Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv has traveled to Spain for a double EuroLeague week, starting on Wednesday at 9:30 PM against Barcelona at the Palau Blaugrana. After the game in Catalonia, the yellow-and-blue will move on to the Basque Country, where they will face Baskonia in Vitoria on Friday.

The team flew to Barcelona without Jaylen Hoard, who is dealing with a hamstring tear and will not be available for Oded Kattash. For Rokas Jokubaitis, this visit to Barcelona is special, as he played in the blue-and-red uniform for the past three seasons, making this his first visit since joining Maccabi. Immediately after landing in northeastern Spain, the Israeli champions arrived at the arena where the game will take place and held a final training session.

Bar?a is having a lukewarm season; after 24 rounds, they have a record of 13–11, placing them ninth, which would lead to the play-in tournament at the end of the season. Life isn’t easy for the Catalans in the tough Spanish league either—a home loss to Manresa in the last round dropped them to a 10–9 record, ranking only eighth. Additionally, Barcelona is expected to be without Jan Vesely and Justin Anderson, who are dealing with injuries.

“As in every EuroLeague game, we expect to win”, said Rokas Jokubaitis. “We know that Barcelona is not in its best form, so they will approach this game even more seriously. From my experience, I know it’s not easy to play there. There aren’t many games left in the EuroLeague, but we need to build up the best possible momentum ahead of what awaits us in the cup”.

This will be the 35th meeting between the teams since the EuroLeague was established in 2000, with Maccabi winning 13 times and the Catalans 21, including an 88–86 victory in the first round in Belgrade. Maccabi’s last two visits to the Palau Blaugrana ended in close losses, with their most recent win there coming in April 2022 with a dominant 104–80 victory.