Maccabi Tel Aviv ended the 2024-25 EuroLeague season with historically poor defense, allowing 89.5 points per game—the 10th worst in modern league history. Their defensive rating ranked 7th worst ever, highlighting a glaring weakness.
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv’s 2024-25 EuroLeague campaign came to a close on Thursday night with another defensive implosion and a 99-93 loss to Olympiacos in Piraeus that places this season among the worst in the club's storied history—and among the worst in EuroLeague history.
While the circumstances were undeniably challenging—wartime displacement, constant roster changes, and a full season played out of Belgrade rather than Tel Aviv—the hard data tells a story of defensive failure.
23 losses. 89.5 points allowed per game. That’s not just bad—that’s historically bad.
This year's Maccabi didn’t just struggle. They seemed helpless on the defensive end, at a rate previously reserved for the likes of Buducnost, Ostend, and London Towers—teams that flickered briefly through the EuroLeague in the early 2000s and disappeared just as quickly.
In fact, according to Walla Sports, the 89.5 points conceded per game mark makes Maccabi the 10th-worst defense in EuroLeague history since the format change at the turn of the millennium.
Top 10 Worst Defenses in EuroLeague History (Points Allowed Per Game):
- Buducnost 2001-02 – 95.4
- Zadar 2001-02 – 93.0
- Buducnost 2002-03 – 92.6
- Ostend 2001-02 – 92.6
- Alba Berlin 2024-25 – 91.3
- Khimki Moscow 2020-21 – 90.2
- Novo Mesto 2001-02 – 89.9
- London Towers – 89.8
- Turov Zgorzelec 2014-15 – 89.7
- Maccabi Tel Aviv 2024-25 – 89.5
Even though modern basketball is faster, with more possessions and higher scores across the board, the numbers still leave Maccabi among the EuroLeague’s defensive bottom-feeders.
Using Defensive Rating (points allowed per 100 possessions), Maccabi’s figure of 122.6 is the 7th-worst ever—worse than infamous campaigns from Khimki Moscow (2020-21), Milan (2017-18), and ALBA Berlin this very season.
Worst Defensive Ratings (Points Allowed per 100 Possessions):
- Buducnost 2001-02 – 131.0
- Buducnost 2002-03 – 127.2
- Krka Novo Mesto 2003-04 – 123.6
- Khimki Moscow 2020-21 – 123.5
- Ostend 2001-02 – 122.8
- Budućnost 2018-19 – 122.8
- Maccabi Tel Aviv 2024-25 – 122.6
- Milan 2017-18 – 122.6
- Alba Berlin 2024-25 – 122.2
- Gran Canaria / Bayern Munich 2018–25 – 121.7
These aren’t just academic stats—they reflect what was clear on the floor: blown rotations, porous perimeter defense, and an inability to control defensive rebounds.
Whether against elite teams or mid-tier clubs, Maccabi couldn’t get stops when it mattered. And too often, they couldn’t get stops at all.
A team that could score, but couldn’t guard—a fatal flaw in the EuroLeague’s tightly contested dogfight of a regular season.
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