{"id":500309,"date":"2017-02-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/devin-smith-in-the-roster-for-the-cup-semi-final\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T09:32:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T06:32:36","slug":"devin-smith-in-the-roster-for-the-cup-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/devin-smith-in-the-roster-for-the-cup-semi-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Devin Smith in the roster for the Cup Semi Final"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"responsive-video-container\" style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; margin-bottom: 20px;\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HHxVWYCdsX8\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div>\n<div style=\"direction: ltr; text-align: justify;\"> \t\t<span style=\"font-size:14px;\">t will begin with a battle vs. Maccabi Ashdod in the semis and hopefully will continue with a battle for the cup on Thursday\u2019s final. In other words, this is the \u2018cup week\u2019 and we hope to end it with another trophy in our closet.<\/p>\n<p> \t\tDevin Smith will dress up in domestic competition for the first time this season and will be Maccabi\u2019s 7th registered foreign player, leaving room for one more till the end of the season according to the Israeli Basketball Federation\u2019s rules. Quincy Miller, who complained about pain in his knee during Saturday\u2019s practice, went through medical tests and was not cleared to play. He will be re-evaluated later this week.<\/p>\n<p> \t\t\u201cI\u2019m excited every time there\u2019s a chance to play for the title\u201d, said <strong>Devin Smith<\/strong>. \u201cwe won the cup here two years ago, but that\u2019s all forgotten now. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a problem for me to play twice a week. We were cautious to start the season and that was smart, but I\u2019m practicing every day. I\u2019ll give it everything I\u2019ve got and my experience will help\u201d.<\/p>\n<p> \t\t\u201cDevin is our anchor and glue\u201d, said <strong>Gal Mekel<\/strong>, who had a great game against Baskonia. \u201cwe\u2019re not looking ahead to the potential cup final, only at the Ashdod game. We had a good win on Thursday, so we\u2019re hoping to continue building on that momentum. Losing the big leads just shows us we can\u2019t take our foot off the pedal. We respect Ashdod but are coming to do our thing which is to win\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> \t\tCoach Bagatskis and the team Captain, Guy Pnini, represented the team in the official Israeli Basketball federation\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n<p> \t\t\u201cWe\u2019re not in a great stretch, that\u2019s true, but for us a title is the most important\u201d, said <strong>Pnini<\/strong>, \u201cthere\u2019s no point explaining the importance to us players, we all know what\u2019s at stake and I\u2019m sure that with our experience, we will know how to complete the job\u201d.<\/p>\n<p> \t\t\u201cPast meetings with Ashdod are in the past, but everything can happen in a cup game\u201d, said <strong>Coach Bagatskis<\/strong>, \u201cGuy Pnini\u2019s minutes? it\u2019s a tough question. Beginning of the season, Maccabi had 3 teams: one for practice, one for Israeli league and one for the Euroleague. And then after Sonny and Maik left, we had a fourth team. So, we\u2019re trying to find the way, have the same team for Israeli League and Euroleague, play the same guys. It was just a specific situation with Pnini in the last Euroleague game.<\/p>\n<p> \t\t\u201cWe will try to win the 8th cup in a row. I liked what Quincy Miller told the other players: \u2018let\u2019s take this personal\u2019. So, I agree with that mentality and will be very happy personally if we get the 8th cup.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"direction: ltr;\"> \t\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cup semi Final game against Ashdod will take place on Monday (18:45) at The Arena, Jerusalem. Mekel on the forward: \u201che\u2019s our anchor and glue\u201d. Coach Bagatskis: \u201cI\u2019ll be happy if we get this title\u201d. Pnini: \u201cI\u2019m sure our experience will help\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-500309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-54"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500311,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500309\/revisions\/500311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500309"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=500309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}