For many months since the start of the season, Maccabi Tel Aviv has been waiting to see the good old Lorenzo Brown appear in a big way. Tonight (Tuesday) in its most important game of the season when the long-awaited ticket to the playoffs was on the agenda in a game of being or not, the center appeared in a big way and in his best game of the season he sent the Yellows to the quarterfinals of the Euroleague and a fascinating series against Panathinaikos after a great victory over Baskonia 85:113.
One of the oldest clichés in basketball holds that great players excel in the big games and at the peak of the season, on the biggest and most prestigious stage, Lorenzo Brown shined once again and in his best game of the season he reminded forgetfulness and proved that despite everything and even with his form this season, he is still one of the best players in the industry.
When the heads of the Euroleague management sat down in the summer and decided to implement the play-in system, they knew that this would add tension and interest to the league, but would also put the fate of the season of several teams at stake in one game for the entire pot. 33 away games, a war and six long months of a series season for Oded Ketch and his apprentices drained to the moment of truth and when the first ball was thrown into the air, only one team was on the field.
The Yellows, accompanied by 250 fans who made their way from Israel, did their best in the first half, stopping Euroleague basket king Marcus Howard to only 3 points in the first half, and ran to a promising double-digit lead of 22 points already in the second quarter.
Throughout the week leading up to the match, the preparations and expectations were focused on the star duel between Wade Baldwin on the one hand and Marcus Howard on the other, when the expectation was that he would be the one to decide the fate of the game, but the first half was all about Brown, who exceeded his season average already in the first quarter and exploded with 21 points and – 5 three-pointers that decided the fate of the match already in the first half. The Yellows presented a fine shooting night, hitting 19 three-pointers at a wonderful percentage and breaking a new seasonal shooting record in the most important game of the season.
Lorenzo Brown led the yellow scorers with a season high of 29 points, Wade Baldwin contributed 26, Bonzie Colson added 14 of his own. Following the victory, Maccabi Tel Aviv secured seventh place and qualified for the EuroLeague playoffs, where the Greek Panathinaikos will be waiting for them in a best-of-five-game series starting Tuesday.
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