Maccabi Tel Aviv came up short against Olympiacos when they fell 89-72 and that’s because they came up against on Nikola Milutinov who stood very, very tall in one of the Euroleague’s greatest single game performances.

The Serbian big man recorded a double-double, which of course is not that rare of a bear but when one scores 20 points and adds 20 rebounds, well that’s a totally different story. Milutinov who stands at 7”0 is in the midst of his second stint with the Piraeus based club after having played with the team between 2015-2020 and returning from three seasons with CSKA Moscow. Due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, the 29 year old did not play in the Euroleague over the past year and a half and now with a return to the continental competition, he once again has a chance to dominate the way he once used to.

Despite not having a banner season this campaign, Milutinov stepped up big time with the absence of Moustapha Fall and with his team coming off of two losses in Spain to Barcelona and Baskonia which was something that his head coach Georgios Bartzokas appreciated and commented on at the post game press conference.

“I want to mention Nikola Milutinov’s performance while everyone stepped up as well. Especially knowing that Maccabi is first in offensive rebounds in the Euroleague, Nikola scored 20 points and had 20 rebounds and dominated game and helped us win this important game, special credit to him.”

The Greek bench boss understood how critical the game was for his team as they came into the Maccabi clash just one game over .500 with a record of 11-10.

“I want to express my appreciation to the fans and the players for this great night,” Bartzokas said. “It was obviously a must win game for us after the two losses in Spain. I think we showed to everyone that we are a serious team which is very important to be serious and approach the games with the same attitude is very important in today’s basketball.”

Milutinov was dominant in this game and while Alec Peters and Isaiah Canaan were important pieces to the pie, one must understand that his accomplishment hadn’t been done since the 2006-07 season when Antonis Fotsis scored 22 points and grabbed 24 boards for Dynamo Moscow in a 68-65 win over Benetton. The season prior to that in 2005-06 Spencer Nelson dropped 23 points and snatched 20 rebounds in Bamberg’s 92-85 victory against Benetton Treviso while in 2001-02 Mirsad Turkcan scored 27 points and took 23 rebounds in a CSKA Moscow’s 88-83 win over Buducnost.

“It’s difficult when you miss a player like [Fall], because he is one of the key players here,” Milutinov said following the game as he was serenaded by the supporters. “I had to play a little bit more than what I was playing lately and I’m just happy that I helped my team in the best possible way and that we won tonight the way we won. This is why I came back. It’s an amazing feeling. I want to thank the fans. It’s something really unique and this is one of the reasons why I came back to Olympiacos.”

The big man who was selected by the San Antonio Spurs 26th overall in the 2015 Draft, was head and shoulders above everyone else and also kept Josh Nebo at bay as the Maccabi center scored only 3 points in 23 minutes of play and also caused havoc under the yellow-and-blue basket with 9 offensive rebounds. With a prime Milutinov in action, Oded Katash knew that his team needed to play a lose to perfect game in order to win.

“Overall Olympiacos deserved to win, they played better than us,” Katash said. “We knew coming to this game that maybe Olympiacos lost a few games, but we played against a very good team and they know what to do especially at home. In order to beat them you have to play almost a perfect game. Giving up 11-12 possessions because of their offensive rebound or our turnovers, that was too much for us.”

Roman Sorkin explained to Eurohoops’s ace journalist Antonis Stroggylakis how Miluntinov dominated Maccabi, “He’s a great player. He’s been a great player for years. He had a great game. We didn’t do our job on him of course. A lot of respect for him. [He’s] one of the best big men in the EuroLeague and probably the best offensive rebounder in the history of the EuroLeague. We’re going to try to stop him next time we play.”

Wade Baldwin who played with Milutinov during the guard’s time with Olympiacos in 2019/20 also spoke to Stroggylakis about the center’s performance, “What you have to know about Milutinov is that he’s the best offensive rebounding big in the history of EuroLeague, in my opinion. He gets paid a high salary to be a dominant rebounder and when he plays a lot of minutes, that’s what he supplies for his team. That’s what happens.”

“You know this guy is a 3-pointer shooter. You know this guy is a scorer, you know this guy is a defender. And you know what Milutinov does. He showed up today. He did his job and he had a big game,” Baldwin added.

Maccabi who sit at 12-10 on the season have played better than anyone could have expected due to the difficult situation that the club has been in wince October 7th and that is something that Bartzokas doesn’t take lightly as he is well aware as to the challenge that has rival Oded Katash has been going through.

“Maccabi is a very strong team and talented. Our defense was solid and we didn’t allow them to score the normal amount of points that usually score especially I’m the second half and that gave us the rhythm and pace to score easily on offense. I want to wish Oded and Maccabi good luck. I can’t avoid to mention what they live is difficult for a basketball team. To live in Belgrade and travel to Israel to play some domestic games and then to go back, so far they are having a great season.”

Katash himself also reflected on the situation that he and his team have found themself in due to the war against Hamas after the terrorist organization attacked the people of Israel, “The situation in Israel is tough. I’m not talking about basketball, it’s tough, emotionally. Basketball wise everything is crazy. Now we have a crazy schedule because we postponed a few games and we moved to Belgrade and everything is different. I think we managed and sometimes I wonder how we managed to find a way to win some games.”

“If you asked me that after we left Israel we would be with the record that we have, I would be surprised but we have to give credit to the players for their focus and concentration on basketball. We decoded as a team and as a group of players not to use the circumstances as an excuse. We just focus on basketball and we have good chemistry. Basically we have a lot of continuity from last year and that is what kept us in the game. But it’s not easy and we are looking at the schedule going forward as we are playing every second day. But I trust the players and we have a very special group of guys. We will find a way,” Katash concluded.