Belgrade was painted yellow. Maccabi Tel Aviv this evening (Tuesday) beat Panathinaikos of Greece 83:85 at the Alexander Nikolic Hall in Belgrade in a drama and took a 1:2 lead in the quarter-final series of the Euroleague playoffs, a single victory away from the first qualification to the Final Four since 2014.
For an entire season, the Yellows had to play in the hall at the empty Pioneer and its fans had to watch and support their team from afar, but in the moment of truth and in the team’s most important game of the season, the thousand fans who made their way from Tel Aviv to the capital of Serbia got to watch a great display of their team that gave them back and in a big way for everything they missed throughout the season
Antonios Cleveland in a frenzy, photo: EPA Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Belgrade, photo: Audi Citiat
The big question that preoccupied the yellows ahead of the home game was the amount of the audience that would be allowed to enter. After a week of talks with the Serbian police and a marathon of discussions in the last few hours, the Yellows obtained the long-awaited approval to increase the number of spectators at the Pioneer home game from 250 to 1,000 fans, and the mythical hall was painted yellow and provided for the first time this season to Oded Ketch’s trainees a feeling of a home away from home.
The main story on the eve of the matchup on the yellow side dealt with the condition of the team’s star Wade Baldwin, who was injured in the first game between the teams and missed the second game of the series, which dramatically changed the balance of power. During the days that passed between the second and third game in the series, the club did everything they might to try and train the star and even sent him to a special series of treatments in Croatia, but unfortunately, a short time before the match, the ball fell and Baldwin, who was not 100% fit, did not register for the match.
Wade Baldwin. Super show of his friends, photo: Udi Tsitiat Ergin Atman. Only managed to react in the final minutes, photo: Audi Tsitiat
In the absence of his biggest star, Oded Ketch was looking for another player to take over the reins and excel and did not find it in one player but in a great team display. Josh Niebo (22 points and 9 rebounds) led eight different scorers in yellow in the first half who swept the field, took a 15-point lead and presented one of the best games of the yellow this season in the biggest and most important class this season.
One of the most important keys in the series is the way a team reacts from one game to the next, studying the opponent and correcting their mistakes. In the first game between the teams, the Greek star Kostas Sloukas recorded a Euroleague career record in assists, in the second game he achieved a career record in points with 29 in the best game of the legendary 34-year-old center’s career, tonight at Pioneer in Belgrade, Oded Ketch’s apprentices stopped the star at 0 points tonight.
Kostas Sloukas is saved by Josh Niebo, photo: EPA
The Pau star team that was built this summer in order to return the luxury club of Greek basketball to the forefront of European basketball and win the factory was not going to give up easily and managed to completely shrink the difference that peaked at 18 points in the last quarter and force a tie, but Lorenzo Brown, who was not felt in the first half Awoke in the decisive moments and with wonderful ability and leadership (9 of the 18 points of the Yellows in the fourth quarter) squeezed a foul and scored two critical free throws two seconds to the end that decided the match. Kendrick Nunn (25 points) might have won the game but missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Maccabi Tel Aviv players thank the yellow crowd that came to Belgrade, photo: EPA Tad Yankopoulos, photo: Audi Citiat Shimon Mizrahi with Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Belgrade, photo: Audi Citiat Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, photo: Audi Citiat Joe Thomason celebrates on the bench, Photo: Audi Citiat
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to join Josh Niebo sinks. A typical picture from the night, were we wrong? We will fix it! If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us