Oded Kattash
Last and faint chance for coach Ettore Messina’s boys! After defeating Virtus Segafredo Bologna in the Italian derby with a score of 90-75, they rose to a record of 15-18, occupying the twelfth position. Victory in Thursday’s match will be mandatory, but eyes are also on the pitches in which Anadolu Efes and Partizan Belgrade will be involved (here is the calculation of the qualification probabilities).
At the Stark Arena, they will face Maccabi Tel Aviv (19-14 record), already certain of the play-in despite the 92-89 defeat against Barcelona. In the first leg, the Israeli team won the Forum with a score of 90-98. Head coach Oded Kattash will rely on the certainties of him achieving a brilliant regular season, despite the move in October from Tel Aviv to Belgrade as his home arena, due to the still ongoing war.
Lorenzo Brown, a naturalized Spanish point guard, will direct the operations and is a player who is very capable of raising or lowering the pace of the game as he pleases. Wade Baldwin IV will play the lead sniper role. Defending the boards will be Josh Nebo, whose rim protection and spacing on the pick’n’roll are making him one of the top men of the yellow and blue team and who should be a big piece of the next summer transfer market.
Bonzie Colson will give a consistent hand in rebounding in both paints, but also making his physicality in the post game and his ballistic skills from behind the arc weigh. Finally, she will close the Jake Cohen quintet, with her hybrid size between a catch-and-shoot shooting guard and a 3&D wing who can lend a hand on both ends of the court.
Coming off the bench, there are still several weapons available to coach Kattash, starting with point guard Tamir Blatt, continuing with John DiBartolomeo and Antonius Cleveland, the former specialized in three-point shooting, the latter capable of exploding in transition with great physicality . Roman Sorkin and James Webb III are the power forwards, while Jasiel Rivero will be the backup at center. Tap-off Thursday 11 April, 8.05pm. Live Sky Sport Arena and DAZN.
