Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s head coach David Blatt was pleased after his team’s 76 – 62 victory over Partizan mt:s Belgrade, and the guaranteed number one spot in Group A at this point in the season: “No one thought we could do it this early.”
By Amy Samin
“You don’t always win a game in the first quarter,” concluded Maccabi’s head coach, David Blatt after his team’s 76 – 62 win over Partizan.
“But because our guys come to the games focused, we’ve had great first quarters in more than a few games.
The truth is, I didn’t think we’d have secured first place in our group at this point in the season; no one thought we could do it this early.
The credit goes to my players and staff.”
“I think that in 2010 we’ve achieved everything we wanted to,” the coach added.
“We’ve returned the Israeli character to the club, we’ve strengthened the connection between the team and the fans, we’ve brought a young and significant player to the team, and so far we’ve done everything in the best possible way.”
Doron Perkins noted that, “There are a lot of players that do things that don’t show up in the stats.
As long as we win, it doesn’t matter. Today a lot of people did a lot of things out there, especially Tal and Yaniv, the guys who came up off the bench, they played real well.
We’re happy to be in first place but we still have things to work on.
The next round’s going to be tough; there’s a lot of good teams, but we have an excellent coach and good players, and as long as we keep going the way we have been, with the same intensity, it’ll be okay.”
Lior Eliyahu, who finished with 16 points, is already looking ahead: “It’s fun to be in first place, but we still have a long way to go.
The first thing is for all of us to stay healthy.
We’re not the kind of team that eases up, at least I hope not.
We’ve shown a lot of character so far this season, and we need to come to the two games we have left with all of our strength.
Today was a nice victory for us; we controlled the game from the beginning.
I’m sure it’s going to be an interesting Top 16.
On the inside, we’re thinking about the Final Four.”
Tal Burstein said, “Aside from first place, there are still plenty of other things we want.
I trust David Blatt to keep us primed and ready for the games to come.
Things are closer in the other groups and we’re not sure yet who we’ll face in the next round; we’ll wait and see.
On Sunday we’ll be up against Haifa and Elishay Kadir; so far things are not going badly for him.
I hope he enjoys a lot of success, but not against us.”
Partizan’s coach, Vlade Jovanovic said after the game, “I want to congratulate Maccabi and coach David Blatt for this well-deserved win.
Maccabi played very aggressively on both offense and defense, and we couldn’t match that.
We had a hard time against them on both ends of the court; they’re simply a great team.”
