![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/AEA154F7-5E53-413D-B8DE-94306DDD0150.jpeg\")
Sergio Scariolo – Photo Credit: FIBA<\/p><\/div>
\nHowever, regardless as to how this week will end for Maccabi Tel Aviv, they have already been able to win their first Euroleague road game of the season when they knocked off Olimpia Milano on Tuesday night in Italy 77-71. The yellow-and-blue had been down 57-47 with just a few minutes remaining in the third quarter but ripped off a 12-0 run to close out the frame and then went on to an 18-12 fourth quarter to take the win as I finally witnessed a Maccabi victory away from home for the first time in six tries. <\/p>\n
Maccabi head coach Oded Katash\u2019s victory over Etorre Messina and his Israeli assistant Dan Shamir\u2019s squad was the Italian side\u2019s 9th loss in a row in what was a raucous Forum in southern Milan. Fans packed into the arena that hosted the yellow-and-blue\u2019s previous Euroleague championship in 2014, to support their team despite not only their recent poor run of results but also while a prime time World Cup semifinal clash between Argentina and Croatia was taking place.<\/p>\n
No matter though, as soon as Messina walked into the arena, the crowd gave the bench boss a standing ovation as he walked from the tunnel to the bench area close to the journalists area right behind one of the baskets.
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/BC19FEDF-68D1-4DE2-B761-EDA5AE873649.jpeg\")
Oded Katash – Photo Credit: Dov Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nAs Maccabi came out to warmup roughly an hour and a quarter prior to tip off, the pressure from the players, staff and management was in the air. Katash knew that he would need to find a way to win this matchup to quiet down the critics while also getting the road trip off to a gold start. It\u2019s never easy to win on the road no matter what your record may indicate, from 5-0 to 0-5 which was the Israeli squad\u2019s mark as well as my personal road trip record, ahead of the battle. <\/p>\n
But as the defeats pile up, everyone surrounding the team felt the need, the pressure and the mental frustration that most probably seeped into the players heads to find a way to come away from the last place team\u2019s home with a victory.<\/p>\n
While most people come to Italy to shop or to watch soccer, or as they say in the country Calcio, Maccabi did and will be doing pretty much none of that as they were staying at a hotel less than a stone\u2019s throw away from the Forum where they were based for four days of their Italian journey,
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Lorenzo Brown- Photo Credit: Dov Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nAs the game got off to a quick start, Lorenzo Brown, who will have to burden the load as the main floor general due to Wade Baldwin\u2019s injury nailed a pair of triples as he began to make his mark that saw the Eurobasket title holder score 20 points, grab 5 rebounds and dish out 8 assists for a 20 efficiency rating. But a valiant Milano squad fought back to lead Maccabi at times by double digits as they went into halftime up by 8-points, 40-32 over the yellow-and blue. <\/p>\n
Katash\u2019s crew came flying out of the gate to begin the second half but that hot start didn\u2019t really make much of a difference as Messina found away to take a 10 point lead as the period started to come to a close. But all of a sudden John Dibartolomeo, Bonzie Colson and Roman Sorkin all found points which led to a magnificent, MVP fourth quarter performance by the aforementioned Sorkin who scored 12 of his 14 points in the final 13 minutes of the game.<\/p>\n
When the final buzzer sounded, there seemed to have been a huge weight lifted off of the entire Maccabi franchise\u2019s shoulders was in the air. Whether it was Shimon Mizrachi who has spent more than 50 years as the chairman of the club shaking my hand for what seemed to an eternity which was followed by another hand shake that went on forever with Roman Sorkin, or Katash waiting to go on TV for his postgame comments and sighing heavily with a huge sense of relief, this victory gave Maccabi not only a win, but a chance to really put the losing streak behind them and look ahead to the upcoming games with a clean sheet.
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/51387EC1-4021-4F63-AB11-8DC5E70D4C3B.jpeg\")
Lorenzo Brown – Photo Credit: Dov Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nIn the lockerroom, I quickly sidled up to Lorenzo Brown to disused his performance but also to look ahead to the Bologna contest coming up. The guard was no doubt relieved as any picture of him from immediately following the game would claim. <\/p>\n
As for what occurred at halftime for Maccabi to come out and shut Milano down with a second half that saw Brown\u2019s team outscore the hosts 45-31, the guard explained that it was a combination of a number of things at both ends of the floor.
