This is it! Hapoel Tel Aviv takes to the court Tuesday night (20:00) against Gran Canaria in the EuroCup finals at their home away from home in Samokov, Bulgaria to try and accomplish what was just a dream just one short year ago; punch their ticket to the Euroleague by winning the best-of-3 series. The Reds come into game one with plenty of motivation and desire but so does the Spanish squad as the two teams will battle it out for a chance to take part in the continent’s top competition in the 25/26 season.

At their respective final practice sessions on Monday, both coaches as well as a number of players shared their thoughts about what will no doubt be a barnburner of a matchup.

“We are excited because we play the final,” Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis began. “We are excited because we played against a great team like Valencia and we managed to win in the series of three. It was not easy to win against Valencia. They were dominant in the regular season. They proved that they had quality, but now it’s a new reality for us.”

“We are getting to the final against another Spanish and very quality team that has been together [for several years+. They made certain accomplishments all these years. They have won the EuroCup in 2023 and are always there, so another difficult task. I like the fact that they are a team. They have a lot of good synergy because they have been together with their coaches over there for many years. Jaka [Lakovic] is doing a great job with his coaching staff and they have a lot of automatisms, meaning that they have a good chemistry. They are sized, can run the floor and can play well also five on five. They have scorers. They have big guys that they can shoot, they can spread, can go big ball, small ball, whatever it is. They can do several things well.”

Ish Wainright also shared his thoughts about the challenges ahead after having beated Gran Canaria twice during the regular season, “Gran Canaria is like Valencia in a way, probably a little bit more bigger than Valencia. They are aggressive, too, but we played against them twice. We know what they can do. I’m pretty sure they are going to change up a few things like they did against us, but I know they are looking forward to this. This is the Finals and everyone wants to play them, everybody wants to get here and win. I know they are going to come here with a chip on their shoulder, especially because we beat them twice in the regular season. They have a great core but also a great bench, with guys coming off the bench that take care of business. We have to lock in on our game plan and play defense. That’s one thing that we are going to really have: to lock in defense. Our offense is going to come, get out in transition and play. We also have to make sure that we run our plays, that we know that we can score. And of course, take care of the ball.”

Marcus Foster added, “This is what we’ve been talking about all season. Individually, for my career, I never thought I’d be in a game like this, so of course I’m excited. Ready to play. With the team we built, I think we can never really, truly be an underdog with the people we have on our team. But you know, it’s basketball at the end of the day, so you have to show up and play your best basketball in order to win. They are very talented and can do many different things. They have an inside presence. They also shoot the ball very well. And when they play in the ACB, they have seen all type of competition, all types of lineups, so it helps them prepare for moments like this. So I think they are very well coached team and they have very talented players. I’m excited to play in front of our fans. I’m just thankful that all the fans come here and they show up for us and hopefully we will give them a good game.”

Jaka Lakovic, Gran Canaria’s Head Coach looked ahead to the series, “I think the team feels good. I think we are in a good place, in a good moment, with good confidence and mentality to face this final series against Hapoel Tel Aviv. I think it’s a team with extreme physical talent. Of course, it’s a team that has invested a lot of money in their roster, full of players with top-level experience. I think they play very good basketball, different from us, because they have talent, they have the ability to play the way they play. We have to be prepared, prepare well for what we are going to face in this series. I think it’s an advantage [to have seven winning players in Gran Canaria’s roster] above all because of the experience. We know what we can expect but apart from that, it’s a new final series. It’s a new game against a team that we have already faced in the regular season. We have to face them in a different way. It is a new series in which everything starts from scratch. We have confidence and hope to compete well and have our options.”

Andrew Albicy chimed in as well, “We are very focused, we can’t wait to start the final. They are a very talented player with strong individualities. They are good on every spot, so we need to be ready. First of all, we have to be very focused and smart, because there is a lot of pressure. But that pressure can give us energy, so it’s good to take like that energy and use against the pressure. And just like I always say, defense wins championships, so we have to be very focused to play strong defense, as a team.”

Mike Tobey also spoke about the upcoming series, “We have been doing a good job lately, it is great timing to have good moment and I think we are definitely in one of our best moments of the season, if not the best. So good time for it to happen. Hapoel is a really talented team. This summer they made a lot of noise with a lot of big signings. They have a great coach as well, and are a complete team with a lot of talent that plays really physical. They are in the EuroCup for a reason, they have definitely been one of the best teams this whole season. Anytime you have an experience, that is always something good to have on your side, so having seven guys that have done it before is great. Physicality is a big thing in this series, and defense is going to be huge. We know how offensively talented they are and how they want to play on defense.”