A couple of the team's new arrivals put on a show
New-look Maccabi impresses in win over Efes, 93-91
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 3 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv improved to 2-1 in this season’s Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season after defeating Anadolu Efes Istanbul 93-91 in Belgrade, Serbia, on Tuesday night. Led by an inspired Saben Lee, making his Maccabi debut, and Jaylen Hoard, the Israeli side showed an impressive resilience in the fourth quarter to keep Efes at arm’s length en route to a crucial victory. With this loss, Efes dropped to 1-2.
Lee ended up scoring a game-high 23 points in 22:28 minutes on the floor, while he also had 5 helpers just three days after signing for Maccabi. Hoard also had a strong showing with a season-high 18 points, with Tamir Blatt adding 14 and Jasiel Rivero netting 10. For Efes, Vincent Poirier and Jordan Nwora had their best game since joining the club this summer by posting 22 and 21 points, respectively, but it came in defeat. Darius Thompson and Rodrigue Beaubois had 10 points apiece, too.
Both Maccabi and Efes were coming off losses in Round 2, but it was Tomislav Mijatovic's men which started Tuesday's Round 3 clash the better. Ercan Osmani made a promising start to proceedings with a three-pointer and a block, then Poirier and Nwora started to put their fingerprints on the game. Controlling everything was Shane Larkin, who finished the night with 8 assists, as Efes led 15-24 in the closing stages of the first quarter. However, Jasiel Rivero stepped up for Maccabi before a Jake Cohen three-pointer at the buzzer ensured it was a one-point ballgame, 23-24, after 10 minutes of play.
Lee got his first taste of EuroLeague action by playing for 3:10 minutes in the first quarter, not taking a shot and registering 1 assist, but he certainly drew attention to himself with a posterizing dunk on Osmani early in the second quarter. That appeared to give him a big boost in confidence, and he soon started to take over as Maccabi's go-to guy on offense with his scoring and playmaking. After what was a very tight second quarter – neither team led by more than three points during the whole 10 minutes – it was no surprise to see the teams tied 52-52 at halftime.
There was very little to separate the two teams in the third quarter, too, but when Efes went on an 8-0 run thanks to points from Beaubois, Poirier and Nwora, the visitors held a 64-72 advantage with two minutes to play before the fourth. Lee once again appeared for Maccabi, going 2 for 2 from the line and knocking down a three to trim the deficit to five points, 69-74. Maccabi ended the period on a high, with Blatt finding Hoard for an alley-oop that turned into a three-point play, meaning Efes led 72-74 after 30 minutes.
The star man on the night, Lee, was front and center at the start of the fourth quarter as he scored a layup and followed that up with a fast-break score to put Maccabi narrowly in front, 76-72. When Larkin went down with an injury with just over eight minutes to go, it looked like that could be the game for Efes. Fortunately he was able to return after a spell on the bench, but the visitors found themselves in the midst of a dry spell on offense, which Nwora ended almost halfway through the quarter. The back and forth continued, always with Maccabi finding a way to get back in front, before Lee found Hoard for a layup with three seconds left that put the win on ice, 93-91.
