Maccabi Tel Aviv will play ALBA Berlin on Thursday (21:05 Israel time) as they will look to string together two wins a row for the first time this season. The yellow-and-blue find themselves in 17th place with a 6-17 record while the German squad is the basement, 18th place and sport a record of 3-20.

Unfortunately for Oded Katash’s squad they will now be without their star player In Jaylen Hoard who suffered a hamstring tear during the win over Hapoel Beer Sheva on Sunday and will be out between 2-4 weeks. Hoard has been instrumental for the club in their domestic league success and has been arguably their best player in the Euroleague as well, but his absence will be costly for Maccabi who will also be playing in the Israel State Cup semifinals against Hapoel Tel Aviv in under two weeks.

“We will be missing Jaylen,” Katash said. “He’s perhaps the last one who hadn’t missed any time we didn’t get to play without him. Everyone understands his significance to us. Let’s hope he won’t be out for a long time, even though it doesn’t look good. We want to continue winning and playing better. Jaylen’s injury has ruined a lot of our plans.”

Levi Randolph, who has been one of the players along with Hoard who has recorded the most minutes along with Hoard, knows that his absence is costly but nevertheless, there are others who will be able to fill the big hole left by the Frenchman.

“He’s an important piece for us and he’s one of our main players, one of our go to guys, so it will be different for us to play without him. But we have a lot of depth and guys that are ready to step up. We have some great big men that are ready to play tomorrow and we look forward to getting the job done.”

One of the players who will no doubt have to step up is big man Trevion Williams who Maccabi signed from ALBA a couple of months ago.

“It’s the next guy up mentality. Jaylen’s a huge part of the team abut the next guy has to step up whether it’s me or Will Rayman or whoever it is, we want to get the job done. It should be fun and it will be nice to see the guys again. I’m excited. Our confidence remains and we always want to build off of the good things that we did and take the bad things and improve on them. We are looking to get the job done and keep rolling.”

Not only will the forwards and centers have to step up, but other players as well will need to be at their best as well. One of those players is also a former ALBA player in Tamir Blatt.

The Maccabi guard has continued to progress, develop and improve as each season goes by and that has been the case from his first days in the top league with Hapoel Tel Aviv to his time with Holon, Jerusalem and then understanding and learning the ropes in the Euroleague in Germany before coming back home. In his second season with Maccabi, Blatt is scoring 10.2 points and dishing out 7.4 assists per game in continental action which is an absolutely huge leap while also shooting 40% from deep going 38/95 thus far.

It’s clear that Blatt has not only been a big part of the team this season but the fact that he is playing at such a high level in the Euroleague shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Just this past week in the win over Hapoel Beer Sheva, Blatt excelled with 13 points and 10 assists that thrilled his teammates and of course Coach Katash, “He is a player who can score and shoots the ball at the highest of levels. In fact, he is already there.”

As for Blatt’s continuing to improve, the bench boss added that this season has been tough due to circumstances from, the war, “Tamir was injured twice this year and with our schedule and the flights, it’s not easy. We have a lot of travel, a crazy schedule, so it’s really not something specific that he has to do.”

Randolph also spoke about what makes Blatt tick and why he is so successful, “He plays with extreme confidence, but it’s just a testament to his hard work. He comes everyday and puts the works in, works on his game, practices hard so it’s going to show in the game. When you put the work in you’ll have the confidence that he does.”

“He makes big shots for us, he’s the catalyst for us and he’s the head of the snake. He comes in every game and sets the tempo and when he puts pressure on the opposition’s point guard that fuels us. Along with his shot making ability whenever he’s doing that we’re a tough team to beat. We fuel off of that energy.”

Also following being named MVP in the win at Beer Sheva, Blatt himself shared his thoughts on how he has developed, “First of all, it’s because of the experience, I’ve been playing for many years. I just keep working hard. This season hasn’t been easy with a lot of flights and I try to keep myself ready for every game. As for coping mentally, it’s very difficult. We have a good locker room and we all support each other. We don’t give up on anything and we want to continue improving and fighting.”

Katash feels that not only is Blatt one of the best guards that he has with Maccabi but that he should also be a leading floor general with the blue-and-white, “Tamir’s proven for a long time that he’s at this level and he’s one of the good guards that we have this season. If I was wearing the hat of the Israel National Team coach, I know that there are a lot of good guards out there but Tamir is at the highest of levels.”