Maccabi Tel Aviv were overwhelmed by Real Madrid 95-66 as the Yellow & Blue are now just one game away from elimination as they Euroleague best of five quarterfinal series with Pablo Laso’s squad up 2-0. Avi Even’s team will now ready for game three on Tuesday night back at Yad Eliyahu in Tel Aviv where their backs will be against the wall in a must win situation. Should Maccabi find a way to pull out a victory, game four will be on Thursday night and if they even up the series, game five would be back in Spain the following week.

For the majority of the first quarter both teams played neck and neck but veteran sniper Sergio Llull came on near the end of the first frame and drilled home a trio of triples to hand the hosts a 35-26 lead which they increased to a 19-point advantage 56-37 by the end of the first half. With no Maccabi player raising double digits and taking control of the game from an offensive standpoint, Real kept pounding away inside with Vincent Poirier notching a double double while the team as a whole went 14/35 from deep to talk the 29-point blowout win.

“We lost in almost every aspect of the game,” a disappointed Avi Even said following Maccabi’s lackluster performance. “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.”

“We played a really good game.,” Pablo Laso said. “But both offenses were imposing their will over the opposing defense and that’s why it was such a high score in the first quarter. We moved the ball properly. But for us, I believe the biggest positives were the second and third quarters. We were controlling the tempo of the game and we got a big victory in the end.”

Maccabi guard Keenan Evans reflected on the tough defeat, ”I think every guy came into the games with the right mindset. Especially after we lost the first game, I felt we came in even hungrier for the second one, but we just couldn’t put it together tonight. We’ll try to reset and put this game in the past.”

Game MVP Vincent Poirier was all smiles after the win, “We used the home-court advantage well and won. I just tried to do my job. I grabbed a lot of rebounds and gave the team an opportunity to score again. That’s my job. I’m really happy. We did it together. We rebounded well defensively, too. It was a great team effort.”