E̶l̶s̶y̶d̶e̶o̶n̶ッ Posted October 28, 2021 Posted October 28, 2021 Nunnally and Wilbekin were a torture for Jasikevicius' team, who were weighed down by a horrible first half. It is their first Euroleague defeat of the season and the fifth in a row in Tel Aviv. An outstanding performance by James Nunnally (17 points, 21 in efficiency) and the usual good manners of Scottie Wilbekin (16 points, 15 in efficiency) were the main arguments for Maccabi to break Barça's winning streak in the Euroleague (Narrative and statistics: 85-68). Cory Higgins (20 points, 26 in efficiency) and the leadership of Nikola Mirotic (17 points, 22 in efficiency) were of no use to the blaugranas, who, at times, seemed to allow his team to dream at least of a closer finish. The local intensity, in a pavilion that was a pressure cooker and in which the Barcelonistas have not won in five years, erased in one stroke any option to even make up a little bit of things. Maccabi simply swept Barça aside in the first half with an extremely choral game in attack. Only Nunnally stood out slightly above the rest of his teammates, with 12 points in his pocket at halftime. Wilbekin, of course, with nine points, was the closest behind, but Ante Zizic, Derrick Williams, or Kameron Taylor were not too far behind either. Even players who lagged a little behind, such as Jalen Reynolds or Keenan Evans, contributed their bit. On the Barcelona side, only Nikola Mirotic and Cory Higgins seemed somewhat capable of withstanding the downpour. The first quarter, in fact, ended with a resounding 31-18 for the locals. The blaugranas were not a total disaster in offensive tasks, even though mistakes in seemingly clear actions haunted them throughout the first half, but their poor defensive performances made Maccabi go on the attack like a hot knife cutting butter.
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