Desperate yellow-and-blue hosts Bayern
Maccabi Tel Aviv aims to get back on track in Euroleague despite short-handed roster
Maccabi Tel Aviv welcomes Bayern Munich to Yad Eliyahu on Thursday evening for Gameday 10 of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague. The yellowand-blue will look to salvage its continental season with a win over the German club, which returned to the competition for the first time since 2015/16.
Coach Dejan Radonjic squad sports a 4-5 record good for 9th place while Maccabi is in 15th place with a record 1-8. Bayern plays a team game led by multi-faceted guard Stefan Jovic and relies on scoring from former NBA veteran Derrick Williams, Devin Booker and Danilo Barthel. Together with Vladimir Lucic, Maodo Lo, Petteri Koponen and the ever-dangerous Nihad Đedovich, Maccabi will need to be at there best to stop the German’s pick and roll offense in order to record the win.
Maccabi, which came up short against Fenerbahce last week, will look to find a victory at all costs. Scottie Wilbekin had a couple of excellent games against Bayern Munich last season when his Darüssafaka side defeated the German squad two games to none in the EuroCup semifinals. Wilbekin scored 24 points in the first game and 41 points in the second helping his team to a finals berth in the second best European competition. There’s no question that Maccabi will need that same output tonight from its point guard as it battles Bayern at home.
Forward Angelo Caloiaro, who was named the MVP of the yellow-andblue’s Israel Basketball Super League victory over Maccabi Rishon Lezion earlier this week, explained what his team will need to do.
“We will get back out there and prepare by watching film and work on various things in practice. What it really comes down to is that we got to continue to work. Obviously we have a ways to go to get where we want to be. But bottom line, it comes down to work.”
The Israel National Team will take on Serbia Friday afternoon at the Drive-In Arena and Georgia on Monday in Tbilisi in the FIBA 2019 World Cup qualifying tournament. Friday’s game has been sold out for a week, but Coach Oded Katash knows that his squad’s chance of advancing past this round are slim.
The blue-and-white is 3-5 and finds itself in 5th place in their group and is dealing with a number of issues.
“We have some injuries and players who had been more dominant are not playing their best basketball. Some players aren’t in great basketball shape, which is something that we will have to deal with as well.”
One of the big issues surrounding this window of games is how Maccabi Tel Aviv – which has four players with the national team – will handle playing in the Euroleague tonight and then Friday afternoon against Serbia.
Katash knows that the preparation is not optimal as the players shuttle between the two camps.
“The Maccabi players who have a Euroleague game on Thursday are only going to rejoin us on Friday morning just ahead of the game. It’s not ideal and we will have to really give it our all just as we did in the past to get a result.”
Yellow-and-blue coach Iaonnis Sfairopoulos looked at the added value for both his team and the four players who are with Israel this week,
“I’m very happy that we have players on the Israel National team as I remember in the past how many Maccabi players were on the National team. This is very important for Maccabi and will give them experience and more games to play which will help them reach an even higher level.”
The coach also addressed the difficulties in scheduling the games due to a disagreement between FIBA and Euroleague.
“While it might hurt a little now as we will miss them from some practices, it’s really a bigger problem between the Euroleague and FIBA. I hope that in the future there will be a solution because it will help everybody, from the National Teams, the Euroleague teams and the players. The players are playing so many games they need to rest their bodies.”
Maccabi’s Yovel Zoosman spoke to The Jerusalem Post about having the opportunity to play for both Israel and Maccabi.
“Our team manager Ami Bitton and his national team counterpart figured out the most optimal way to get the best out of the situation. It may be challenging, but it’s a big honor at my age to be part of the Senior National Team.”
“If I could play every other day I’d be happy,” explained Maccabi captain John DiBartolomeo. “We will go from practice to practice, game by game and give it our best.”
Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Bayern Munich (live on Sport5 at 9p.m.)