Olympiacos facing Maccabi Tel Aviv – one of the best basketball shows to watch
The Greek squad is coming back glorious to Piraeus after defeating in Moscow, the reigning champions, CSKA. It was another chapter of this neverending derby where like many other times Olympiacos turn the tables around and steal a precious win. But what’s next for them? Can they beat Maccabi Tel Avivas well?
The Israeli team is growing every weak at chemistry, integrating better and better all the players in the tactics. Maccabi Tel Aviv is coming after a great period, smashing 2 days ago Fenerbahce Beko for a total of 3 victories in the Euroleague in a row. Last week they have hammered as well in Israel their big rivals from Hapoel Jerusalem to stay unbeaten this season in the domestic league.
Especially, for the head-coach Giannis Sfairopoulos, it will be a special event because he came to lead Maccabi from Olympiacos, so I think he got some extra motivation for this encounter with his former club.
It will be a great match, opposing 2 teams that are in excellent shape at the moment. Olympiacos will have the advantage of the home court but they have travelled more this week so they can be a bit more tired at the game-time. For the basketball lovers, it will be 40 minutes of organized run-and-gun, very hard to predict because both teams have all the necessary weapons to seal the victory. It is so balanced that I saw a betting website giving the odd 2.00 for both teams, which normally is never happening.
In this game, we will see probably the debut with the Reds of the new acquisitions, the ex-NBA-er center Willie Reed and former Euroleague top scorer Taylor Rochestie, who played as well for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the past. It remains to be seen how quickly they will be able to enter and produce results.
Photo: Euroleague.net
Gratian Cormos
