2024-02-15 12:55:44
Maccabi will come to the game with Lorenzo Brown, who, according to coach Oded Ketch, has trained and is fit to play. The full Maccabi squad for the game will be announced tonight.
“Jerusalem is a good team, tough and with a defensive orientation. We are not the only team that has a hard time against them,” Ketch mentioned at the end of the final training held at the Peace Sports Center, “We arrive in good shape and know what we want to do. It is not going to be easy and we have to come focused.”
The Maccabi coach commented on the keys to the game: “It starts with our defense. We have to slow them down, not give them the easy points they make in offensive rebounds and come tough. We have shown in several games that when we come prepared, then we know how to do it. Offensively we have to play correctly against their defense . We tried to prepare it, there wasn’t too much time, but we will try to implement it.”
“I think we got the crowd’s energy again,” Ketch answered questions about the current winning streak, “the experience against Hapoel Tel Aviv, which was a full house and we experienced it for the first time since the first game in the Euroleague against Partizan, it helped us. We missed it a lot and needed the These energies”.
“Jerusalem is a really talented team. They have a lot of players who continue from last season, so they have good chemistry,” Bonzi Colson complimented the opponent, but emphasized: “It depends on us and what we do. We have to start strong, we know there will be a fun atmosphere. We have to play the game ours and do what is possible to get the victory. We try to focus on defense, during the season there are ups and downs on both sides of the field. We stick to the principles and try to play simply. We need to continue the momentum.”
“I think we all enjoy playing in front of a hall full of fans, whether it’s ours or the opponent’s,” added Coulson, who is known as a player who brings energy and feeds off of it. “The atmosphere should be fun, Jerusalem also played abroad without fans. Both teams will be excited to play in front of a full house. Pace is important and we play every two to three days, so there is limited time to prepare. We try to prepare as well as possible, stick to what we know how to do and work to win.”
During the war, the Jerusalemites parted with the Serbian Aleksandar Jikić and appointed the Greek coach Ilias Kantsouris in his place. Even after the change in the lines, the team from the capital remains the team that holds the opponents for the lowest amount of points in the league, with only 77.4 per game. In Jerusalem’s home games, this average drops to only 69.4 mandatory points per game, and it has yet to lose at home this season in the league.
In his second season with the team, small forward Lewai Randolph is the main executioner in Jerusalem with 15.7 points per game. The team recently added power forward Jacory Williams, and in his four league games he has impressed with 13 points and 5.3 rebounds a night. The Reds from the capital also returned to their ranks in the summer Chris Johnson who provides 12.6 points per game and he scored the team’s most dangerous 3-pointers with over 50% of the range.
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