Hapoel Tel Aviv eyes Euroleague playoffs while Maccabi prays for spot

MACCABI TEL AVIV coach Oded Katash and his team

Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Fenerbahce 95-80 as the Reds closed in on clinching a playoff spot with a record of 22-13. Meanwhile, a crucial contest awaits Maccabi as its aspirations are questioned.

Israeli teams in Euroleague action had mixed results this week as Hapoel Tel Aviv took a huge step toward not only securing a playoff spot but also to holding home-court advantage, while Maccabi Tel Aviv’s play-in aspirations were put into doubt.

Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Fenerbahce 95-80 as the Reds closed in on clinching a playoff spot with a record of 22-13, good for fourth place overall in the standings.

Dimitrios Itoudis’s team came out of fire as Elijah Bryant, Dan Oturu, Antonio Blakeney and Vasilije Micic were able to lead Tel Aviv to a 51-38 lead at halftime while neutralizing Talen Horton-Tucker and holding him scoreless over the opening 20 minutes.

Wade Baldwin tried to keep the Turkish side close with 17 first-half points, but was only able to score five points over the course of the second half as Hapoel cruised to the 15-point victory. Oturu scored 23 points, Bryant added 21 points, and Micic scored 19 points in the win, while Baldwin scored 22 points in the defeat.

Itoudis spoke about the win, saying, “First, I want to congratulate the team. We were the better team from start to finish, so we deserve to win today. We won against the defending champions, a great, well-coached team. It was a very important game, and I’m proud of the performance. We were locked in with the right mindset from the beginning. We stuck to the plan and the players executed brilliantly.”

Soccer Football - UEFA Europa League - Maccabi Tel Aviv v Bologna - TSC Arena, Backa Topola, Serbia - January 29, 2026 Bologna's Tommaso Pobega scores their third goal (credit: REUTERS/MARKO DJURICA)

Oturu, the game’s MVP, discussed the importance of the win. "We knew coming into the game we were starting off a double week against a very good opponent, Fener, the defending champions, so it was important for us to bounce back against them and win," he said. "We knew they were going to come and compete, so we had to come out and punch first. We have to match the energy that they bring each and every night, and we had to show that we were ready to compete. I think we did that well in this game.”

In Spain, Maccabi Tel Aviv fell to Baskonia 101-98 in what was a serious blow to the yellow-and-blue’s Euroleague Play-In aspirations.

The loss dropped Oded Katash’s squad’s record to 18-17 as they also moved down to 12th place behind Dubai (19-17), which is in 11th spot, while Monaco sits in the final Play-In place with a 19-16 record.

The yellow-and-blue jumped out to a 53-44 advantage at halftime with fine shooting from the outside via Lonnie Walker and Jimmy Clark, along with inside scoring from Roman Sorkin. However, Baskonia came back with a 40-19 third quarter as Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Trent Forrest spurred the host’s scoring to take the lead and go on to the win.

Clark scored 26 points, Walker added 23 points and Sorkin put in 22 points for Maccabi in the loss while Luwawu-Cabarrot scored 21 points and Forrest scored 19 points in the win.

'It's more than basketball'

Next up for Maccabi was a crucial contest in Paris late Thursday.

“Sometimes you lose games on bad attitude, bad body language,” Katash said. “We were not together, we didn’t play the right way. It’s more than basketball, but it’s not us. Very tough, a bad loss for us.”

Maccabi forward Will Rayman looked ahead to the club’s next few games. “We need to focus on the next three games. We have the tiebreaker over teams that are close to us, so if we win the remaining games, we have a chance.”