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/20221120-1146867.jpg\")
John Dibartolomeo and Lorenzo Brown – Photo Credit: Basket.co.il<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cA little bit of everything. We just wanted it tonight so that was for us, the coach and the organization. It\u2019s a great feeling right now. Like I said \u2013 we\u2019re not satisfied with this one win, because we know we\u2019re better than that on the road, we need to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown also started to profoundly think of the upcoming confrontation that awaits him against his national team coach Sergio Scariolo and Bologna on Friday, \u201cI\u2019m excited. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s excited as well. I haven\u2019t seen him since, so I\u2019m just looking forward to what he has planned \u2013 I\u2019m ready for the challenge.\u201d
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/5398A4A5-0752-4CB9-870D-9304564A6DE9.jpeg\")
Sergio Scariolo – Photo Credit: FIBA<\/p><\/div>
\nScariolo for his part told me on Wednesday night following Bologna\u2019s 85-76 win over Tamir Blatt and Yovel Zoosman\u2019s Alba Berlin that he was super excited for the matchup, \u201cWe know each other very well it\u2019s gonna be no surprises. He\u2019s an unbelievable player. Last summer he made another big step forward in terms of really getting into the status of Euroleague superstar. He is actually an incredible player. Can score, can make other players score. Top player. Absolutely. First level player. Good offensively, good defensively, good passing, good steals, good shooting I mean I\u2019m really happy with the choice I did last summer I think it was a big part of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI love him personally. He\u2019s an unbelievable person. He gave us so many proofs of commitment, really of desire to help the team of generosity and of unselfishness, I would love to see him. I hope to have coffee with him talk about next summer. Friday\u2019s gonna be a pain. Definitely gonna be a big pain in our a\u2014.\u201d
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/254ED429-AD27-4D03-BAAE-04CDDCA99478.jpeg\")
Lorenzo Brown – Photo Credit: FIBA<\/p><\/div>
\nWhile it\u2019s a normal occurrence that Americans represent another country in international competition, it was surprising to not only see Spain bring in a foreign national but also that the players would be one Lorenzo Brown. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a shot in the dark,\u201d the guard said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what I was getting myself into. At the end, it was a very humbling experience for me and for those guys as well, because I\u2019m new, you know, the situation was different for them and me. We all accepted it and we made it work out for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, one of his Spanish teammates Xabi Lopez-Arostegui spoke about what Brown meant to the team\u2019s success, \u201cLorenzo is a great guy, very calm and very humble. He is very talented basketball wise and he came in the summer to help us and he played amazing. But even if he didn\u2019t play amazing he was one of us, part of the family and I think he enjoyed the time with us. He is super skilled and super talented and he knows how to play basketball for the team and he loves basketball also.\u201d
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/42EFD2FE-65D4-4FDC-80F4-E5A3DB5453E8.jpeg\")
Xabi Lopez-Arostegui – Photo Credit: Dov Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nSmall forward Kyle Weems, one of Scariolo\u2019s lieutenants at Bologna realizes that Brown, a player that he knows very well will be one tough cookie to handle come Friday evening, \u201cI\u2019m sure he will. I\u2019ve been watching Lorenzo Brown pretty much his whole European career from Red Star to Fener and to now. He\u2019s a great player and great talent. It remember playing on the same team as him at Adidas Nations back in our senior year of college. I\u2019ve got a lot of respect for him, he a great player and great talent and their teams goes as he goes. It\u2019s going to be important for us to contain him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maccabi teammate Roman Sorkin took it a step further as he told me in the lockerroom while he was chilling out after the clash, \u201cHe [Brown] is our leader. Every night he gives us his best and we need to come and help him- I\u2019m happy that today we did. Another big game for him, it\u2019s great that he\u2019s with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the big showdown looms on the horizon, nothing but a win will suffice for Brown as he was trying to put aside the club\u2019s first road victory of the season and move on to the task at hand, \u201cFor sure man. It feels great, but we still have more games to go. We were waiting on that one to break the curse. We still aren\u2019t satisfied.\u201d
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/88504861-5B6A-474C-A14F-F5E847540FAB.jpeg\")
Lorenzo Brown – Photo Credit: Dov Halickman<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everyone loves a good old fashioned showdown. It could be player versus player, or player versus coach, but there are very few fans and competitors that don\u2019t enjoy want to take up what for them may be the ultimate challenge. That\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re going to get when Maccabi Tel Aviv and their star guard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":68969,"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":[1425,4695,4,5430],"class_list":["post-74630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-bologna","tag-lorenzo-brown","tag-maccabi-tel-aviv","tag-sergio-scariolo-en","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n