A few minutes before the end of the game, when Glynn Watson hit a 3-pointer over Marcio Santos’s curly head and cut the lead to just three, there was a feeling that the homecoming party was about to be ruined by yet another random American guard (Kendrick Nunn, Kamar Baldwin, Mike James, Carsen Edwards and that’s just a partial list). Maccabi Tel Aviv once again showed us its familiar defensive issues this year which includes a lack of coordination, confusion and apathy except this time Maccabi managed to rise to the occasion against the weak opponent, beating ASVEL Villeurbanne 84–92. And it’s a good thing, because we deserve a bit of joy in this country, for heaven’s sake.

After two years and two months, the Yad Eliyahu arena was once again painted yellow-and-blue with an impressive display of support, an emotional speech by hostage survivor Omri Miran and a rendition of the anthem by Singolda that filled everyone with excitement ahead of the tip-off. In the end and unlike last week against the Žalgiris Maccabi opened up the paint freely for the French, who ran right through it with little resistance.

Shimon Mizrahi accurately described the paralysis of his players, claiming that “they’re emotional,” but the yellow-and-blue snapped out of the shock (or the emotion) only after Nando de Colo went to the bench for the first time, when Villeurbanne was up seven after a three and a foul. I’m debating when exactly to place the paragraph I’m dedicating to vintage de Colo, but I’ll keep you waiting a bit longer, because in the meantime Lonnie Walker made his grand arrival.

Maccabi’s hot hand delivered a tremendous game, in a very un–“Lonnie Walker-ish” way compared to what we’re used to seeing from him. These weren’t one of those stretches when he explodes and shoots and forces things and then disappears again until the next outburst, sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn’t. Last night at the arena, Walker was there throughout the entire game for the yellow-and-blue.

His points were nicely spread across the quarters (9, 9, 5 and 6), most coming from strong drives into the paint (10/11 on two-pointers) rather than wild three-point attempts (2/8). Beyond his 29 points, the American guard also grabbed 9 rebounds and committed only one turnover, in a performance showing that he can and understands that he sometimes needs to be the adult in the room (especially in lineups with Jimmy Clark, Oshae Brissett and Santos).

Maccabi opened the second quarter with good minutes from Tamir Blatt and Iffe Lundberg alongside John Dibartolomeo, Roman Sorkin and Jaylen Hoard, again taking advantage of de Colo’s rest. Maccabi finished possessions with good shots and repeatedly found Sorkin matched up against one of the guards. It certainly doesn’t hurt when your opponent can’t make a basket. Villeurbanne missed wherever they could miss, Walker scored wherever he could score and the lead grew to 14. But then Maccabi again returned to its old defensive habits.

They allowed the French far too many easy buckets, like the one that came three seconds before halftime and tied the game at 47. Sideline out-of-bounds play, off-ball pick-and-roll, Horad thinks they’re switching but John D doesn’t. Both stay on de Colo and the play ends with a simple dunk by Bodian Massa. Bummer.

Pierric Poupet’s team has nothing to really give in the EuroLeague besides de Colo and we also saw that against Hapoel Tel Aviv when he went to the bench, Villeurbanne’s lead evaporated instantly. In that one he had a plus-minus of +19 while Villeurbanne lost by seven. This time they lost by eight while de Colo finished +14. In the second quarter he entered the game down nine and ended the half tied. It’s not just his dynamic drives at the big men, the threes, the assists, or the perfect shooting from the line it’s the fact that for 20 years he has been drawing all the defensive focus toward him and forcing these mistakes from the yellow defense, exactly like on that Massa bucket. Class.

The second half was tight, with Maccabi not playing great, but taking advantage of their edge in the paint with a good quarter from Sorkin and Hoard, who attacked inside on offense and got blocks, steals and various deflections on defense, giving Maccabi the lead heading into the final quarter. Head Coach Oded Katash and I must have watched the same game, because his instructions heading into the fourth were clear: on defense guard de Colo; on offense target and tire de Colo. Walker, Hoard and Sorkin continued to lead the yellows, finishing with a combined 70 points (!) while the French had no answer for their drives into the paint.

The trio scored 18 of Maccabi’s 23 points in the fourth quarter, with the other five coming from the free-throw line. Katash tried constantly to keep two of them on the floor, which preserved Maccabi’s lead, small but stable. De Colo eventually tired and handed the keys to Glynn Watson, who entered the zone and brought the French closer, but was stopped by several misses, thanks to the rims of Yad Eliyahu that kept the lead yellow-and-blue. In the final 90 seconds the ball was in Lundberg’s hands and he showed he can be trusted with steady ball-handling, clutch free throws and even a great steal and assist to Hoard that sealed the game and sent the arena into a frenzy.

There are still plenty of questions that need to be asked about Maccabi Tel Aviv’s performance. For example: how does it allow its opponents so many chances to get back into games? How will Maccabi, on a bad 3-point shooting day (25%), cope against teams with a real interior presence? Where has T.J. Leaf gone (offensively at least) and what on earth is Santos doing on the court in the closing minutes of a tight game?

But still, Maccabi Tel Aviv came away with the W last night, 92-84 over Villeurbanne. They return to the arena, they win two straight for the first time this season and climb to 17th place which may even improve depending on the Bayern Munich vs Partizan Belgrade result. With career highs from Lonnie Walker and Roman Sorkin, with Iffe’s winner mentality, with Katash’s smile you could say it was a good day.