Welcome, David Blatt!17 january 2013

On January 18, 2013 within the bounds of Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 BC Khimki at its home court will face Israeli champion Maccabi Electra Tel-Aviv. The beginning of the meeting is at 20.00 msk. Watch live on NTV-PLUS Basketball.

EXCHANGE OF OPINIONS

Rimas Kurtinaitis:

— Maccabi Electra is an interesting and in my opinion diverse team. David Blatt is a very clever, wise and skilful coach; he uses a lot of tactical moments. He practices different defenses, in attack he uses fastbreaks and likes pick and rolls. Also you can’t prepare one scheme against Maccabi Electra, you have to respond to all the changes at the court. As for players we know David Logan very well, Ricky Hickman was named Euroleague week 3 bwin MVP, David Blatt 'discovered' him and from game to game he performs better. But we play at home and will fight for a victory.

Kresimir Loncar:

— Maccabi Electra is a very good team with an experienced coach. Teams coached by David Blatt always play great defense with zone pressing, they roll the ball quickly so for the opponent it is difficult to attack. In Maccabi Electra there are a lot of American players, they are athletic, run fast and jump high and good scorers as well. If we want to win we must play intelligent basketball, be calm and I suppose we will have chances. So it will be an interesting fight.

MACCABI ELECTRA TEL-AVIV (ISRAEL)

Founded in 1932
Team colors: yellow and blue
Arena: Nokia Arena (capacity – 11700)
Honors: Israeli National League – 50 titles, Israeli National Cup – 39 titles, Euroleague – 4 titles (1977, 1981, 2004, 2005), Suproleague – 1 title (2001), Adriatic League – 1 title (2012)
President: Shimon Mizrahi
Official website: www.maccabi.co.il

The Israeli Basketball Super League started in 1954, and Maccabi Tel Aviv was the first champion. It has dominated the championship ever since, winning the title 50 times, including a run of 23 titles in a row between 1970 and 1992. The team has also won the Israeli Basketball State Cup 39 times. Maccabi is considered Israel’s national sporting representative in the world.

From 1969 until 2008, Maccabi Tel Aviv was sponsored by Elite, Israel's largest food company, and carried its name. Since July 2008, Maccabi has had a new sponsor – Electra.

Maccabi’s head coach is David Blatt. He has kept in touch with Russia since 2004. In 2004 he moved to Russia and signed on as head coach with Dynamo Saint Petersburg. During this year, he won the FIBA EuroCup championship with Dynamo and also the title of “Coach of the Year in Russia” (2004-2005 season). In 2006-2012 he was the head coach of the Russian national basketball team and won three medals for Russia: Eurobasket-2007 gold medal, Eurobasket-2011 bronze and Olympic Games-2012 bronze medals. In 2008 Blatt agreed to the offer to become the head coach of Dynamo Moscow.

SEASON 2012-2013

In Israeli Basketball Super League Maccabi Electra after 13 games has 12-1 record with the only loss to Maccabi Rishon (64-81, October 28, 2012). In Turkish Airlines Euroleague it had 8-2 record in Group B and now 1 win and 2 losses in Top 16 Group F. In the last game vs Fenerbahce Ulker Maccabi scored 38 points in the last quarter and crashed the Turkish team with the score 91-73. American guard Ricky Hickman with 24 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and index rating of 34 was named Top 16 week 3 bwin MVP.

The best scorer of the team in Turkish Airlines Euroleague is Ricky Hickman (14.2 points, 3.5 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game). Shawn James adds 11.3 points and 6.1 rebounds, Devin Smith – 10.2 points and 3.2 rebounds, David Logan – 9.8 points and 2.4 rebounds, Lior Eliyahu – 9.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists.



№  Player Position  Height  Birthday Nationality
4David LoganG1841982USA
5Shawn JamesC2071983USA
6Devin SmithG1961983USA
7Ricky HickmanG1891985USA
8Lior EliyahuF2071985Israel
9Moran RothG1821982Israel
10Guy PniniF2011983Israel
11 Nik Caner-Medley F2031983USA
12Yogev OhayonG1891987Israel
13Darko PlaninicC2111990Croatia
14Malcolm ThomasF2061988USA
15Itay SegevF2041995Israel
21Sylven LandesbergF1981990Israel
22Idan ZalmansonF2051995Israel
-Tomer Ber AvenG1971992Israel

Head coach: David (USA/Israel)