Hapoel will try to bounce back from the loss in Piraeus against the team from the Emirates. Maccabi will host in Belgrade and look to surprise the team from the principality. Everything you need to know before tip-off.<\/p>\n
A new EuroLeague week is upon the two Tel Aviv clubs. The Reds, sitting in third place, share the league\u2019s best record (6\u20132) with \u017dalgiris and Crvena Zvezda but trail them on point differential. The Yellows, on the other hand, share the league\u2019s worst record (2\u20136) with Baskonia and ASVEL, ranking 18th out of 20. On Thursday night, both teams will take the floor one after the other, hoping to improve their standing in Round 9 of Europe\u2019s top competition.<\/p>\n
At 20:00, Hapoel Tel Aviv will look to reclaim first place when they face Dubai (3\u20135), currently 14th in the standings. Two hours later, at 22:00, Maccabi Tel Aviv will try to pull off an upset against Monaco\u2014just as they did against Real Madrid in Round 5\u2014and snap a three-game losing streak. Hapoel wants to prove it belongs among the elite; Maccabi wants to prove it doesn\u2019t belong among the bottom feeders. Who would\u2019ve thought?<\/p>\n
Sarajevo Statements<\/strong><\/p>\n After a domestic win over Maccabi Ra\u2019anana (89\u201372), the Red side of Tel Aviv hopes to return to its winning ways in Europe against the struggling Emirati team, which will be missing Moussa, Giat\u00e9, and Abramovi\u0107. Itoudis\u2019 men come off a tough clash with Olympiacos and will now face a less talented opponent and a less hostile crowd in Sarajevo.<\/p>\n Dubai has lost three straight (to ASVEL, Baskonia, and Valencia), allowing 85 points per game and conceding an average of 11.3 three-pointers per contest. Reader Antonio Blakeney is surely following this with interest. In their latest game against Valencia, Dubai led most of the way but couldn\u2019t close it out as the Spaniards took over in crunch time. Boogie Ellis, who joined from Alba Berlin, made a strong debut with 18 points in 27 minutes; Petrusev and Bacon added double figures, but the team\u2019s soft defense let the \u201cBats\u201d get clean looks on nearly every possession.<\/p>\n Despite the worrying addition of Tomer Ginat to Hapoel\u2019s injury list (alongside Caboclo and Madar), most of their top EuroLeague rotation players were rested in the domestic league. A standard shooting night from the Reds might very well be enough.<\/p>\n Worth Watching<\/strong><\/p>\n If Dubai\u2019s defense allows Hapoel to attack the paint as easily as their recent opponents have, especially given the Reds\u2019 outside shooting threat, expect a stat-stuffed night from Vasilije Mici\u0107. The Serbian guard will want to atone for his late awakening against Olympiacos with a big game here. I wouldn\u2019t bet against him this time.<\/p>\n Weak Spot<\/strong><\/p>\n Hapoel ranks only 16th in the EuroLeague in total rebounds and is dead last in offensive rebounding. Against Dubai, they\u2019ll need to deal with two strong rebounders\u2014Petrusev (6.8 per game, 4th in the EuroLeague) and Kabengele (6.1, 6th). Last round, Motley and Oturu faced the dominant Olympiacos duo of Milutinov and Vezenkov (1st and 2nd in rebounds), and it ended with a loss from inside the paint. D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu?<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n A Royal Visit in Belgrade<\/strong><\/p>\n The yellow-and-blue, who recently scraped by Maccabi Ramat Gan (84\u201381) after a fourth-quarter comeback featuring a rare defensive effort, desperately need a EuroLeague win to climb out of the cellar. Unlike the Ramat Gan matchup, it would be a monumental surprise if they managed it against the team from the tiny principality, which is coming off back-to-back blowout wins over Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, scoring 92 points in both.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to see Maccabi\u2014boasting the worst defense in the EuroLeague, giving up over 90 points for seven straight games\u2014pulling themselves out of the mud against Spanoulis\u2019 high-flying squad. Still, they\u2019ve already shocked Real Madrid and Hapoel with impressive offensive performances. Maccabi will once again hope that the Blatt\u2013Sorkin pick-and-roll clicks, and that Lonnie Walker IV and Jeff Dowtin Jr. deliver a hot shooting night\u2014otherwise, the season might slip away before mid-November.<\/p>\n Worth Watching<\/strong><\/p>\n Monaco and Maccabi are the EuroLeague\u2019s top two teams in assists per game, averaging 20.5 and 20.3 respectively. With that in mind, the matchup between Mike James (6.8 apg) and Tamir Blatt (5.8 apg) could decide the game in Belgrade. Whoever distributes better and turns the ball over less might tilt the balance for their side. The difference? Monaco can rest James and turn to Okobo, while Maccabi has no true backup for Blatt (no offense to reader Jimmy Clark). Blatt has shined against elite teams\u20149 assists vs. Real, 7 vs. Hapoel\u2014so Maccabi\u2019s upset hopes rest squarely in his hands.<\/p>\n Weak Spot<\/strong><\/p>\n If there\u2019s already a gap between the two starting lineups, it becomes a chasm once the benches enter. Last round, both teams scored 92 points, but Monaco\u2019s bench contributed 41 of them, while Maccabi\u2019s added only 24 (counting Sorkin as a starter instead of Santos, who played 10 minutes but opened in the first five). Monaco\u2019s second unit of Okobo, Nedovi\u0107, Hayes and Blossomgame offers far more firepower than Maccabi\u2019s group of Will Rayman, Santos, Leaf Jr., Dowtin Jr., and Clark III. Oded Katash will have to stay alert as this game could slip away at any point.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Beyond Israel<\/strong><\/p>\n Outside of the Israeli teams\u2019 games, Round 9 of the EuroLeague features a clash between the league\u2019s best offense, Valencia (92.4 ppg), and the best defense, \u017dalgiris (allowing just 76.1 ppg), as the Lithuanians aim to stay on top (Friday, 20:00). Later that night comes the basketball *El Cl\u00e1sico*\u2014Real Madrid vs. Barcelona (Friday, 21:30). Judging by both teams\u2019 form so far, it looks more like a prestigious mid-table battle than a championship preview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hapoel will try to bounce back from the loss in Piraeus against the team from the Emirates. Maccabi will host in Belgrade and look to surprise the team from the principality. Everything you need to know before tip-off. A new EuroLeague week is upon the two Tel Aviv clubs. The Reds, sitting in third place, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":161230,"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":[97,4],"class_list":["post-161155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-hapoel-tel-aviv","tag-maccabi-tel-aviv","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n