From bad to worse

Maccabi Tel Aviv crushed Baskonia as a visitor in a new day of the Euroleague. Jayson Granger’s team accumulates five consecutive defeats between local and international tournaments.

In the match corresponding to the eighth date of the most important club championship of the old continent, the faces Baskonia and Maccabi Tel Aviv were seen. The former came from falling on their visit to Zenit, while the latter, in their last presentation, had defeated Barcelona at home. Montenegrin Dusko Ivanovic presented a quintet made up of Jayson Granger, Simone Fontecchio, Rokas Giedraitis, Tadas Sedekerskis and Landry Nnoko from Cameroon. For their part, those led by the Greek Ioannis Sfairopoulos took the field with Scottie Wilbekin, Keenan Evans, Angelo Caloiaro, Derrick Williams and the Croatian Ante Zizic.

The match held at the Fernando Buesa Arena had a fairly balanced start, in which both teams tried to capture their main offensive attributes in the rectangle. The home team hurt in the low post with the presence of Landry Nnoko, while the visiting team had an inspired Derrick Williams, aggressive in the one on one. With a good contribution in attack from both Angelo Caloiaro and Jalen Reynolds, the Israelis managed to open a seven-point lead (14-21). Between the end of the first period and the start of the second, the Basques put up a resounding 13-0 run, which gave them the chance to go on to win by six points. During this period of the game, the figure of Italian Simone Fontecchio, who was well supported by Matt Costello, was decisive. However, the Maccabees were not far behind and responded immediately with a 14-0, to regain control, led by a fiery James Nunnally.

At the beginning of the second half, the visit was in front of the electronic in figures from 44 to 35. In the first bars of the complement, a clearly marked procedure could be observed, in which a team tried by all means to specify a reaction, when time that the other had as main objective to maintain the difference in the score. Those of Vitoria-Gasteiz continued to depend excessively on the scoring of Fontecchio and the generation of Granger, while those of Israel did a lot of damage in the paint with Reynolds and Zizic. At the beginning of the last quarter, those led by Ioannis Sfairopoulos had an income of nine points in their favor. However, with a quick 15-4, they got 20 and ended up burying the illusion of a comeback of those led by Dusko Ivanovic. Finally, Maccabi Tel Aviv was left with the victory 87-69 and thus climbed to second place in the Euroleague, holding a 6-2 record, leaving Baskonia in twelfth position with a balance of 3-5.

The winner was the performance of American Derrick Williams, who scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, followed by Jalen Reynolds with 16 points. On the losing side, Wade Baldwin IV finished as the leading scorer with 15 points.

Uruguayan point guard Jayson Granger spent 18:26 minutes on the court, in which he contributed 4 points (0/3 triples, 1/2 doubles and 2/2 free), 1 rebound, 4 assists and 1 steal, for a total rating of 6.

The next commitment of the team of our compatriot in the continental competition will be on Thursday, when he has to visit the Football Club Barcelona. While for the local tournament it will be active again on Sunday, hosting Unicaja Málaga at home.