Maccabi Tel Aviv begin a Euroleague Double Week on Tuesday with a trip to Real Madrid (9:45pm Israel time) and then a matchup in France when they play at Paris Basket in what will no doubt be a challenging pair of road games. The yellow-and-blue are currently in 17th place with a 5-15 record as Oded Katash’s team has 14 more continental clashes to go in order to find a way to improve on his club’s spot in the standings. Real Madrid finds themselves in 7th place with a 11-9 record while Paris are 11-8 and are one spot above Los Blancos but have been slumping losing 5 games in a row heading into the double week. in 6th place with a 11-8.

While Maccabi defeated Madrid in their “home” game in Belgrade, the star of the show at the time in Saben Lee is no longer with the team, while Katash’s crew had a brutal time against Paris in their first meeting and won’t be an easy out despite their significant losing streak.

“This is a very difficult week against two opponents who are both good teams and that are playing at home,” the Israeli bench boss began. “We need to prove ourselves so that everyone will feel that we understand the importance of these games. I don’t feel that what we have gone through is related to a lack of commitment and there are many reasons such as flights and changes to the squad that led us to this situation. But this is the stage of the season when we are supposed to play better and it hasn’t happen, there have been many difficulties. Right now we are playing even worse than we did in the preseason, we need a restart.”

Israeli big man Roman Sorkin who has played an increased and instrumental role with the club also spoke about the importance of the balance of the Euroleague season for the team, “We come into every game with the same mentality, we’re Maccabi Tel Aviv and we want to win every game. It’s no secret that we’re having a tough time, but that’s the past now and there’s nothing we can do. The season is still long and all we have to do is keep going.”

Jaylen Hoard who is in his first season with Maccabi Tel Aviv and playing in the Euroleague will be returning to his home country for Thursday’s game at Paris and there will be friends and family in stands. But before that, the forward knows that the club needs to play tough and compete.

“I think the main thing is that we have to compete very hard because I feel that we weren’t really fighting in the last game. It’s disappointing because the fear of making or missing shots or not is something you can’t really control but your effort and your energy you can. We just need to do a better job and we have to put it together for longer stretches during the course of the game to avoid having bad losses.”

“Every game is important for me but it’s going to be more fun for me for sure. My family is going to be at the game so that’s going to be fun and I’m going to be able to enjoy that, playing in front of them is always amazing. I feel like it would be a good week you know Madrid and Paris, two good cities so we will try and enjoy everything and get two wins.”

After last week’s brutal loss to Milano and the defeat to Partizan the week before that, Maccabi pounded Hapoel Haifa in Israeli league action which both Sorkin and Hoard feel will help them heading into a tough week of Euroleague games.

“The victory against Hapoel Haifa helps us as we always have to respect the opponent,” Sorkin said. “There are a lot of new players, Trevion Williams has just arrived and Jasiel Rivero is back, I hope we look better and also get better results. Even if we lose, we’re still a good team and we can’t be underestimated, every game is a new one and we have to prepare for every team seriously.”

“For sure,” Hoard added. “It’s always good to get a win especially when we’re trying to stay number 1 in the Israeli league. So this is just like a confidence booster and I feel like the morale is caused by losing which isn’t fun and getting those wins is always good.”

Katash has played both Rafi Menco and Omer Mayer very sparingly this year in both the Euroleague and in the domestic competition, but against Haifa the dup scored in double digits and played significant minutes leading to the question if it’s possible that they will get some playing time this week against Real Madrid and Paris.

“There is a big chance that we will see more players like Rafi Menco and Omer Meyer,” Katash said with authority. “I can’t guarantee how much time and it depends on how the game develops, but there is a chance that they will get more minutes.”