After starting off with back-to-back defeats, including a particularly vexing two-point loss against Estonia at home, the Israeli national basketball team clawed its way back into contention with three wins. Now, following Thursday's home defeat against runaway group leader Montenegro, Israel has a chance for revenge tonight, when it travels to Tallinn for its seventh game in the Eurobasket 2013 qualification campaign.
Victory by more than two points tonight will lift Israel above Estonia and into the automatic qualification places. But a win is far from assured.
A year ago, Estonia was languishing in the second tier of European basketball and now it has its sights set on a place in the Eurobasket finals. While Israel coach Arik Shevak isn't concerned about the 7,000 fanatic supporters who will cheer on the home team tonight ("Players who are used to crowds of over 10,000 at Yad Eliyahu stadium shouldn't let that worry them," he said on Friday ), he does admit that the Estonian style of play has been a concern. "They throw 30 three-pointers every game," he said, "and that means we have to control the rebounds. If we can keep the game running, we're the stronger team."
Alex Tyus agrees with his coach. "The Estonians' main strength is that so many of them can shoot three-pointers," he says. "We have to close them down on the rebounds and try to interfere with their game plan whenever possible. We're definitely the stronger team and we've got more talented players, but whichever team plays smarter will win."
Israel's history in must-win games away from its home arena has not been too impressive. At home and in neutral venues, Israel raises the level of its play at critical moments, but in front of hostile crowds, this doesn't happen. In 2004, the national team lost to Bulgaria and two years later it was trounced in Bosnia.
On both those occasions, however, Israel qualified for the finals through the runners-up tournament. This time, there is no second chance. Only victory tonight will leave Israel with a realistic chance of making it to next summer's finals.
