Maccabi Tel Aviv takes to the court once again in Monte Carlo as they take on Monaco in game two of their Euroleague quarterfinal best of five series as the yellow-and-blue look to take a strange-hold on the as they will head back to Israel for games 3 and 4 next week. Oded Katash’s squad understands full well that their game one 79-67 win is now in the past and the chances of Sasa Obradovic’s team shooting as poorly as they did in the opener is close to zero.

Maccabi’s aggressiveness in game one made Monaco a bit shaky on the offensive side of the game and created plenty of issues for Mike James and company. But another reason Katash’s crew was a bit more fresh on the floor was the fact that the yellow-and-blue went with a ten-man rotation while Monaco played only 8 in the game.

Add to the fact that the hosts captured the French Cup Cup on Saturday late afternoon, it was odd that Obradovic would go with such a short rotation and what was even more peculiar was that the Serbian bench boss mentioned that Maccabi didn’t have the same domestic schedule to contend with which was definitely not the case.

“If there are any excuses,” Obradovic began. “We were playing every second day last month which was not the case for them. They had all the energy and we spent our energy on the cup.”

If his players had expended too much energy on Saturday which was three days earlier, their fitness is not going to get any better with another contest less than 48 hours after game one and by going with only 8 men.

“They didn’t surprise me,” Maccabi assistant coach Noam Levy said about Monaco going with a short rotation. “Mathew Strazel has been good recently also Yoan Makoundou as well as Yakuba Ouattara and all 3 of them didn’t play last night and we are ready for them. Chima Moneke as well and we are ready and know everyone.”

Katash also spoke about the Monaco roster and how he sees them, “They also have a deep roster. They have, for example, more guards than us. For a lot of their plays they distributed the minutes better than some of our players. I don’t think that our team is deeper than theirs. They have very athletic and broad team and there will be some important players like Moneke, for example, who didn’t get minutes, like Ouattara, like Strazel who can go on the court and contribute. I wouldn’t be worried for them regarding how deep they are.”

While on the topic of going with a deeper roster, Katash discussed the importance having more players involved in order to pick up the scoring burden, “It’s another one of those things [that things aren’t falling only on Lorenzo and Wade] that proved that we’re playing more as a team and we know what to do. It’s taken time to build that chemistry, because we were less coordinated. So players with greater offensive ability take on and try to do things on offense. Today we’re less restricted and know what we want.”

One of the players who has helped Maccabi expand their rotation is no doubt Alex Poythress who just recently returned from surgery around his wrist which kept him on the shelf for roughy five months. Since the big man’s return to action in Israeli league play over the last couple of weeks he has been able to impose his will and has looked every bit as good prior to the him being out,

“With my wrist injury, it was a long injury. It was tough, but the training staff, Regev Fanan did a great job keeping me in shape, so I was always working out, running, conditioning, so I knew when I got back I could step in right away and not be tired.”

“I’ve been watching practice and everything, still being locked in and playing with Wade and Zo makes the game a lot easier. You know me, I’ve come from injury, I’m just coming in to help the team as best I can, with the minutes I can just produce and help the team win. As long as we win, that’s the ultimate goal.”

In order to win game two, Maccabi will need to be on their toes to see how Monaco will adjust which is something that Lorenzo Brown is very well aware of, “I feel like they’ll come out a little bit more aggressive tomorrow so I mean obviously that was their goal for the first game as well but I thought we controlled the pace and had most of the energy. Our fan base was amazing so that pretty much helped us out a lot and we just need to keep the same mentality for the next game.”

Roman Sorkin who was called an X-Factor by Monaco General Manager Oleksiy Yefimov also knows that Monaco will make some moves to try up the series.

“Everyone of us can be an X factor. There are games that John Dibartolomeo took over but it’s an honor that he [Monaco GM] said that, thanks, I’m happy, but the main thing is that we won. If I’m good along the way, great. But in the end, it’s money time. I think they will make their changes, we’ll make our changes, but we need to come with the same energy, from the crowd with us that will make it feel like a home game. We’ll come even more focused and humble and hungry and we want to take another game.”

“We have another four games to win and it’s a dream that can come true, but we’re humble, we need to win two more games in this series and we have to come in hungry and focused, with a gameplan and that is what has brought us to this point.”

MACCABI PLAYERS LOOK THRILLED to have this support from their FANS!🤩#SRMonaco pic.twitter.com/YEUrYxuKX4

— Sports Rabbi (@thesportsrabbi) April 26, 2023

For the team and Katash they will no doubt feed off of the energy that the 800 strong Maccabi fans will provide, ‘It’s exciting, the crowd was amazing at game one and they got us going again when they saw us off at the hotel just before practice. From the beginning of the season they’ve given us this special feeling, it’s fun.”