Maccabi Tel Aviv welcomes Panathinaikos for game 4 of their Euroleague quarterfinal series on Thursday (21:45 Israel time) as the yellow-and-blue will look to not only closeout the series as they hold a 2-1 lead, but also punch their ticket to the Final Four being held in Berlin. With Real Madrid moving into the semifinals after sweeping Baskonia in three games, Barcelona would like to knock off Olympiacos in Piraeus on Thursday while Maccabi would like to do the same to the Greens at their home away from home in Belgrade.

With over 1,000 fans in the stands at the legendary Pionir Arena for the yellow-and-blue’s 85-83 game three win, more are on their way from the Holy Land with the hope that they will see Oded Katash’s squad reach the Final Four for the first time since 2014 when they would go on and win the Euroleague title for the 6th time in the club’s illustrious history.

But the bench boss knows that there is much to do in order to find a way past a very tough Panathinaikos team that will be neck and neck with Maccabi throughout the 40 minutes and make sure that in no way, shape or circumstance does the series get knotted up and sent back to the ominous OAKA Arena in Athens where more than 20,000 supporters would be waiting.

“The most important thing is that we can’t think about game five,” Katash said. This is a game that we must win it’s do or die. We need to come in with the right attitude, learn the lessons from the previous games and come with the right energy. It will be a very aggressive game and we must be prepared for that. We are excited.”

Maccabi came into game three with a tremendous amount of energy, intensity and desire and they will need to do the exact same thing again in order to avoid a 5th game, “All three games were very aggressive and high intensity just as the playoffs should be. In game two we lost a bit of our aggressiveness and gave up some easy points. In game three we did an excellent job and we will have to continue like this. We deserve to be here and we are happy to be here. We have to play our game and give everything, if you do that you won’t lose.”

There is no question that Ergin Ataman will ensure that his squad will score more than 11 paltry points that they did in game 3’s first quarter and Maccabi will need to be very ready for what the Turkish bench boss will throw Maccabi’s way according to Roman Sorkin, “They will come to play even stronger this time, but in any case we have to prepare for a physical and aggressive game. Play for it all. It was fun to play in front of the crowd and fun to come here. Thanks to the Serbian police who approved to let in more people.”

“Tomorrow is a new day,” Josh Nebo said. “This is a new game and what we did Tuesday does not matter. We need to watch film and get ready for a new day and a tough game. We have a very well balanced team, we can win with our guards and we can win with our inside game. Everyone has to stay ready and prepared and give it our best shot. I feel like we are happy we won on Tuesday but we have not achieved anything yet. They are a good team with a good coach. There is no time to celebrate yet.”

Just as Maccabi had a game plan to totally shutdown a potent scorer in Kostas Sloukas in game three, they will be ready once again under the watchful eye of Oded Katash to once again stymie the club’s top talents.

“Let’s hope we can stick to a game plan,” Sorkin said. “It’s going to be a clash of who wants it more. We will have to come in hungry and focused, even if we are in the lead in this series.”

However, Maccabi will be facing a high level talented team where they have weapons at all positions from A-to-Z.

“We are playing against a team with some significant weapons,” Katash sad. “One game it was Sloukas, another Lessort and Tuesday it was Nunn. When they aren’t playing well, Vildoza and Papapetrou can come off of the bench. It’s a team with a lot of talent and resources. We made adjustments in game three and that may be what slowed down Sloukas, but he has enough experience and he will find a way to respond to that and we have to be flexible in our thinking.”

“Lessort is very dominant, one of the dominant big men in the Euroleague. We have two or three of bigs as well now that Roman is back. We need to use this advantage of ours. It’s going to be the fourth game that Lessort will play a lot of minutes, he likes contact and is very active and we have to be ready for that. We did a better job on him Tuesday.”

With a lot of attention that is being spent on the referees, bad calls and politics, Maccabi has made a decision to keep focus on one thing, the basketball game being played on the court and nothing else as Nebo explained.

“I feel the team we have here we try not to focus on the refs. We try to focus on ourselves, controlling the things we can and leave the extra stuff to whoever wants to talk about that. Everybody has their opinion. We focus on us and being the best we can. Hopefully we can be the best Maccabi for Thursday. I try to do my job to the best of my ability and hopefully we can come out with the win.”

Wade Baldwin’s status for the clash is still uncertain but the feeling is that even if the star guard dresses he will not see any serious playing time. But regardless if Baldwin is in or out, Katash wants his team to be loose and enjoy the moment that they will be in.

“There is excitement and pressure as in every game and we need to channel this to play free and to play our game while also enjoying it. Let’s hope we come out with the result that we want.”