Maccabi Tel Aviv will enjoy home advantage throughout the Premier League playoffs after winning first place at the end of the regular season last night with an 82:89 victory over Hapoel Tel Aviv in the derby at the Menora Arena. Maccabi will begin its quarter-final playoff series against Hapoel Be'er Sheva on Wednesday (18:30) in a best-of-five system.
But before the game, the Yellowjackets will have to find out how Josh Nivo and Wade Baldwin are doing. The centre was injured at the start of the derby and did not return to play with a groin strain that is expected to be seen today. It is believed that Nivo will miss at least the playoff series against Beersheba, and possibly the entire season. The one who will be called up to the roster is Alex Poythras.
Baldwin, on the other hand, began to feel pain in his knee in the first half, carried the injury until halftime, and played little in the second half, but managed a number of big actions to decide the matchup, finishing the game with 16 points. Roman Sorkin scored 22 and was Maccabi's standout player in the matchup.
At least he looked fine. Baldwin (Photo: Danny Maron)
In last night's game, Maccabi dominated the first half, but after Baldwin's injury saw Hapoel Tel Aviv manage to reverse the score and go down in the third quarter with a 3-point advantage. Early in the fourth quarter, the Yellowjackets went on a 0-10 run and, despite their opponent's comeback attempts, never regained the advantage.
"Obviously when a team is running on us, it's better to be as early as possible. We lost concentration and let them play their game, lots of easy baskets on offense, as soon as we managed to stop it, we came back to take control of the game", concluded Rafi Manko, who scored an important three in the decisive moments after a few misses, "I'm happy that the three went in, I hope every three will always go in, I know it can't happen, but I'm glad it went in. Our team today made a tremendous effort, happy that this is leading us towards the real thing in the league. We will start the series with Be'er Sheva, a very well-trained team that had a nice season, we will have to come sharp and focused."
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