Pushing the pace: Maccabi Tel Aviv looks to continue keep moving up the Euroleague ladder against Zalgiris with playoffs in sight

Mar 7, 2024 | Holyland Hoops

Maccabi Tel Aviv tips off against Zalgiris on Thursday (21:05) in Belgrade as they look to continue to move up in the Euroleague standings and cement a place in the postseason. Sitting at 14-13, the yellow-and-blue are currently in 9th place which is good enough for a Play In position and with seven games remaining in the continental competition, only one team sports a record above .500.

While Zalgiris is 11-16 in 14th place, they have been playing much better basketball of late after bringing in one of the top coaches in Italian tactician Andrea Trinchieri. With a renewed Lithuanian squad that includes one of the league’s most prolific scorers in former Maccabi guard Keenan Evans, Oded Katash knows very well that his team will be ultimately against a formidable opponent.

Keenan Evans – Photo Credit: Miguel Angel Polo


“Keenan Evans is one of the dominant guards,” Katash said. “He also helps his teammates but he has become a real scorer and you have to defend against him with multiple players and be ready that he doesn’t score easy points, ones in the paint and layups. He’s also shooting at a very high percentage rate recently and we have to get the ball out of his hands.”

“We are playing against a good team who are playing much better since coach Trinchieri joined the club,” Katash continued. “They are playing with more confidence and are doing things at a higher level such as defending better than the team we played before. We have to come in making sure we take care of the ball and getting into our flow. It will be strange to play once again with no fans but we are also used to that. We would prefer to be at home at Yad Eliyahu but it’s also nice to come back to Belgrade after a tough journey which wasn’t simple.”

For Maccabi Tel Aviv, their backcourt of Lorenzo Brown and Wade Baldwin will be key in how far the yellow-and-blue will go this season which of course is getting back into the quarterfinals as they did last year when they fell to Monaco in a tight 5-game series. But first things first with the remaining contests on tap with Zalgiris being the first of those foes to begin March.

Lorenzo Brown – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman


“Their system is pretty different as they have a new coach but they are still the same team,” Brown explained. “They are very energetic, crash the boards well on offense and also shoot the ball pretty well from the 3. We have to take the 3-point ball away from them and push the pace on our end and get into our up and down game will be the key points for us to win the game.”

Baldwin also shared his thoughts, “The keys will be to continue to build off last game, we are in a good rhythm after our break we know March is an extremely important month for our season it’s going to be tough and it starts against Zalgiris. Zalgiris is Zalgiris and they are a program that always plays tough and is always going to compete.”

“It will be a very physical game and we have to come prepared and be in the right mindset and know what’s at stake. We are 14-13 in 9th place in the Euroleague and we have to try and remain in playoff contention but ultimately try and boost ourselves to 6th place and make that possible with the remaining 7 games.”

Wade Baldwin – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman


Since Maccabi came back from the international break, they have defeated ALBA Berlin in what was their biggest win ever in Euroleague play while also picking up where they left off in the Israeli league which is now at 9 wins in a row domestically.

For Brown it is just continuing on with how they have been performing, “It’s just keeping that same momentum that we are having the guys are pretty stoked about the Euroleague being back and I feel that the last game against Berlin pretty much showed that. Keep that momentum going, stay together and be the Maccabi Tel Aviv that we are known to be.”

With the various challenges that Maccabi as a franchise has faced this year due to the war, there is no doubt it’s been quite the ride, but now as they head into the stretch run, Katash knows what the ultimate goal is.

Oded Katash – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman


“Every game is important and we gave gone through a season that has been like three seasons and we want to finish it off properly which is to make it into the playoffs so every win now is critical.”

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