Maccabi Tel Aviv suffered a tough EuroLeague loss to Panathinaikos after blowing a 15-point lead in the final quarter. Coach Oded Kattash expressed frustration over officiating, roster limitations, and missed opportunities but remained proud of the team’s progress.
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv ended their four-game winning streak in the EuroLeague, blowing a 15 point-lead (83-68) heading into the final quarter of their Round 31 contest against Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens in Belgrade.
| Player of the Game | |
|
EFF
34
|
| Kendrick Nunn | |
| Points | 26 |
| Accuracy | 7-12 |
| Rebounds | 5 |
| Assists | 8 |
The Yellows were there almost the entire way, but in the final 10 minutes they saw the Greens look unstoppable on their way to a huge 0-18 run that allowed them to turn the game around and record their 20th win (20-11) in the season (99-92).
"Frustrating. There's a feeling of deprivation," coach Oded Kattash said in his postgame statements.
"With the weapons that we have, I think we played to win and I think that was enough. I don't know...every quarter started 4-0 fouls, 5-0 fouls. Obviously, it's something that we're doing wrong. We need to check it. It's very weird," the Israeli coach noted.
"We are missing players, we have a small roster, we are missing our big men," he continued.
"Maybe only one team was aggressive. I don't know. I've never seen anything like that before," Kattash emphasized.
"The first 6-7 minutes of each period with zero fouls for the other team. Obviously it's something we're doing wrong. We have to check it out."
For the record, the fouls were 24 against Maccabi and 20 against Panathinaikos, while the hosts shot 18/18 from the line as opposed to the Greens' 24/31.
"If a few whistles had gone our way, we could have won the game. I'm proud of the way we played. We weren't able to stop their run at the end, but on the other hand, I think we missed three or four free layups," Kattash told the Israeli media.
"They're a deeper team than us and it paid off in the end. Maybe we're not as deep and high-quality as we were in the last two years, but we're playing better basketball at this stage of the season than we were in these two years.
It was very difficult to get the team on a path to progress. We made the playoffs two years and I have to say that I'm no less proud of this season than the previous two," Kattash, 50, concluded.
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