Maccabi Tel Aviv will look to take a stranglehold 2-0 lead in their Euroleague quarterfinal series against Panathinaikos on Thursday (21:15 local time) after taking game one 91-87 at OAKA Arena in Athens. However, the yellow-and-blue will probably be without star guard Wade Baldwin who suffered a slight hamstring tear in the fourth quarter of the first game and at this stage he will be unavailable for game two of the series.

While Head Coach Oded Katash’s squad will miss Baldwin, they have also been through plenty this season after the war with Hamas broke out on October 7th. Going back and forth between Belgrade and Tel Aviv has been able to bring a tight knitted group of players even closer as they will look to travel to Serbia with an insurmountable series lead. But for Maccabi to do that they will need to win the opening two games of the series on the road which they have never done in the history of they franchise.

Panathinaikos and head coach Ergin Ataman will look for any edge that they can use in order to come out of the second game with a victory as the Turkish tactician began ranting about the officiating in his postgame comments and continued to do so in his pregame comments ahead of Thursday’s matchup.

With the Greeks looking to find every advantage afforded to them, Katash is completely aware that they will come out flying and in desperation mode to even up the series at 1-1.

“They will come out very aggressively, it’s going to be even more difficult than game one. We don’t have too much time to change things, only small things that we need to practice, especially defensively. I really believe we can play better.”

Josh Nebo who knocked down two crucial free throws also spoke about what Maccabi will be excepting from PAO, “Playing these types of game are always enjoyable and playing meaningful games at this time of year is always fun. I think it will be tough game as they will play much more desperate and we will have to earn everything. We will try to get focused and ready.”

“A for game two, It’s human nature to tend to relax after you get a big win on the road and the other team will be tend to be more hungry. We will fight against that tendency and come out hungry like we are down 0-1.”

With Baldwin seemingly unavailable for game two, veteran forward Jake Cohen knows that there are things that Maccabi can improve upon while also being able to handle yet another obstacle in a season that they have deka with plenty.

“There are a lot of things that we can do to improve on game one,” Cohen said. “Game two is going to be even tougher and we have to address some things defensively. We know they have some very good players and we will look for some ways to slow them down, they have a very good team. In game one we had to get through the ups and downs of the game and managing our attitude, keeping cool and that is the same style of attitude that we need.”

“As for the injuries, just with everything this year, we roll with the punches. We have such a great foundation of trust and confidence in each other we feel like we can handle a lot. We dealt with things down the stretch and Lorenzo and Bonzie really helped out.”

Cohen alluded to having to work on various defensive aspects which is something that Katash noted as well, “First of all, we have to get better defensively. I take responsibility for the first half, we were very confused, we tried too many things in too short a time. In the second half, we were better but we still have to make sure that we stick to the game plan and we have to control the rebounds, this is something very important for us.”

As hot as the atmosphere was in game one with 20K strong PAO supporters, game two will be even wilder which will force Maccabi to continue to stay focussed and think about the fans that are back at home, “I like it,” Katash said of the atmosphere. “That’s why I am involved in basketball. I have great memories of this arena. I love the games and the atmosphere, as long as it doesn’t get violent. Throughout the season we sent many messages to the fans, we love them and miss them and will try to make them happy.”

“It’s a great atmosphere,” Cohen agreed. “The fans are so loud, these are the type of environments you like to play in as a basketball player. Once you get in between the lines and start playing, it shifts. Game two will probably be even crazier. I wish I could see all the fans in Tel Aviv for game three, but game two we are going to try and make them proud.”