Maccabi Tel Aviv furious after Barcelona drama: 'It feels wrong'

Maccabi Tel Aviv is deeply frustrated after Tuesday night’s 90–87 loss to Barcelona in Round 5 of the EuroLeague. The Yellow-and-Blue fell to the Catalans in a dramatic finish, dropping to 1–4 in the competition. They feel they could have won the game and believe the officiating was unbalanced.

“You can’t come away from this game without a bad feeling,” a club official in Barcelona said overnight. “We’re careful not to talk about the referees, but they made several poor decisions during the game, decisions that, in retrospect, prevented us from putting ourselves in a position to win. It feels bad and wrong.”

Maccabi are expected to demand answers from the EuroLeague regarding several specific calls, including the decision to disregard a kick by Barcelona’s Tyrese Martin toward Yam Madar’s legs, even though the referees reviewed the incident on the monitor.

The frustration also stems from the fact that the Yellow-and-Blue felt throughout the game that they could win, yet failed to take control of the contest. In crunch time, they conceded a huge three-pointer from Justin Robinson, who sealed the result with 1.9 seconds remaining.

“At the end of the day, we lost, and it hurts a lot,” another Maccabi official continued. “This is a loss that will hurt us for a very long time. This was the game we needed to turn our season around.”

Maccabi’s standout performer on Tuesday night was once again Yam Madar. While many of his teammates struggled to find their rhythm, Madar came out impressively at the start of the second half, shouldered the team’s burden and kept Maccabi within striking distance of Barcelona with a series of crucial baskets. He finished with EuroLeague career highs in points (22) and performance index rating (31), once again demonstrating that Maccabi’s considerable efforts to sign him over the summer were justified.

“We knew Yam had it in him, and we hope he’ll deliver performances like this in big wins in the near future,” club officials said, praising the Israeli guard, who has scored 39 points over the last two games - 11 fewer than he scored in the entire previous season with Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Madar finished the game in considerable pain after landing awkwardly on his back during the incident that prompted Maccabi’s complaints about the referees. He struggled to play effectively from that point until the final buzzer. He will undergo treatment ahead of Thursday’s game against Valencia, with the hope that his pain will subside and he will be able to play and display the form he is known for.

“We fought until the very last second,” Bonzie Colson said after the game. Colson missed the final shot that could have forced overtime. “It’s a tough loss for us, but there are a lot of positives we can take from it. This was our first big test. It’s a tough loss, but we can learn from it, keep building and improve as a team. I think we’re getting better on both ends of the floor, but we can learn from this loss and improve as a team.”

Oshae Brissett added: “Over the past week, week and a half, I feel we’ve been making significant progress, and we just have to keep pushing forward. This is the EuroLeague. Things are going to happen, and we’ll face great players every time we tip off, so we can’t take anything for granted. We just have to go out there and try to play hard, and that’s what we did today. We’ll watch the game film and keep learning.”

Maccabi will travel from Barcelona to Valencia by bus during the day, after holding their final practice in Barcelona ahead of Thursday’s game against Valencia (9:30 p.m. Israel time). The scheduled session will not be too demanding, so as not to overburden the players. However, Maccabi are expected to hold their first video session in preparation for Valencia, who lost to Olympiacos on Tuesday but have been in good form.