{"id":109775,"date":"2024-05-06T18:35:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T18:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=109775"},"modified":"2024-05-07T07:18:31","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T07:18:31","slug":"maccabi-is-looking-to-make-history-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/maccabi-is-looking-to-make-history-in-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"Maccabi is looking to make history in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been nothing regular about Holyland Hoops this season after October 7, but there is a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as Maccabi Tel Aviv prepares for game 5 of its EuroLeague quarterfinal series against Panathinaikos on Tuesday night (21:15 IDT \/ 14:15 EDT), with the reward for the winner a spot in the Final Four in Berlin later this month.<\/p>\n

Like last year\u2019s EuroLeague competition, we have been blessed with three of the four series have gone to a fifth and deciding game, with Wednesday night seeing AS Monaco hosting Fenerbah\u00e7e and Barcelona hosting Olympiacos in the other game 5 clashes. Real Madrid, of course, swept Baskonia 3-0 in their quarterfinal series and booked their ticket to Berlin last week.<\/p>\n

Like last year\u2019s quarterfinal series, the momentum has swung between the teams, as Maccabi won game 1 away 91-87 and game 3 at home 85-83, while Panathinaikos took game 2 at home 95-79 and game 4 away 95-88. Like last year\u2019s quarterfinal, Maccabi will be playing game 5 away from home. We know that in the 19 previous game 5s, no away team has ever won a game 5, meaning that Maccabi will need to make history in order to make it to the Final Four.
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Oded Katash – Photo credit: Dov Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cI think that there are some players that the experience of last year will be able to help,\u201d Maccabi coach Oded Katash said when asked about last year\u2019s game 5 loss may help. \u201cOf course I believe, we have to believe. \u201cWe\u2019ve won there already [at OAKA, Panathinaikos\u2019s home court] twice this season, both in the playoffs and the regular season. We want to do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to believe. We have been in the EuroLeague for enough years to know that there is a reason that game 5 goes to the home team, especially with the atmosphere which will be there. We need to stay together and from the first day I\u2019ve said, be proud of what we\u2019ve done, go onto the court with confidence, play our game and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only is history against Maccabi, but the Yellow & Blue will likely need to do it without its MVP-candidate, Wade Baldwin IV, who averaged 17.4 points and 4.9 assists at a Player Index Rating (PIR) of 19.1, after the star guard reinjured his hamstring in the first quarter of game 4. While Katash said that Baldwin will still go through another check to see whether he is able to play, the team will need to prepare for the scenario of being without him.
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Wade Baldwin – Photo Credit: Dov Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cWade is a big party of this team,\u201d Baldwin\u2019s backcourt partner in crime, Lorenzo Brown, said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take the whole unit. His scoring, his passing ability and everything he does, will have to come from the other members of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that everyone has to step up to fill the gap that is a big gap to fill,\u201d concurred James Webb III. \u201cHe\u2019s such a good player and so we\u2019ve all got to find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Maccabi started game 4 well and led after 10 minutes and at the main break, the Greeks won the second half 46-38, including a 17-4 run in the last five minutes to win by 7 points.
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Lorenzo Brown – Photo credit: Dov Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cPreparation is pretty much the same,\u201d Brown said of the task ahead for game 5. \u201cLooking at the film, it was pretty much the last few seconds of our defense. Kind of lost track of everything of the first 15 seconds we were pretty good, but after that it came down to rebounds and loose balls. I think once we take control of that the game will be pretty much ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made a lot of last-second shots, we\u2019ve just got to be able to finish the job on defense,\u201d said Webb. \u201cLock in and when we\u2019re up we need to figure out a way to put the game away.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Panathinaikos has a deep roster, the key will be stopping their stars who shone in game 4 \u2013 Kostas Sloukas (20 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 steal for a PIR of 32), Kendrick Nunn (27 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists for a PIR of 27) and Mathias Lessort (17 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists for a PIR of 26).<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like in game 1 we did a pretty good game with Nunn [8 points], and game two as well [10 points],\u201d Brown said of the challenge presented by Nunn. \u201cI guess slowing him down will be a pretty big task for our defenders, that right there will be pretty much a key to the game. And maintaining Lessort down there \u2013 he\u2019s a beast on the boards [averaging 6.75 rebounds for the series].\u201d
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James Webb – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cDefense \u2013 we\u2019ve got to lock in defensively a little more,\u201d Webb reiterated. \u201cSlow down Nunn a little, try to keep Lessort out of the paint and off the glass. We made a few adjustments that we\u2019re going to look at today in order to get that done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can Maccabi make history on Tuesday night and make it to the Final Four of this difficult season?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have nothing to lose going into there, giving it our all and leaving it all there on the court,\u201d Brown said. \u201cLike I said, defending the whole shot clock and getting those boards and pushing the pace that we normally do will win us the game.\u201d
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Oded Katash – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cIn both games 1 and 2 [in Greece] we came back, what we take mainly is that we\u2019re a team that doesn\u2019t break and believes in what it does,\u201d Katash said. \u201cWe come to every game and there is a certain pressure and excitement, we need to keep it in the right place. We have players with experience. It\u2019ll be a crazy atmosphere, we need to be prepared for it and enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been nothing regular about Holyland Hoops this season after October 7, but there is a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as Maccabi Tel Aviv prepares for game 5 of its EuroLeague quarterfinal series against Panathinaikos on Tuesday night (21:15 IDT \/ 14:15 EDT), with the reward for the winner a spot in the Final […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":109779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4,980],"class_list":["post-109775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-maccabi-tel-aviv","tag-panathinaikos","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nMaccabi is looking to make history in Greece - Sports Rabbi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/maccabi-is-looking-to-make-history-in-greece\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maccabi is looking to make history in Greece - 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