The Israeli champs held Efes to 38 second-half points to prevail.
Maccabi rides second-half defense to important win
Artículo
3 Min lectura
Regular Season
Round 14 of 34
Regular Season
Maccabi Playtika Tel AvivMTA
9586
Anadolu Efes IstanbulEFS
Overview
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Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv has been more of an offensive team all season but it was the Israeli champs' second-half defense that delivered an important victory over Anadolu Efes Istanbul.
Maccabi gave up just 38 second-half points after allowing 48 points in the first 20 minutes to register a 95-86 home win over Efes to move to 8-6 with a third win in the last four games.
“It was a big win for us. In the end, it was our effort in the second half. We adapted a little bit and changed a few things on defense. I like the way the team responded in the second half. It was all about defense,” Maccabi head coach Oded Kattash said.
Maccabi entered the game ranked third in scoring at 85.8 points per game and the offense surpassed that, but Kattash’s men had given up 87.6 points per game coming into the contest - the second most in the league. Maccabi kept Efes under that mark and an even better number was Efes shooting just 48.8% on two-pointers. Maccabi had been last in opposing team’s two-point shooting at 59.2%.
Maccabi also did a strong job on Efes star guard Shane Larkin, who scored 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting to go with 6 assists for an index rating of 18. Larkin had ranked third in average index rating with 20.3 per game and was third in scoring with 17.7 per game.
But Larkin had really stepped up his game with all the Efes injuries and he averaged 25.0 points in his last four games, including dropping 32 points on ALBA Berlin in Round 13.
“What decided the game was a lot of grit, a lot of defensive stops. We focused our main attention on Shane. We sent two guys at him and made him throw the ball to whoever on the court. And we had to score on the offensive end as well,” said Maccabi guard Lorenzo Brown, who had 21 points and 5 assists. “We needed this win just for our sanity. We got back on our feet. It was a great team win.”