Maccabi Tel Aviv hosts Panathinaikos on Euroleague Gameday 16 action at Yad Eliyahu (21:15). The Yellow & Blue come into the contest after defeating Barcelona 68-67 which was the third game of a there game road trip that saw Maccabi come home 2-1 with an overall record of 6-9. 

Panathinaikos enters the clash sporting a 5-9 record having won the last game out against Alba Berlin 92-69. The Athens based club feature a number of familiar names to Israeli basketball fans including Shelvin Mack who played with Hapoel Jerusalem last campaign and Marcus Foster who plied his trade with Hapoel Holon.

Last week for Maccabi began with a shocking defeat at ASVEL but ended on a high note with an equally surprising win versus Barcelona in an arena that hadn’t won in roughy 15 years. The victory in Spain was critical to keep Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s hope alive to get his team into the Euroleague playoffs. However, in order to do that, his squad must come out from the get go with one goal and one goal only, focus from the tipoff. Anything less will see the Yellow & Blue trying to dig out of a hole that has unfortunately been all too frequent this season. 

When Maccabi starts off ready and raring to go, they’ll be fine. But when they aren’t “into it” they spot the opposition a lead and then have to try and climb the steep ladder game in and game out. Sitting only 3 games under .500 with 7 of the next 9 games at home gives them a real shot too slowly but surely continue that climb up and move into one of the top eight spots in the 18 team continental league. 

“We have to be concentrated and we have to begin very focussed,” said Sfairopoulos at the pregame press conference. “All coaches have a plan but how much it’s followed on the court is the issue, the most important thing was that the players fought so much and were focussed to stay on the plan and this is what I want to take away from that game against a quality team like Barcelona. We have to follow our game plan again and again and implement what we practice. Mental readiness is number one.”

Dragan Bender who has started to turn a corner and looks to be staying with Maccabi for the balance of the season as well echoed his coach’s comments, “We need to start with high intensity from the first minute, as we showed against Barcelona. We had to play catch up and it’s hard to win those types of games. In Barcelona we played from the first minute and guys from the bench came in and played the same way.”

Captain John Dibartolomeo also spoke about what the team will need to make sure they chalk up another win, “When we play so many games, our focus is forgetting yesterday and focus on the next day. That was one reason we were able to bounce back after the tough loss in France, and that has to continue. Not too high, not too low.”

Looking back to the home court situation, it’s clear that Maccabi is a team that really misses their supporters as they have helped intimidate the opposition and adds a few points to the scoreline as well because of that. Without the home crowd, home court advantage has been a bit dicey for many teams this year explained Sfairopoulos as he readies to play a number of home games which at least could help the team with less travel and nights away from their own homes. 

“In the Euroleague we don’t have home court advantage and you can see that many home teams lose at home more so than before the coronavirus. You know how much pressure coming to Maccabi is and this can’t change until our fans come back. We need to protect our home court even without fans as we know they are supporting us. We need them most when things aren’t going well and help us overcome these bad moments. Teams who had tough home home courts have suffered much more than teams who have home courts that are like a theatre.”

Dibartolomeo shared thoughts about playing at home for the next little bit, “It’s nice to play at home but we miss a huge part of what drives us at home. We have to take it game by game and 7 out of 9 is good in terms of travel and rest, but this year there is less of a factor.”

Perhaps, Maccabi needs to make more of an effort to make the home environment just that and they can start by the players themselves being louder on the bench than the opposition which seems to be the case at every home game this season thus far.