Day 10 Euroleague

Maccabi Tel Aviv - Anadolu Efes Istanbul

* Anadolu Efes were trying to run at every opportunity they had, even when it meant some unnecessary turnovers. As a result, they made many points in transition. In the second half Maccabi didn't let them run so much. Anadolu found out that half court offence against Maccabi is not very fun, so we got a close game.

* Maccabi started the game with 6 turnovers in 5 minutes. It became much better when they start playing with Ohayon, a natural PG (Unlike Seeley or Goudelock). The beginning of the second quarter was the same story all over again - 3 turnovers in 3 minutes, until Hadar sent Ohayon on the court. Maccaci is leading the Euroleague with assists from players who are not playing as a PG. 63% of their assists came from the other four positions. Such a style had advantages - it is more difficult for the opponent's defence to point a specific player; but this style has also weak points - for example, it can lead to many turnovers against an athletic, determined defence. Maccabi had 12 of them already at the halftime, and 21 in the entire evening. Way too much.

* Tel Aviv attacking system is efficient and simple: the shooters open up the court, stretching the defence. Hadar takes advantage of the fact that his players are athletic and can penetrate the rim, and most of them are also oppose a threat from the 3pt range.

* In the first half Dunston had 3 dunks. All of them when his defender was Zirbes. Now, it is true that those dunks came after a screen which left Dunston free (or facing a short player in yellow), but a player must show some enthusiasm also in defence. In the first half, when things were going well for him, Zirbes showed no self-respect in defence. In the last quarter, when he made most of his points and was for some minutes Maccabi's go to guy in offence, he suddenly showed defensive enthusiasm. When Honeycutt tried to posterize him in the fourt quarter, he stopped him with a good foul. Personally, i don't like players who stop defending when they have a bad evening on the offensive end.

* At the beginning of the season I was writing about the new form of basketball players - Forguards. Well, Derrick Brown definately is a leading Euroleague Forguard. He runs the court like a guard with his 2.03, shoots from the outside, plays the post, penetrates and grabs rebounds. The entire package. Maccabi's athletic defenders simply could not handle tonight Brown's explosivness. And he also gave a very important block, which stopped Maccabi's comeback. Brown was perhaps the first true Forguard in the Euroleague, already in 2012 with Kuban. Despite his great abilities, there is a feeling that Brown is the Euroleague's most underrated player. Usually Forguards with his abilities find themselves in the top Euroleague clubs.

* Another pre-season post mentioned DJ Seeley as an interesting prospect. As written there, Seeley has two things to offer Maccabi: 3&D. He is indeed scoring well from the three points range. However, the thing which allows him to play an imprtant role in the roster so far is his defence. Hadar loves defensive warriors, who can make the life of the opponent guard miserable. DJ fits in perfectly.

* Anadolu finished the game with 24% from the three point range. It is typical to Maccabi's opponents this season, as Maccabi forces teams to take bad three point shots. Anadolu also took 12 offensive rebounds in the first half, and that is typical to them, as they are the Euroleague's best offence rebound team. All those second chance points in the first half were eventually the difference between winning or losing the game.

* Rami Hadar keep saying Maccabi is playing as a team, they are not a one man (or two men) show, but a whole team. In other words, it is not the team of Goudelock and/or Weems, they are just part of it (altough an importnat part). Hadar is not bluffing. The statistics show it as well. And that itself, as written above, makes it difficult to handle with Maccabi defensively. There is also a huge downside - in the money time, when they just needed the points, there was no make team. There was no selfish mothef**er who would take the ball, play one against the Turks and make the two points. And it is not like Goudelock and/or Weems can't do it.

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