Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv worked hard all season long to be in position to play in the EuroLeague playoffs. Now the yellows have a chance to clinch the 7th seed, when they host Baskonia in Belgrade Arena in the first-ever EuroLeague Play-In game (Tuesday, 8 PM Israel time, 1 PM ET).
The Israeli champions closed out the regular season in the 7th spot with 20 wins and 14 losses, while their Basque rivals finished 8th with a 18-16 record. The winner of the game will go on to battle Panathinaikos in the quarter-finals series next week; the losing team will have a second chance to qualify on Friday against the winner between Virtus Bologna and Anadolu Efes.
Baskonia, coached by Dusko Ivanovic, reached the game by beating Real Madrid and Virtus on the road in their final two games of the season. Led by sharpshooting guard Markus Howard, who led the competition this season with 19.4 points per game, Maccabi’s rivals boast a potent offense.
“We cannot feel like favorites, but we need to welcome this opportunity”, said Maccabi head coach Oded Kattash, “We had a good season, we deserve to reach the playoffs. In a single game everything can happen. We face a crazy shooting team with one of the best shooters in the EuroLeague. It will take a team effort”.
In their previous two encounters this season, the home team prevailed by eerily similar scorelines: Maccabi won 91-82 in Belgrade, while Baskonia earned a 92-82 victory in Vitoria. The all-time record between the teams inn the EuroLeague is 19-18 for Maccabi, but the yellows won 5 our of 6 games in the knockout stages, including the 2005 finals.
