Maccabi Tel Aviv welcomes Armani Milano for a Euroleague Gameday 4 clash that will take place at the yellow-and-blue’s home away from home in Belgrade Serbia on Thursday night (19:00 Israel time).

Oded Katash’s squad has had a rough start to their continental campaign and are 0-3 as they will look to get their maiden win of the 2026-27 season and move out of the basement of the league standings. Maccabi will enter the clash on a high after having advanced to the Winner Cup Final by defeating Hapoel Jerusalem, coming back from a 10-point second quarter deficit to set up a Tel Aviv Derby Championship game for the preseason tournament that is slated to be played on November 9th.

Ahead of the Milano matchup, The Sports Rabbi spoke to Oshae Brissett about the club’s rough European start, the keys for turning it around and of course the win over Jerusalem this past Sunday.

“We’re just trying to get back to playing our brand of basketball, just trying to find it. We know it’s a long season, but we want to win, we want to win now and this game was just a step in the right direction.”

One of the keys in picking up the victory was Iffe Lundberg’s late game sharp shooting which had been an issue over the course of the first couple of weeks of the Euroleague. But the Danish guard knocked down four triples going 4/6 from long range and ended the contest with 14 points which Maccabi hopes will be the start of something special going forward.

“Since Iffe’s been here, he’s been a leader on this team and I just want him to find his way. Like I said, we started off pretty bad and everyone’s trying to find their way, so seeing him get going is really good to see and we need him. I just want to let him know that I appreciate him.”

After having been down by double digits and being able to come back, Brissett also hopes that this will be a good sign for the upcoming Euroleague games with Milano this week and then a Spanish Double Week immediately after that.

“This was very important. I think that it’s always going to be like that in EuroLeague and those games matter. These type of games matter to show the resilience and show that we can do it. But doesn’t matter who we’re playing or when we’re playing. We want to win these games when they’re close, when it’s looking like it’s not going to be in our favor.”

Sometimes, Brissett is not in the Israeli league squad due to the limit of five foreigners that can be listed per game and if it were up to him, the Canadian would always be on the court for Maccabi.

“love to play basketball. That’s my thing. I love hooping, I love being out there and I love my teammates. I love playing for my teammates and playing a big game against a team like Jerusalem is always fun. I know their crowd’s going to be in it and I know they got a great team and great players. So, I’m always going to be excited playing.”

As for turning that Jerusalem win into a victory against Milano, Brissett said that the yellow-and-blue have to be ready for any type of situation, “Just be prepared for anything. Just like we were down by 10 and came back as they were playing great basketball, just going into Thursday knowing that we can do the same thing if we have to. Doesn’t matter if we’re down 10, 15, we always got to fight and we just got to start the game really aggressive and playing together.”

Of course if Maccabi was playing at home in Yad Eliyahu, the 10K+ fans in attendance would be a real game changer Brissett explained, “There is nothing like playing in Tel Aviv and I think everyone in EuroLeague knows that. We just got to hope everything goes well and we can get our games back here.”

Notes:
1) Captain John Dibartolomeo is back after having missed the Euroleague Doble Week and the Winner Cup semifinals to attend his brother’s wedding.

“John is a super experienced player. He plays really hard and we need, we need people that are going to play hard. I feel like John coming back is just going to help us,” Will Rayman said.

The head coach Oded Katash also shared his thoughts on the captain’s return, “John is very important to us, both on the court and certainly off the court, so it’s good to have him with us.”

2) Center Daniel Theis who was out injured last game will be with the team against Milano but it’s still not known if he will take part in the contest Katash said, “He’s questionable. He’s not 100%, he’s trying to come back. We only had two practices overall and I think they weren’t even the best ones. Still, we need to check how he feels on Thursday.”