Spanish basketball summary: Basconia - Braugen 74:76/Sport1
Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Baskonia tomorrow (Tuesday) in Belgrade for the play-in match (20:30), in which the winner will qualify for the Euroleague playoff quarter-final series against Panathinaikos. The Spanish team trained this morning in Vitoria, and flew to Belgrade directly, when they will train there only tomorrow morning. Danny Diaz is the only player of the team who is in doubt for the match after he did not play in the game against Braugan due to injury and Baskonia decided not to risk him.
The Yellows, like all the Euroleague teams in Europe, know what needs to be done to beat Baskonia: stop Marcus Howard. But this is a task that very few groups are able to meet. Last night, the American scorer again proved how explosive he is, when he brought his team back from a 74:67 deficit against Braugan, sniping a typical 3-pointer second to the end and making it 74:76, with 28 points.
Officials in Baskonia said today that Marcus Howard arrives very charged to face the yellows. From the first game between the teams this season in Belgrade, the guard came out "hot" after exchanging words with Wade Baldwin, and since then "he takes the Baldwin issue personally and comes to prove it to him." Howard excelled in the second game between the teams, which Esconia won smoothly.
"The whole plan was that Howard wouldn't get the ball," admitted the coach of the opponent last night, Valiko Marsic, "because as he proved, once the ball is in his hands, he has the composure and the talent to throw from an almost impossible angle and score. He is a magician."