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Ketch's big evening: "It is very possible that this is not a match for just one season" - voila! sport

2023-03-31T05:55:37.961Z


The Maccabi Tel Aviv coach received a lot of love after the victory over Milan and opened up at the press conference. Lorenzo Brown aims for the playoffs: "I hope the teams are afraid of us"


1. Maccabi Tel Aviv's run in the Euroleague did not stop last night (Thursday) when the Yellows defeated Milan 66:85 at home and came within touching distance of securing their place in the factory playoffs.

Maccabi Tel Aviv recorded its sixth Euroleague victory in a row, and it stands at the best home balance in the factory 2:14.

At this rate, they won't stop at just the playoffs.

Maccabi Tel Aviv players celebrate (Photo: Danny Maron)

Although officially the place in the playoffs is still not guaranteed, only an extreme scenario will leave the leader of the Premier League outside the first eight.

The team's players have already allowed themselves to smile, Avi Even, who is destined to be the professional manager in Nikola Vujic's place at the end of the season, celebrated and hugged everyone in his path, and Vujic, who has slowed down this season, was also very pleased.

In the locker room area, the management allowed themselves to laugh with Oded Ketch, and it seems that the ice of the entire season has finally been broken.



In last night's game, Maccabi Tel Aviv managed to score 53 points against a team that until last night scored a little less than 76 points on average, and stopped a large part of the Euroleague teams from under 70 points this season.

The Yellows received another excellent game from the pair of Lorenzo Brown and Wade Baldwin, but not only from them.

Roman Sorkin led the scorers with 18 points, Josh Niebo scored 8 and added 10 rebounds, John DiBartholomew also scored 8 and so did Bonzie Colson who added 7 rebounds.



"Today's game was about preparation, the coach prepared us great for the game, we pushed the pace in the right way," said Lorenzo Brown, who is close to completing promotion to the playoffs after last year's run to the last eight with Kazan was stopped due to the war in Russia.

"The previous year was with a bad situation, this year is more suitable for me, this is an excellent team for me, we were together all season, we were positive and we reached this point thanks to it."



Captain John DiBartolomeo explained the explosion of the Yellows in the first half, and the opening of the gap that Milan was unable to close despite many attempts, "We moved the ball very well, we have an excellent flow in attack, but the advantage is that we get stops in defense, and when we get to the open field, with The speed of our talls and guards, it's very hard to stop us. So we feed off the crowd, they feed off of us, and that leads to more than 50 points in one half."

"This year is more suitable for me."

Brown and friends (photo: Danny Maron)

2. The three teams that are involved below Maccabi Tel Aviv in the playoff war will play tonight, and if one of them loses, the Yellows will officially complete the promotion mission.

Zhelgiris Kovna will host Valencia, Partizan Belgrade will host Real Madrid and Baskonia will host Fenerbahce.



Maccabi Tel Aviv aims to finish at least in fifth place now, and they know that if they manage to win the last two rounds in Kovna and Real Madrid at home, they will probably achieve their goal and arrange a series with Monaco.



"We are playing our best basketball, and we are in the best situation, we have to concentrate on the next game," Dibratolmeo said about the completion of the mission, "We are playing well and even very well, but we haven't achieved anything yet and we have to concentrate on achieving our goals. If we continue To do that, we will have the opportunity to do something beautiful."



Wade Baldwin added: "The playoffs are one of our goals, our first goal was the cup and we failed, and there is another goal to win the championship, we are also close there."



Lorenzo Brown was asked if he thinks the playoff teams will be afraid to meet Maccabi in their current form and said: "I hope the teams in front of us are afraid, the leagues are full of ups and downs, what we can do is be ready."

More in Walla!

Stays at Maccabi Tel Aviv: Wade Baldwin has agreed to extend his contract

To the full article

"We play our best basketball."

DiBartholomew (Photo: Danny Maron)

3. The big hero of last night's game was Oded Ketch.

The coach received love from the audience that had not been seen this season, he received cheers even before the game and at the end he was asked to smile, which he testified at the end that "embarrasses him".

In the coaches' room at the Ketch Hall, there was already laughter and cheering.

The coach is close to achieving his first goal of the season and admitted after the game that he felt ready when he came to Maccabi Tel Aviv.



Officials at the club congratulated the coach at the end of the game, "Oded matured and proved during this season that he belongs at the Euroleague level, and you can run with him for a long time," said one of the team members, "He is a person who has grown from among us and we are happy that he has returned to the system and is leading it to a great achievement in the Euroleague. It could very well be That this match will not be a match of only one season."

"Leading to a great achievement in the Euroleague".

Ketch (Photo: Danny Maron)

4. During last night's game, Aharla Weisberg announced that the long-awaited agreement between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Wade Baldwin on the extension of his contract had been reached, almost two months after Lorenzo Braun signed for three more seasons at Maccabi.

Maccabi wanted to extend Baldwin's contract for a long time, presented him with a generous financial offer, and only recently were the parties able to finalize the terms.



"We don't always have the option to keep two players at the level of Lorenzo and Wade," said one of the officials in the system.



Apart from the two, Roman Sorkin is also signed for another two years, while Maccabi Tel Aviv estimates that Jarel Martin, who scored a number of key shots last night, Bonzie Colson, John DiBartholomew, Jake Cohen and Josh Niebo should also continue for the next season.

A great combination with Brown.

Baldwin (Photo: Danny Maron)

5. And after this great momentum, Maccabi Tel Aviv will want to beat one of the three teams it has yet to beat this season, Hapoel Jerusalem.

The Yellows lost to the Reds in the league at Menorah Hall and in the cup final at the Arena, and will return on Sunday for an away game in Jerusalem.



"Our next goal is Hapoel Jerusalem, we had a hard time with them this season, we still want to finish the league in first place, after that we will look at the next games in the Euroleague. We must not get too high," said DiBartholomeo.



Baldwin said for his part: "We need to find the way physically and mentally. They caught us after two games in the Euroleague for the first time and even now, the playoffs in the Euroleague are about to start, and then the playoffs in Israel as well, there are no excuses, we need to find the way."

  • sport

  • basketball

  • Euroleague and European basketball

Tags

  • Oded Ketch

  • Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball

Source: walla

All sports articles on 2023-03-31

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