Mac TA to face Blatt and Cavs in pre-season NBA tour

Game will take place just four months after Blatt's departure to become Cavs coach and first Israeli NBA coach.

By ALLON SINAI
Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt (photo credit: ADI AVISHAI)
Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt
(photo credit: ADI AVISHAI)
Maccabi Tel Aviv will face the Cleveland Cavaliers and former coach David Blatt on October 5 in the first game of the yellow-and-blue's pre-season NBA tour, the reigning Euroleague champions announced on Monday. Two days later, they will play the Brooklyn Nets.
 
Maccabi will travel to the US from Brazil where it will face Liga de las Americas champion Flamengo in the 2014 FIBA Intercontinental Cup in late September. The two-game series will be played at the Gimnasio Maracanãzinho Arena in Rio de Janeiro, with the opening encounter scheduled for Friday, September 26 and Game 2 set to take place two days later. The Intercontinental Cup, which dates back to 1966, was dormant for nearly two decades before its revival last season, when then-Euroleague-champion Olympiacos Piraeus defeated Pinheiros Sky for the cup.
Maccabi will hope to arrive in the US after claiming a second Intercontinental Cup in club history ahead of its 21st and 22nd games against NBA teams.
Tel Aviv was the first European team to face an NBA side in 1978, as well as the first to beat one, winning a total of five of its 20 encounters to date.
This year's meeting with the Cavs will hold special significance, with Maccabi to come up against Blatt just four months after leaving the club to become the first Israeli coach in the NBA.
The Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, will host the game on October 5, with the Barclays Center in New York to be the site of Maccabi's showdown with the Nets two days later.