{"id":89464,"date":"2023-06-17T19:53:26","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T19:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=89464"},"modified":"2023-06-20T18:07:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T18:07:30","slug":"israel-looks-to-hit-magic-number-against-czechia-as-play-in-beckons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/israel-looks-to-hit-magic-number-against-czechia-as-play-in-beckons\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel looks to hit magic number against Czechia as Play In beckons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel will look to keep its hopes of advancing past the Group Stage of the 2023 FIBA Women\u2019s EuroBasket on Sunday when it plays its final group game against the Czech Republic on Sunday. Although on paper the Czech team (ranked 23rd in the world) is not as daunting as its previous opponents (Belgium is ranked 7th and Italy is ranked 14th), the Czechs beat Italy in their opening game 61-58 (Israel lost to them 68-88) and lost to Belgium in their second game 41-84 (Israel lost to them 59-108).<\/p>\n

Neither team can advance directly to the quarterfinals in Slovenia after Sunday\u2019s game, however each has the opportunity to advance to Monday\u2019s play-in game against the second- or third-ranked team in Group A, the other possibility being elimination. For Israel, it\u2019s a must-win game, but not even a win may be enough: if Belgium beats Italy (which is a good chance to happen, given their performances to date in the tournament), then Israel will need to beat the Czech Republic by at least 12 points to keep their tournament alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, our number if I think right, is 12,\u201d Israel\u2019s coach, Sharon Drucker, said. \u201cWe have one more chance and we\u2019re going to call it 12 and we\u2019re going to fight. I know my players \u2013 they will come and after the day off. We will fight, we will get ready with our fans and we will try to do the impossible.\u201d
\n

\"\"

Alex Cohen – Photo Credit: FIBA<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s impossible,\u201d Israel\u2019s center Alex Cohen said confidently. \u201cA little credit for us, I think we can definitely do it. We won the last quarter [against Italy], we showed many sparks of greatness during the game. A few things didn\u2019t go our way, but things that are definitely fixable \u2013 things that we\u2019ve practiced, no more and-one threes in the first quarter, little things like that. We just need to take what we know and what we can do and execute on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of those mistakes included turnovers and poor shooting from the floor, something which Drucker pointed out need to be improved for the game against the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurnovers and percentage for 3, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Drucker said. \u201cOn Thursday [against Belgium] we made 10 3s at a good percentage [45%.5%], today we didn\u2019t [5 of 27, 29.4%]. Turnovers [23 against Belgium and 19 against Italy], it\u2019s clear that the aggressiveness, full court, their bench \u2013 they\u2019re bringing 12 players on the floor, it\u2019s not easy for the players \u2013 they are changing and changing, it\u2019s not easy, but I think that this is the main point and what I think we need to do.\u201d
\n

\"\"

Sharon Drucker – Photo Credit: FIBA<\/p><\/div>
\nThe Czech team has similar issues from their game on Friday against Belgium, scoring 5\/26 at 19.2% from 3 and conceding 23 turnovers. They will also need to focus on rebounding, as will Israel. Both teams have struggled with rebounding against their opponents to date (even the Czechs with their win over Italy), with Israel 58-77 in the aggregate and the Czech Republic 62-82 in the aggregate.<\/p>\n

\u201cRebounding is really a problem of the team because we don\u2019t have a lot of tall players,\u201d Romana Ptackova said after the loss to Belgium on Friday. \u201cWe have some injuries, so it has to be a team effort for us. Also, we need help rebounding from the perimeter, from the guards. But rebounding was the biggest problem for us against Belgium \u2013 it was turnovers, missed chances from the outside and a combination of effort and other stuff.\u201d
\n

\"\"

Gabriela Andelova – Photo Credit: FIBA<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cWe kind of expected that we would lose to Belgium because they are such a great and experienced team and one of the favorites for the medal,\u201d Czech small forward Gabriea Andelova said of the big loss to Belgium. However, the prospect of playing in front of a hostile Israeli crowd is a challenge that she\u2019s eager for on Sunday. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to a full crowd, because I think I play better when the arena is full.\u201d<\/p>\n

If one thing is for sure, it\u2019s that Israel will leave it all on the court on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m optimistic, I always try to look at the bright side and that\u2019s what I told the players,\u201d Drucker said. \u201cThey are warriors and they will come to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen concurred. \u201cYou know, we have one more game left and we still have more to show.\u201d
\n

\"\"

Alex Cohen – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nIn Sunday\u2019s other Group B game, Belgium plays against Italy (15:15 IDT \/ 8:15 EDT). <\/p>\n

In Sunday\u2019s Group A games, Montenegro takes on Latvia (12:15 IDT \/ 5:15 EDT) and Spain faces Greece (20:45 IDT \/ 13:45 EDT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israel will look to keep its hopes of advancing past the Group Stage of the 2023 FIBA Women\u2019s EuroBasket on Sunday when it plays its final group game against the Czech Republic on Sunday. Although on paper the Czech team (ranked 23rd in the world) is not as daunting as its previous opponents (Belgium is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":89467,"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":[29,4034],"class_list":["post-89464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-israel","tag-sharon-drucker","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nIsrael looks to hit magic number against Czechia as Play In beckons - 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\/israel-looks-to-hit-magic-number-against-czechia-as-play-in-beckons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Israel looks to hit magic number against Czechia as Play In beckons - Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Israel will look to keep its hopes of advancing past the Group Stage of the 2023 FIBA Women\u2019s EuroBasket on Sunday when it plays its final group game against the Czech Republic on Sunday. 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