One could feel every ounce of Oded Katash’s frustration right through the television following Maccabi Tel Aviv’s crushing 95-94 loss to Olympiacos on Gameday five of the Euroleague. The bench boss was at a loss for words as his emotions were chiseled into his face and who could blame him.

His team once again came up short, but did so in the most brutal fashion having held the lead for more than 36 minutes of the game. However, when the clock hit triple zero they found themselves on the wrong end of the scoreline yet again to to drop their record 1-4.

The yellow-and-blue had everything going for them on this night. They took an early lead and made sure to keep ahead of the Piraeus based team throughout the ups and downs of the contest but it was clear who was clear who was in control and it would take a collapse of gigantic proportions having been up by 13 points in the final frame.

But the 2025-2026 version of Maccabi thus far have not been able to put together a full 40 minute game in continental action other than against, ironically, Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Katash saw his squad clicking on all cylinders with Jaylen Hoard looking like last season’s version of Jaylen Hoard, Roman Sorkin playing solid basketball, Oshae Brissett being the player that Claudio Coldebella wanted to see when he signed him and Jeff Dowtin Jr., wow Jeff Dowtin Jr., what can you say. If there was ever a streaky shooter, well there’s no doubt Dowtin Jr. is it.

Going 6/7 from beyond the arc, Dowtin Jr. was hitting everything in sight, the pure definition of unconscious shooting if you looked it up in the Miriam-Webster Dictionary.

Add to that Lonnie Walker who stepped onto the court like a man on a mission and with the energy that Katash had no doubt wanted to see (and would have liked to have seen against Barcelona) and once again the talent of Maccabi Tel Aviv was oozing exactly like it could and like it should when the team was constructed.

But Olympiacos, a team that Maccabi haven’t beaten now in five straight encounters stayed with the yellow-and-blue through thick and thin. When a player like Nikola Milutinov can score a career best 23 points and was allowed to do as he pleased under the basket, Sasha Vezenkov plays like an MVP an chalks up a double-double and Tyler Dorsey scores in bunches, well there’s a good chance no matter how long you were in the lead, you’ve got to be in front at the end of the game.

In this case it was Georgios Bartzokas’s squad that snatched the win from the jaws of defeat.

The stats don’t lie, Olympiacos out-rebounded Maccabi 33-30, they had more assists 26-15 with Tyson Ward recording a Euroleague career high in helpers with 8 and in performance index which was an absolute blowout in favor of the Greeks 115-93, then it shouldn’t be a surprise that the yellow-and-blue came up short.

Maccabi took nine more shots and had one more free throw, but Olympiacos hit 16 from the charity stripe and the yellow-and-blue 14 and there you have it. Olympiacos were more efficient and made sure to hit their shots from the line especially down the stretch when Maccabi saw their lead slip slide away.

Katash’s crew led 84-71 with 6:58 left thanks to a John Dibartolomeo 3-pointer, 86-73 with 6:16 to go after a Hoard deuce, 88-75 with 5:40 remaining in regulation, 90-77 with 4:50 left as Brissett scored a bucket and 93-81 after a Dowtin triple with 3:55 until the end of the game. The situation couldn’t have been any better for Maccabi.

But it all unravelled from there on in. Milutinov dropped a quartet of free throws and added a basket for six straight points, Ward nailed a 3 and Vezenkov hit a trio from the line and scored a deuce and that was that. Game. Set. Match.

Sure, Maccabi had a chance the last ball when Oded Katash took a timeout which looked as if John D would possibly take a game winning shot as he sat and intently looked on. But it was Walker who took the ball up the court with what was an eternity of time on the clock, 17 seconds worth and ended up dribbling and dribbling and dribbling some more before taking what was an awful off balance shot that came up short.

The frustration that Katash showed perhaps was not just that his team has lost in one of the most cruelest manners, but they came up short because maybe, just maybe the play that was drawn up in the timeout wasn’t the one that was in fact executed.

לוני ווקר במסר לאוהדים pic.twitter.com/co70i6WkJr

— Sports Rabbi (@thesportsrabbi) October 17, 2025

If that was the case, well then, one could no doubt understand Katash’s body language after the game in the interviews conducted in English and in Hebrew. If you want a little more, well take a glance at Walker’s Instagram account where he wrote, “I hold myself accountable with today and will continue to get better.”

It’s more clear than ever that Maccabi needs a couple of more players and with plenty of NBA transactions just before the new season tips-off there are players in all types of positions that are available. Coldebella needs to mine the wire and find the right fit for the yellow-and-blue as there may be even more changes coming to the franchise with the talk of the Wilf family looking to purchase some of the Federman family shares.

The Minnesota Vikings owners would be a welcome addition to Maccabi and would be able to inject a bit of cash to be able to compete once again with the heavyweights of the Euroleague, but while the fans celebrate the news that broke a few hours before the game, nothing will happen overnight.

The same is true with the Maccabi roster. Even if a player or two join the team it’s going to take time for everyone to get on the same page which is a major issue right now with a 1-4 record.

The yellow-and-blue played with urgency against Olympiacos and they did the same against Hapoel. They will need to do the exactly that versus every single opponent this season if they want to win. It doesn’t matter if it’s Real Madrid in Belgrade or Villeurbanne in France. There are no free lunches as they say and Maccabi have now seen that you can be up by double digits with just a few minutes left in a game, but you can’t pop the champagne and celebrate a victory until the clock reads 0:00.

Everyone needs to be on the same page and right now those growing pains are showing that some are a few pages ahead and some a few pages behind. If Maccabi can’t get onto that same page soon, very, very soon the losses are going to continue to snowball and roll down the mountain in what could be a season that will be for all intents and purposes over before it really began.