Maccabi Tel Aviv looked pretty sharp during the first half of their eventual 85-79 loss to Monaco and that was the good news because the second half and postgame was where all of the bad news would be located. From the yellow-and-blue allowing the hosts to just steamroll through the final 20 minutes which saw Elie Okobo do as he pleased in the fourth quarter to the departure of Jordan Loyd due to the war some 2.5 hours after the game was over.

Head Coach Oded Katash was certainly happy and content with some of what he saw, but there was plenty that was very concerning as he will now have to integrate a player or two into the squad following the loss of Loyd.

On the plus side of the ledger, Maccabi really had a solid opening half and controlled the flow of the game, making plays at both ends and holding Sasa Obradovic’s team to 41 points, however, the second half was not exactly how the Israeli bench boss wanted to see his team.

“It’s hard to play here and you have to be focussed for the full 40 minutes,” Katash said following the game. “We didn’t use a very deep rotation and it was a very big physical effort. We were there and could have won this game Mike James and Elie Okobo scored some big baskets at the end of the game, 2-3 steals slipped out of our hands but I liked how we battled, and of course it doesn’t always look so nice at this point of the season and we can no doubt play better. But we played in a tough arena and the calls may not always go your way. It was a very aggressive game and I can be proud about many things that we did here but our basketball has to improve.”

Improve it must from the defense in the paint where Georgios Papagiannis, Donatas Motiejunas and Mam Jaiteh did as they pleased, scoring 27 points and grabbing 21 rebounds to the perimeter where Okobo and James cooked the yellow-and-blue and Matthew Strazel finally looked like a legitimate Euroleague player.

“Tough game and could have gone either way,” Katash reiterated. “I liked how we approached the game and the attitude as it’s never easy to play in Monaco where the game was very physical and high tempo. At the end they made some winning plays and we were not solidly enough offensively. We feel bad about the result but we have to keep our heads up as we are building something better. The next 4-5 weeks everything will be better offensively and defensively.”

Katash and his crew will need to get better without Jordan Loyd who decided to depart following the Iran attack on Israel last week that saw over 180 missiles launched into the Jewish State. No one can blame Loyd for making the move and those that have remained should be given a place of honor at the end of the day.

But now the Maccabi bench boss will need to find a piece or two or even three to add to his roster in order to compete with a very busy couple of months coming up, starting with next week where there is an Israeli league game on Sunday and a Euroleague Double Week at their temporary home in Belgrade against Anadolu EFES and Partizan. Saben Lee is supposedly on his way from Manisa which will be a welcome addition, but that one signing won’t be enough to seriously try and get into the Play In. There are also rumors about Malcolm Hill making a return to Israel after having played for Hapoel Jerusalem a few years ago.

There were some other positives that came out of the game whether it was Jaylen Hoard’s solid play making the transition from the EuroCup to Euroleague with ease as well as Levi Randolph who came over from the Basketball Champions League to the continent’s top competition.

“It was a tough game for us,” Randolph began. “We knew that we were playing a tough opponent and we have a new team with a lot of new guys, but I think we did really well and as coach always says it’s a process for us. We are learning each other and that will get better over time. I think this was a good test to show us where we are at, but as coach says, trust the process and the more we play the more we will get to know each other and it will all come together.”

Trust the process Maccabi must and they do have a good group of guys, but is there enough talent as well as enough firepower and depth for the club to get to the promised land?

There were some other down notes in the game as well, from Roman Sorkin’s touch inside that saw him go 1/5 from two while pulling down only 3 rebounds as there are also times that he seems overmatched by the opposition to John Dibartolomeo’s shooting where he did hit one very clutch triple but went 1-4 overall on the night. Tamir Blatt who had a career game against ASVEL last week dished out 10 assists but struggled a bit from the field going 0/4 from two and turning the ball over 4 times as well.

But the most peculiar stat of the game was seeing Rokas Jokubaitis play only 12:58(!). The Lithuanian was sharp on the floor, went 4/7 from the field, collected 3 boards and assisted on 4 baskets while drawing 3 fouls. He was excellent and looked extremely good but then disappeared from Katash’s rotation not to be seen or heard from down the stretch.

Where was Rokas?

After scoring the last basket of the first half, Jokubaitis started the third quarter on the bench and came on with 4:54 left in the period. He drew a foul, assisted on a Jasiel Rivero bucket, missed a shot with 9:22 remaining in the game and came off 7 seconds later with the score 67-60 in favor of Monaco and that was that. He never saw the floor again.

One would think that Jokubaitis would be playing in the 20 minute zone and did not.

Would it have made a difference? Maybe yes, maybe no because the personnel that was on the court for the most part in the 4th quarter battled and came close, but close only counts in horseshoes.

Without a doubt, Maccabi has plenty of work to do and there is also some time to get their roster in order and find a way to replace the loss of Loyd. It’s early in the season, but there are also games to win and any victories now will be very beneficial when the campaign heads into the twilight and the yellow-and-blue are battling for a spot in the postseason.

The sooner Katash and crew bring in new players the better and the faster they will jell into a unit, because it’s going to be a rocky ride for some time to come with the war having no end in sight and with perhaps plenty of unexpected surprises along the way.