After dealing the first blow in the EuroLeague Playoffs series against Panathinaikos, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv will try to shock the OAKA arena again and improve to a 2-0 lead. The yellows will return to Pao’s home court on Thursday (9:15 PM Israel Time, 2:15 PM ET), in an attempt to make a second step towards the Final Four in Berlin.
Maccabi won 91-87 in the first bout on Tuesday, even after Wade Baldwin IV went out with a hamstring injury. Tests revealed the guard suffers from a minor hamstring tear and is not likely to play in game 2.
“It’s great that we won game 1, but we can’t get too excited”, said Josh Nebo. “There’s still a long series ahead, there’s a lot of things we need to clear up and get better at. [Ahead of] game 2 we have to recover our bodies and get mentally and physically ready”.
Coach Oded Kattash will try and keep his players’ feet on the ground, remembering how last year’s series against Monaco also began with a road win – but ended with a 2-3 series loss. On the flipside, Maccabi’s previous Playoffs win – beating Milano 3-1 a decade ago – started off with a similarly dramatic away win.
