The Serbian team overcame a 24-point deficit to win the game, erasing the bitter taste of losing in similar fashion at Fenerbahce.
Partizan flipped the script to turn the tables on Maccabi
Άρθρο
3 Χρόνος Ανάγνωσης
Regular Season
Round 21 of 34
Regular Season
Partizan Mozzart Bet BelgradePAR
8879
Maccabi Playtika Tel AvivMTA
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Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade engineered a rip-roaring comeback to prevail 88-79 over the visiting Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in Round 21 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season, having wiped out a 24-point first-half deficit.
A game that had it all produced a plethora of thrills and spills, with Partizan coming out on top just a couple of days after throwing away a 19-36 second-quarter lead in a 91-76 defeat at Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.
A rocky start before an incredible turnaround
This time around, Partizan looked out for the count after Maccabi raced into a 0-16 lead which soared to 13-37 early in the second quarter, with the home side looking all at sea in every department. Having slashed the deficit to 36-52 at halftime, Partizan regrouped and hit back with a vengeance in the third quarter as James Nunnally took center stage.
PJ Dozier, the game’s top performer with 23 points and 7 rebounds, heaped praise on Nunnally, who was ejected early in the fourth after picking up a second technical foul and finished on 20 points.
“He got thrown out, but he brought in the aggression and that’s what we needed,” Dozier said in a flash post-game interview. “Sacrifice ourselves for the betterment of the team and that’s what he did. Came out strong and we followed his lead.”
Having scored 16 points in the first half, Dozier was again at the fore after Nunnally’s expulsion, sinking some tough mid-range jumpers off the dribble when Partizan needed him to. Dozier and Nunnally compensated for an off night from team captain Kevin Punter, who sat out the entire third quarter on the bench after struggling in the first half.
Partizan’s fans were its sixth man on the court
Dozier credited Partizan’s fervent home fans for lifting the team in the face of adversity, with Zeljko Obradovic’s side nosing ahead 67-64 late in the third for its first lead of the game. Maccabi turned that around to 67-69 as the red-hot Nunnally, who fired on all cylinders against his former club in the third quarter, was ejected following a lengthy official review.
That was Maccabi’s last lead as Partizan, roared on by 20,000 souls in a packed Stark Arena, served up a 13-2 run and never looked back. “We spoke at halftime and I said to the guys that we were going to fight the whole 40 minutes,” said Dozier.
“When you play in front of a crowd like this, you have to do that. You put the energy in to make sure you finish the game and that’s what we did. When we trailed by 24 points, it was one possession at a time. You can’t get the whole lead back in one possession so we just tried to chop the tree down, as we like to say,” the guard elaborated.
Coach Obradovic was delighted that Partizan was able to vanquish the ghosts of tamely going down at Fenerbahce and outscore Maccabi 52-27 in the second half. Known for always asking his players to keep their feet on the ground, Obradovic also demanded more consistency from his fickle troops.
“I feel a little bit better than after the last game,” he reflected. “Today it was the opposite. Against Fenerbahce we had a very bad second half, but tonight I have to congratulate my players and this wonderful crowd.
“They trust us, even though we were more than 20 down. Amazing energy and willpower to play until the end. We were very aggressive on defense in the second half and played the proper way offensively. Let’s see if we can learn from this game how we need to play every game.”
Dejected counterpart Oded Kattash lamented over his Maccabi team totally losing its focus in the second half, when the visitors shot 0-of-16 from three-point range after making 8-of-14 in the opening two quarters.
“We knew at halftime that they already had three or four big comebacks in this gym,” said Kattash. “They were aggressive in the third quarter and hit some shots, while we lost our flow a little bit.”
“The momentum changed and that’s another lesson for us. We came out focused and aggressive, but it’s all about the 40 minutes. I feel bad for the players, they put in a lot of effort.”