An exciting Turkish Airlines Euroleague showdown is set to take place in Israel tonight as Maccabi Electra and Partizan mt:s both look for their first win in a difficult Group C.
Both teams meet for the third consecutive season and everyone remembers how Partizan beat Maccabi in the Quarter-final Playoffs to reach their first Final Four since 1998.
Both have changed a lot in the last two years, however, as Maccabi returned to the Euroleague final last season and is fully reloaded in all positions, signing 2010-11 regular season scoring champ Keith Langford last week.
Partizan recently got Milan Macvan on loan from Maccabi, so he will have the chance to play against his former team-mates right away. Partizan knows what it takes to win in Nokia Arena and will try to do it again.
Both teams go into the matchup injury-free.
Macvan has added depth, range and talent to Partizan's frontcourt, but the Serbian powerhouse will carry on running its offence through Nikola Pekovic, who faces a very interesting match-up against Sofoklis Schortsanitis, bringing two of the most unstoppable big men in the competition face to face.
Partizan must find a way to stop Langford, Devin Smith and Jordan Farmar on both wings, but they can rely on good defensive stoppers, such as Petar Bozic, Dusan Kecman and Dragan Milosavljevic, whose energy and fighting spirit could be important in this game.
Theo Papaloukas comes off a good game against EA7 Emporio Armani and needs to use his size and experience against Acie Law.
Expect a captivating game with a great crowd, as always.
