Tal Burstein added: “Lior sent an SMS to Houston: ‘we don’t have a problem’.” MVP Lior Eliyahu said, “Today it was me; tomorrow it will be someone else.” Brown added: “We made the game harder on ourselves.”
By Amy Samin
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv spilled a lot of blood, sweat and tears before handing head coach Pini Gershon his first Euroleague victory in this, his third term as head coach of the club: 88 – 83 over Cibona Zagreb.
The first to compliment Eliyahu on his performance (24 points, 17 rebounds, 6 assists) in Thursday night’s game was none other than Pini Gershon himself.
“If Lior would guard better, he wouldn’t make so many fouls and he wouldn’t be playing here (he would be playing in the NBA).
An offensive game like he played isn’t easy to give.
There was a lot of pressure under the basket, and he moved well and broke through.
The surprise was that he also took so many rebounds.
He was excellent on offense.
I can’t ask that he defend better, rather that he position himself better on defense.
That would really help us out.
He has something that not many other players have.”
About the game itself, the coach said, “First of all, I wasn’t expecting an easy game.
They have a good starting five.
Too many players played too many minutes, and that’s a pretty big burden on the team, but it was critical that we win this game.
There’s pressure in the system, and I didn’t say that before the game in order to avoid adding to the pressure.
It was a crucial victory, and we needed to win by more than two points.”
“I can’t say that what you saw in our zone defense in the final minutes of the game is what I want,” Gershon continued.
“Cibona slowed the game down; that’s their rhythm.
It’s something I anticipated.
Turnovers in the first half cut our lead from 10 to 3.
The difference between the two teams in the first half was worth more than three points.”
When asked about the short rotation, the coach said, “When five players play for 35 minutes, they naturally gain confidence, but sometimes that can also hurt the team.
It was an important game, and I decided that they would play a lot of minutes.
I don’t know why we didn’t play well in the second quarter, but fortunately we came back and the pressure switched over to Cibona.
In the end, we knew how to stand up under pressure.
When the pressure is on you, you’re liable to make more mistakes.”
The game’s MVP, Lior Eliyahu said, “I’m happy I had a good game.
We do what we can.
The game went my way, and I have to thank the guys, who helped me get to the shots that work for me.
Today it was me; next time it will be someone else.”
Marcus Brown knows it could have been easier: “In the second half, we played to their rhythm.
We made the game harder on ourselves.
We have character, and these kinds of games build character, but it didn’t have to be this way.
We need to execute better.”
When asked about his teammate, Brown observed, “Lior Eliyahu was fantastic.”
When asked to share his thoughts about Number 8, Tal Burstein answered creatively: “Lior sent an SMS to
I’m happy that he showed what he can do.
It was a super hard game.
They made it hard.
When we were able to run, we opened up big leads.
We’ll take those good minutes.”
Carlos Arroyo (12 points) added, “We had opportunities to stop them, and we took them.
Fischer played great, and Marcus was terrific.
I think we had opportunities on defense; if I wasn’t injured I would have played more.
I hope we’ll continue to play well.
If we do, things will be better.”
Team captain Derrick Sharp spoke briefly. “We played great, and we deserved to win the game.”
Yaniv Green focused on defense: “It’s tough to stop Prkacin, but the important thing is that we won the game.”
