, there is no question about that, but losses like this one will not help the team find their way to the promised land and if management doesn’t make a couple of savvy moves sooner rather than later, well, it will just be too late to save this season. Time is of the essence before things get out of hand and that is the way the campaign seems to be heading.