Maccabi Tel Aviv – Crvena Zvezda
Friendly Game
Nicosia, September 22, 18:00 CET
Serious problems for the Euroleague team Crvena Zvezda, at the end of the preparatory period before the start of the season in the regional ABA league and Euroleague, are injuries to key players.
On Friday, at a strong tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus), the Belgrade team will play against the biggest Israeli club, a big rival from the Euroleague, Maccabi Tel Aviv. In that match, Crvena Zvezda will not count on both playmakers and main stars in the team - guards Napier and Teodosic. Both are facing minor injuries, and the club hopes that former NBA guard Napier and one of the best European playmakers in modern basketball era, Teodosic, will be ready for the first official game of the season, in ten days.
How important these two are for the Belgrade team's game is evidenced by the results in the preparatory duels during September. In the victory over the German Euroleague team Alba Berlin, 74:56 in Munich (September 16), they both played. A day later, in the defeat against Bayern 84:82, Napier did not play.
Objectively, Maccabi Tel Aviv, the "Pride of Israel", is a much better team than Alba and Bayern (the Munich team Bayern was weakened and without key players in that triumph over Crvena Zvezda on August 17). Now, in Cyprus, Maccabi has an ideal opportunity to achieve a convincing victory.
The key for Maccabi is that the main players from the previous season have been retained. Former Crvena Zvezda player Lorenzo Brown is still, like in previous season, playing the role of playmaker for Israeli club. The team is particularly strong in the power forward position (American Webb and Sorkin), American Nebo is a dominant athlete in the center position. Wade Baldwin is an extremely reliable option at the shooting guard position.
Since Crvena Zvezda seems a little "thin" in the positions under the hoop, Maccabi is expected to use the advantage for a physically dominant game - and to even routinely solve the game.
So far, the Maccabi team has played only three preparatory games. After the victory over the very good domestic rival Hapoel Holon, 89:68 on September 7, they also defeated the excellent Euroleague team Fenerbahce 82:78 (September 15). The defeat by the mighty Panathinaikos of Athens 89:77 two days after the Fenerbahce game, was not a surprise. Objectively, Panathinaikos is probably a collection of the best individuals and perhaps the main candidate for the Euroleague title in the spring.
In this match, Crvena Zvezda will be counting on Slovenian center Tobey for the first time this month, as well as Serbian power forward Davidovac, who is returning to the team after one year in Russia. It is expected that the Belgrade squad will have serious problems in the organization of the game in this match, Brazilian Yago Dos Santos is not a good enough option to take that responsibility alone.
Maccabi has a serious advantage before this duel, and it would be a big surprise if they don't use it, in an extremely important preparatory tournament in Cyprus.