Karam Mashour does not lower his expectations for the game against Jerusalem. DiBartolomeo and Jackson are back in the roster. Bolden and Art will sit this one out as they will not be registered. Spahija: “We’re working hard and the players are showing a good approach”
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Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv will host Hapoel Jerusalem for the 26th fixture of the Israeli Winner league (Sunday, 20:00 CET live on Sport5). After two previous encounters in the domestic league, this time it’ll be a festive Independence Day game for the Israeli where the Maccabees will be wearing their historic white outfit.
John-DiBartolomeo and Pierre Jackson will be back in action after having time off in order to recover from their injuries. The two foreigners that will not be registered to this game will be Art and Bolden.
“We need to keep our home safe, it’s the most important thing”, said Karam Mashour. “The fans are coming and we need to give back to them. Every game is important now, not just Jerusalem. We had a very good practices this week. This game is very important, we need to win and bounce back from our previous game against Galil, I hope that we will win, it will be difficult”.
On his great ability as of late Karam Mashour added: “every time I step on the court I’m giving it all, I play D and want to give it all I got, bring some energies off the bench it’s important. He (Coach) is giving me a bit more in recent games and I want to give back to him on the floor”. On John-Di and Pierre returning to the roster: “it’s very important we will now have two point guards, we were missing them, but we should have won either way”.
“It sucks that I couldn’t play basketball, it was my first time sitting out, throughout this year”, said Pierre Jackson. “Health is important, I just want to get back a 100%. We had the time to think what went wrong in the past, we had a tough couple of games in recent weeks and it’s good we could spin with each other and get into the gym. Anyone that sits out becomes a key factor, and I missed it as well, it isn’t fun to sit on the sideline watching your team going out there and fight for each other, it was tough”.
“We just got to do what we did last time” added Pierre Jackson “Obviously the fans really helped us get over the hump when they had the lead in the late part of the game. We want to take one game at a time (i.e. Jerusalem and Holon) look forward for the game tomorrow and try to get the win”.
“I think we used well our time, we had enough practice and rest, we spent more time together”, said coach Neven Spahija. “I already said that one of our main problems was the lack of continuation with the same roster. Now we’re practicing according to the Russian rule and let’s see what we have accomplished with it”.
Coach Spahija also addressed the return of John-Di and Pierre: “it’s very hard to play without two guards, especially since this team has only one point guard – Pierre Jackson. We saw how much we suffered against Galil from decision making. That’s life you never know who will be injured and who’s healthy, now we’re going to have two more players on the roster and I hope it’ll help us”.
When asked about the home loses: “It’s still kind of a mystery to us why we play so bad at home. Even in the games we lost on the road we still played better than the ones we lost at home. We’re working hard, the players are showing a good approach and that’s the only way to come out of this situation”.
Besides the big rivalry and the festive game outfit, a lot of activities for the 70th Israeli Independence Day are expected to take place at the arena. The limited edition of the white uniforms will be sold exclusively in the club’s official store located at the arena and on the online store. Game tickets are purchasable for 70NIS and are available here on the website or via phone *2024.
