![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-20-at-20.17.33.jpeg\")
Photo credit: Eurokinissi<\/p><\/div>
\nThe numbers from the second quarter tell the story: 31\u201310 for the Greeks, who took 18 shots, made 14 of them and grabbed three of the four available offensive rebounds. There wasn\u2019t a single yellow jersey in the paint to stop the tide and that\u2019s what happens when the best player in the EuroLeague (this year too) is catching his breath on the bench, with his only contribution being a crazy three-pointer from near the scorer\u2019s table that set the halftime lead at 24. Not a fair fight.<\/p>\n
In the third quarter, Maccabi managed to produce a run against the deep rotation in the Peace and Friendship Stadium. The yellow-and-blue got a few defensive stops with steals and better rebounding, scored in transition and cut the gap by no less than 16 points to within 8. Bartzokas responded with a timeout, in which he may have uttered the two words \u201coffensive rebound,\u201d which sent his team back to a safe margin. <\/p>\n
In the fourth quarter, Maccabi again made comeback noises with the late return of Sorkin and Clark, who generated quick points that cut the deficit back to just 8 and planted false hope in the hearts of viewers at home. Not this time, because the competitive closing chord of the evening was played by Nikola Milutinov, who grabbed yet another of his four offensive rebounds and on the second chance put Sorkin on his back and drew an and-one that sealed the game\u2019s fate. That\u2019s where the dog is buried: Katash\u2019s guys finished the game with just 13 defensive rebounds, six fewer than Olympiacos\u2019s 18 on offense. Those turned into 25 points. You can\u2019t win like that, the best you can hope for is a minimal loss. Not a fair fight.
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-01-20-at-20.17.47.jpeg\")
Photo credit: Eurokinissi<\/p><\/div>
\nFor nearly all 40 minutes, the Greeks were in exemplary control on the offensive end and knew how to exploit every weakness in the yellow-and-blue roster, as they did in quite a few games this season in which Katash\u2019s group made us feel, at least numerically, that it was in the \u201calmost\u201d zone. This is yet another Maccabi Tel Aviv game in which the score is a bit misleading. Supposedly, a 7-point loss, supposedly 93 points against Olympiacos, supposedly minutes of a comeback. But the truth is that in far too many games this season, the margin is 10 but feels like 30, which makes us wonder: how much juice does Maccabi Tel Aviv really have?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s painful to see how little Olympiacos actually needs Tyrique Jones, the same player who, for a few hours, was crowned as the one who would save Maccabi Tel Aviv\u2019s season. In this Olympiacos roster, I\u2019m not sure he\u2019ll get more than the 7 minutes he played last night, in which he scored 6 acrobatic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":168398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-168482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-maccabi-tel-aviv","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n