Barcelona will certainly sit up and take notice when it hears this: Maccabi Tel Aviv coaches don't think Gianluca Basile's performance Thursday night (34 points, including six 3-pointers) was the result of a defensive lapse. The working assumption in Tel Aviv contends that the veteran Italian had a rare hot day, and the real reason Maccabi lost lay somewhere else entirely.
"Actually our offense collapsed in the Barcelona game," assistant coach Guy Goodes said over the weekend. "Defensively we did what we planned, but Basile happened to have a big night."
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Goodes' analysis is a little surprising considering that Basile's sharpshooting didn't result from quick body fakes; they were made possible by double-teaming and even triple-teaming his teammates. And if Maccabi players kept to their defensive game plan but allowed Basile to score at will too often, perhaps the problem lies in the defensive plan itself?
Either way, there's also someone at Barcelona who plays down Basile's impact on the game's final score.
"You could say Basile was hot and that Pepe Sanchez was good, too," says the team's center, Mario Kasun. "But you need to understand that if they hadn't made those shots then someone else would have. Our defense, in contrast, was the result of team effort, and defense will be the name of the game in Tel Aviv next week. If we play the same level of defense in the third game, we'll win."
Maccabi players were instructed this weekend not to discuss Barcelona, only last night's Bnei Hasharon game. Still, some couldn't resist. "Our mistake was that we didn't stop Basile," Esteban Batista said. "And remember that he also scored a lot in the first game."
What is clear is that for Goodes, pressure in the deciding game will play a significant role. Maccabi was known this year for providing impressive performances in important games such as Madrid and Efes Pilsen, but it has also played terribly in others such as the State Cup final and Olympiacos at home.
Goodes is convinced that "we have enough players who know how to play under pressure, and even the younger players have accumulated enough experience in these situations."
Barcelona coach Xavier Pascual tried over the weekend to engage in psychological warfare, but the best he could come up with was this: "I said even before the series that the team that stays stronger mentality throughout the games is the one that will advance to the Final Four, and I still think as much. We competed well under pressure in the game at home, and now we'll see what will be in Tel Aviv. I don't see Maccabi as the favorite in this game."
For his part, Goodes understands what his team is bringing to Game 3. "We'll have to play like mad on Thursday and vie for every ball," he said Saturday. "Barcelona played that way in Game 2, and we did less so. It looks in the end like the knowledge the players had that there would be another game infiltrated subconsciously, and that had an impact."
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