Nadir Hifi has given Paris Basketball a timely jolt. His 26 points and four assists helped the French side beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 99–94 in Belgrade on Thursday, turning a demanding two-game EuroLeague road trip into two wins. Paris had arrived in the week with one European victory. It now has three.
The finish was anything but comfortable. Paris raced to a 25–17 first-quarter lead, only for Maccabi to take the second period 19–10 and edge ahead 36–35 at half-time. The teams were locked at 65–65 after three quarters. Paris then scored 34 in the last ten minutes, enough to survive a 29-point Maccabi finish. The quarter-by-quarter breakdown shows just how little separated them until that final burst.
Hifi was the difference-maker, but Paris did not leave him to do everything. Tyson Etienne scored 13, Sebastian Herrera added 12, and Alize Johnson contributed 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists. French outlet Sports Orange singled out Hifi's scoring and Johnson's all-round contribution. Jimmy Clark led Maccabi with 21 points; Bonzie Colson and Roman Sorkin supplied 16 apiece, according to Basketball Sphere's match report.
Tuesday's 99–93 victory in Dubai was Paris's first EuroLeague away win of the season. The turnaround was barely 48 hours, yet Maxime Lefèvre's side backed it up on Maccabi's adopted home floor in Serbia. Paris move to 3–6 after nine rounds, while Maccabi fall to 2–7, their third consecutive EuroLeague defeat. That is a useful shift in the early table, even if neither club can afford to get comfortable.
There is also a peculiar head-to-head story developing. Paris had won all four previous EuroLeague meetings between the clubs, a record highlighted in the club's own pre-match notes. Thursday made it five from five. This one required more late nerve than some of those earlier victories, but the result was familiar.
For EuroLeague fantasy managers, Hifi's two strong outings this week make his return to form hard to ignore. His 26 in Belgrade followed a 20-point performance against Dubai. The appeal is the scoring responsibility he can shoulder when Paris need a basket; the caution is that two games are still a small sample for judging his week-to-week output. Johnson's work across three categories and Etienne's supporting scoring offer different, less headline-grabbing angles.
Paris return to French league action against Chalon on 1 November, then visit Anadolu Efes in the EuroLeague on 5 November. Those fixtures will test whether the burst of confidence travels home with them. For now, two away wins in three days have made Paris a far more interesting team than its early record suggested.
Comments