Basketball Impressions: ALBA BERLIN - Maccabi Tel Aviv (64 - 73)

Too little, too late...

I am back with my impressions as I was having some difficulties to bring them on paper last two times. This time though, there were some things going on I can tell you about.

So let's start with my way to the arena. I was greeted by police men and women in medium to heavy armor, walking around the plaza, checking the perimeter up on oddities in the crowd that gathered around the arena. That is something that has changed since the game against Galatasaray Istanbul and the "oddities" that happened right there. But moving on from that, it has been a beautiful day in Berlin and I was happy to finally see my team head to the quarter finals of the Euroleague in this game against Maccabi Tel Aviv. I arrived pretty early, that is because security measures had been increased. As I mentioned, more presence of the police outside and even inside the arena, and body searches on every person and not just the guest fans. I was searched thoroughly by one of the security guards and didn't mind it too much because at the end of the day I just want to see a peaceful night with some action on the court.

As always, I went through the O2 Blue Lane, which is a special entrance for all O2 customers. The "blue angels", as they call themselves, handed each person some business-ish cards with a code and a number, where when you send a text to that number and win, you get some small to really nice prices. Like some drinks we actually won. So heading to the O2 Lounge, picking up our drinks, moving to our seats, almost 20 minutes before the game started, I got a call by an unknown caller. What the?! "Dear sir, you won some suite tickets!" Hell yeah, I did, so I got my buddy and my brother a ticket as well and there we are sitting like bosses, getting free drinks (even more!!!), ordering from a nice blue angel. There were some snacks but I was too lazy to get my ass up out of the seats that were so damn comfortable.

"Alright but what about the game, Jay?", you ask. Here's what's up: BS! And this has been my blog post for this game. See you next time... nah nah, I'm just fucking with you. :D

But to be honest, there was bullshit wherever we looked. Our team played a really good game, getting points from almost every player that was on the court. They took their time with any offensive possession and played a decent defense. There was a player on the opponent team, namely Devin Smith, who just nailed almost every single three-point shot no matter how good the defensive pressure on him was. That was incredible and he ended with 28 points (7/10 3PT), 7 rebounds, 1 assisst, 1 steal, and 1 block, and 3 turnovers. What a beast! He tried to be extra cocky in the last few minutes of the game but that would have been too much.

Me, as a streetball player, I really can't stand the job the referees are doing, especially in international games like in the Euroleague. It's just awful to look at when you hear the whistle just to witness a foul that was just a small touch with the hand to a shoulder or something... What is that?! That definitely is not basketball as I have learnt it. Incredibly painful to watch. There were so many calls by the refs, that I really lost the pleasure of watching the actual game. The clock was stopped so many times because of fouls... Something I can't respect at all. These men workout hard in gyms and train their body to be punished a bit. But no... It's pointless to rant about it because I feel like it's just getting worse and worse over the years. Let's hope not though.

However, that wasn't the main reason why we lost the game. There were a bunch of moments when the team of ALBA Berlin just lost their fluid movement and concentration. So the consequence of all that was a lot of mistakes, not really when it comes to turnovers (13 against Tel Aviv's 15), but more the decisions like where to pass the ball, where to move with and without the ball, and these small things that can mean so much, so much the more in a game that decides who is going to get in the top 8 in the Euroleague. ALBA's offense and defense in the third quarter allowed them to stay right at Tel Aviv's heels. The last quarter though was just given away. ALBA lost the game 64-73 against a stronger Maccabi Tel Aviv team with a top perfomance by Smith and Randle (13 pts, 4 reb, 2 ass), and a good overall perfomance of the bench players.

Nonetheless, we had a fairly good time in the suite with a nice view on the scene. We are proud of our boys of ALBA to reached a new record in German basketball history to get this far. Let's try it one more time next year. This weekend, the top 4 teams of the German basketball league Beko BBL will compete for the German Cup, and ALBA Berlin is a qualified contestant. Let's get the wins we need to bring the trophy back where it belongs and where it is at the moment, in Berlin!

Thanks for reading and see you next time with my impressions of the game against Phoenix Hagen next Wednesday.

Peace and much love to ya,
JerriKoe - #mitleibundseele

Here are the Euroleague highlights of the game:

Links you maybe want to check out:

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