48 hours after their tough loss to the EuroLeague leaders, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv welcomes bottomfeeders ALBA Berlin to a "home" game in Belgrade on Thursday (9:05 PM Israel time, 2:05 PM ET). Oded Kattash and his players will look to bounce back and improve to a positive record.

The Germans only won one out of their ten games this season, and hold the last-placed defense in the competition. They are also expected to be short-handed, as guards Sterling Brown and Matt Thomas and forward Louis Olinde all missed their previous games and their status is unclear.




"ALBA is a team that plays with a system and gave hard time to multiple teams", analysed head coach Oded Kattash. "We have to be ready to play, there are no easy games in the EuroLeague. The fact that we are consideres as favorites because of the records might be a disadvantage if we are not concentrated. So we face this game with a lot of respect".

"We need to play much better basketball than what we did last night", asserted Jake Cohen ahead of the game, "That's a great opportunity to bounce back. ALBA Berlin has some talent and they know how to play so it's not going to be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination".

Added Antonius Cleveland: "We got a chance to bounce back, we don't have to wait a week to play. This league is tough, we have to come prepared. We can't take anything for granted".

After two tough losses against the EuroLeague’s top two teams, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv had the perfect opportunity to bounce back - and tool full advantage of it. Oded Kattash’s men thrashed last-placed ALBA Berlin 102-81 and climbed back to a positive 6-5 record.

The yellows had their best shooting display of the season thus far, making 15 out of 25 attempts from deep. Leading the charge was Wade Baldwin IV with 18 points and 6 assists, while Bonzie Colson added 17. Rafa Menco had a EuroLeague career high 13 points, including 3-out-of-3 from three point range.



“It was important to come back to winning ways, even more so after the previous game”, said Menco. “Our hearts is with our families, friends and all Israelis. We are all going through difficult times and we have to stay strong and united”.

Maccabi will have five days to prepare for two more EuroLeague contests next week, beginning with a visit to ASVEL on Wednesday. Then, next Friday, the Maccabees will travel to Bologna to face Virtus.