Every game in a 5-game series can shift momentum drastically from one end of the pendulum to the other and that is of course very true in the Euroleague quarterfinal between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Panathinaikos as game 3 tips-off on Tuesday (8pm Israel time) at Pioneer Arena in Belgrade.

After a split of the opening two games at the OAKA Arena in Athens, the yellow-and-blue will look to move to within one game of the Final 4 with a game three victory at their home away from home in Serbia due to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas that has encompassed the Holy Land. Naturally, Panathinaikos will be looking to also move ever so close to Berlin with a win as well which will make Tuesday’s game 3 pivotal in this series with the chance for either team to punch their ticket to Germany this week.

Oded Katash’s squad won game one in Greece but saw their star guard Wade Baldwin come up with a hamstring injury early on in the 4th quarter that kept him out of game two which was a contest that saw PAO come away with the win. Baldwin traveled to Croatia over the weekend for treatment and me up with Maccabi in Belgrade where he trained with the team, but didn’t complete the session and his availability for the game along with the rest of the clashes in the series is in question.

“We have to wait until tomorrow at noon, when he will have another MRI done and then we will know better,” Coach Katash said at the pregame press availability. “He had another treatment today, we will have to see how he feels now on the court and tomorrow at noon he will undergo another examination. Then we will get a more accurate opinion from the doctors.”

Without Baldwin, the bench boss knows that everyone else on the squad will need to step up and pick up the slack, “Of course, not having Wade is significant and I would feel more comfortable if we had a full squad and could divide the minutes up and maintain intensity. This means that other players will have to do this. We were in the game and we need to come more focused and aggressive to game three. We are playing against experienced players who did damage to us in game two.”

“Obviously we need everyone, there is a reason Panathinaikos finished in second place which is sign that they are doing something right. Sure without Baldwin we need everyone involved. It’s hard to know before a game who will get more or less shots, but as a team we need to be more aggressive and do more. We also didn’t go to the line enough and this is something that showed some softness that we had in game two.”

James Webb spoke about the need to have the team stay together as one in order to overcome the loss of Baldwin, “We have to stay together as a team, this year has been tough for us so we are facing adversity and it’s something we have been dealing with all year. Guys have been injured and all of our focus is staying together as a team bringing the right energy.”

With or without Baldwin, Maccabi will need to raise the level of intensity from what they showed in game two and that will not be an easy job against a team like Panathinaikos Kaash explained, “I think we are ready, in the second game Panathinaikos played with more energy and more aggressiveness, they responded from the first game and now it’s our turn to respond. They won the battle of the boards and we can be better.”

“We got our work cut out,” Webb said. “We know how they are going to come out and we have to have more energy than them. We’re on our home court and we have to get the job done. We are taking this one game at a time and we aren’t thinking ahead, stay in the present. Win one and the rest will follow.”

One of the players that Maccabi will need to pay attention to is Kostas Sloukas who put in an all-world performance in game two with 29 points to help his squad to win and Captain John Dibartolomeo said that this was a focus of the club’s preparation heading into game three, “In the first two games he caused a lot of problems for us and we focussed on the last couple of days as to how to handle him better. It will take a complete team effort.”

Panathinaikos did make plenty of noise immediately after game one with coach Ergin Ataman going after the referees and then attempting to politicize the series. However, Katash and Maccabi have been trying to not pay any attention to the side shows and concentrate on the basketball being played on the court.

“It wasn’t surprising and didn’t have any effect on us. It doesn’t change the fact that we have to concentrate on basketball and do what we need to on the court. I personally don’t really relate to it and it didn’t surprise me either, I hope the players relate to it in the same way.”

Dibartolomeo agreed with Katash, “I think it’s just a distraction and all of our energy and attention is on preparing for game three and focusing on what we can control. The best thing we can do is respond on the basketball court and win game three.”

Maccabi was in the same position last season against Monaco but fell in game three which was a home game. Obviously this isn’t something that Dibartolomeo and the yellow-and-blue want to see a repeat of, “We have a lot of guys that were in that position last year. A large part is taking it one game at a time and controlling our emotions. As you can see in the playoffs tensions can get really high and we have to focus on ourselves, focus on basketball and things that we can control and play our game. If we play our best we can win the series.”

But with home court in Belgrade, as best as it is with the fans who travelled from Israel to support Maccabi, there’s no question that Maccabi will want to take advantage of anything tasty they can to take the game three win Webb said, “Having fans is great and playing without them felt like a COVID year, not really having home court advantage. It will be great and they will give us energy which is needed for sure.”

“We are playing for the Final Four and there is always pressure, Dibartolomeo said. “It’s nice we are playing at “home” which is an advantage at this point. At the end of the day anyone can win anywhere and we have to focus on game three.”

However, Katash described what he needs to see from his Maccabi Tel Aviv in order to find a way to take a 2-1 series lead, “It’s true that we didn’t break mentally and we found a way to comeback to almost the same situation that we had been in the first game. There was a feeling that they were more aggressive and as I said, all 50/50 balls went to them. They played with more of a sense of urgency, which is what we will have to bring on Tuesday.”