Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv were very happy with the results of their game against Jerusalem, especially on the defensive side. Pnini: “It’s all thanks to the crowd. They gave us that home court atmosphere. We need to keep going and play basketball like we did tonight.”
By Amy Samin
David Blatt, head coach of Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, was satisfied with his team’s strong performance on defense throughout the game.
“We outscored them in all four quarters.
One of the things we said after the last few games is that we need to be more consistent, especially on defense, and to maintain our intensity.”
“They said Zalgiris isn’t much of a team.
I wonder, what will they say now?
Jerusalem also isn’t much of a team?
I think Jerusalem is an excellent team.
It’s no secret that a game against Jerusalem is different from other games.
The first half was a struggle.
We could have functioned better on offense, but I’m happy we kept Jerusalem to 20 points in the second half.”
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“I’m satisfied with the way the team is playing.
I think Pnini and Burstein were great.
I told my players not to take the day off last Friday, because I wanted to get them in the rhythm and keep them ready.
They did it in the best possible way, so tomorrow (Monday) I’m giving them the day off before we face Partizan.
I agree with Oded (Katash, coach of Hapoel Jerusalem) that it was a hard game to officiate, there were mistakes on both sides, but that’s the way these games are.”
Guy Pnini, who had another fantastic game against his former team, said, “We kept them to only 55 points in the game, it’s amazing.
It’s all thanks to the crowd.
They gave us that home court atmosphere.
We need to keep going and play basketball like we did tonight.
I felt good at the end and the guys gave me the open shots; I’m happy they went in.
Now we’re looking to Belgrade.”
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Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem’s head coach Oded Katash addressed his team’s loss: “Our feeling about the game should have been better than the feeling we had at the end of the game.
We should have been more focused and executed better.
We need to give credit to Maccabi for their defense in the second half; they basically got away from us at exactly the right time.”
“We can learn a lot from this game if we want to improve.
We’re a team that can do better than 55 points against any team, so the credit goes to Maccabi.
We did a good job stopping Schortsanitis; we wanted to let some of the players try to beat us from the outside.
It takes time for things to come together.
This is the time when the players are still learning the system.”
