What a season it’s been for Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, which after a mid-February coaching change went on a tear to climb from 12th place to fifth at the end of the regular season.
Road to the Playoffs: Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
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Maccabi had a rough start to the season after a wave of COVID-19 infections shut down the team during the preseason. Nevertheless, Maccabi edged FC Bayern Munich 69-68 on opening night behind 28 points from Scottie Wilbekin.
The team could not maintain the momentum as losses to Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade at home and at AX Armani Exchange Milan followed, but an 85-93 triumph at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in Round 4 sparked the team. Maccabi reeled off five consecutive wins, highlighted by an 85-68 rout of FC Barcelona and a 95-84 victory over AS Monaco in which Wilbekin tied the club’s scoring record with 37 points.
It all went south after that as Maccabi lost a club record eight games in a row between Rounds 11 and 18 to fall to 7-11. Ante Zizic scored 23 as Maccabi righted the ship with an 84-69 victory over Olympiacos Piraeus in Round 22.
The ups and downs continued with blowout losses at Bayern and Anadolu Efes Istanbul sandwiching an 84-75 home win over CSKA Moscow. The loss in Istanbul was the first game in charge for Avi Even, who was appointed interim head coach in place of Ioannis Sfairopoulos. The team parted ways with the latter following a loss to crosstown rival Hapoel in the semifinals of the Israeli Cup.
It took time for things to click under Even as Maccabi beat Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 94-93 and followed that by falling at Zvezda. However, the big men dominated in a 75-58 rout of Milan in Round 31 that sent the team on a hot streak.
It then scored the final 10 points of the game to top Real Madrid 75-74 behind a season-best 19 points from Keenan Evans. The winning continued in the Greek capital against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens and at home, 95-73, over ASVEL behind Zizic’s career-best 24 points to clinch a playoff berth.
Even and co. were not done and sought to finish the regular season in the best way possible. They put on a display by routing Barcelona 80-104 and then went into the regular-season finale needing a win to move past Efes and into fifth place. This time the star was Nunnally, who came back with a vengeance after leaving the game with an early injury to spark Maccabi to an 85-76 triumph, a 17-11 record and a quarterfinals showdown against Real Madrid.
If Maccabi can continue its momentum into the playoffs and beyond, it would turn an already memorable season for the fans in Tel Aviv into something for the history books.