Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s 104 – 67 win over Union Olimpija Ljubljana is its second straight in the Top 16. Eliyahu: “We need to keep up the level of passion.” Pargo: “We’re not thinking about Barcelona yet.” Perkins: “Our intensity is what’s making the difference.”
By Amy Samin
“We talked about the importance of playing for the full forty minutes and giving our all from the first minute,” said Maccabi’s head coach David Blatt after the win.
“We talked about not letting up and about being patient.
The truth is, if we had let up they would have come back and it would have ended with a smaller point difference.
We didn’t let them do that because the point difference is very important.”
“Our fans deserve to enjoy the game,” the coach added.
“I salute the guys; I demand a lot from them and every time, they give their all.
People might say that our opponents are weak, but I say that we are strong.”
When asked about Barcelona, Blatt said, “I don’t want to think about Barcelona yet.
First we need to make sure we’re in a position to advance to the next level, then we’ll fight for first place.”
“I think that Lior (Eliyahu) is one of the best players in his position in Europe, and it’s great that the management brought him back,” complimented the coach at the press conference after the game.
“He needs to keep working so that everyone can have the pleasure of seeing an Israeli player at the very highest levels.
We did an excellent job on defense, but I saw a few mistakes and we’ll fix them.
The players will hear about them and we’ll work on them in practice, because we don’t want to stop where we are now.”
“We will continue to be humble and professional, and leave it to other people to do the talking,” said Blatt in conclusion.
“Last year the Euroleague was a lot weaker.
I know there are teams that are at least at our level.
We have a lot of confidence on our home court and for that reason we can get huge wins like this one.
In away games, I’d take a one point victory.”
“Just because we won by a lot of points doesn’t mean it was an easy game.
We worked really hard for that point difference,” said Lior Eliyahu.
“We did a great job from the start of the first quarter.
We knew how to jump to a big lead at the beginning, and we just need to keep up the passion.
I don’t want to talk about first place yet, we have two tough away games coming up, and the game in Ljubljana will be a completely different story.
There’s also the cup games coming up next week and those are very important.”
Doron Perkins said, “Our intensity is what’s making the difference.
It makes everything easier.
We have a really athletic team and we’re making the most of that.
I’m not surprised, because every time we open strong it goes this way.
Just when we get off to a hesitant start, we have problems.
We’re going to try to play the same way in the away games.
If we play our kind of game, we can wear them out.”
