After his team’s dramatic 83 – 81 victory in Spain, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s head coach David Blatt said, “It was a great game, but it’s still too early to talk about advancing. I want our fans at Nokia to give us 150% next week in our two games there.”
By Amy Samin
“It was a great game for us, and a very enjoyable one for our fans,” said Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s head coach David Blatt after the game. “There was a lot of positive energy, and a lot of sequences that came from the heart. We took a game that was very hard to win. We’ve won quite a few games in the last two months with this line-up; it’s a good line-up.”
“I have to say a few words in praise of Lior Eliyahu, who sat on the bench for a lot of minutes tonight but who, when he came into the game, delivered plays and together with Jeremy Pargo helped us win this game,” added the coach. “I also have something important to say to our fans…the players of Caja Laboral have to get back twice over in Tel Aviv what we have gotten here from the fans, though in a sportsmanlike manner, of course. I want our fans to give us 150%.”
While enjoying his team’s fabulous victory, the coach remained pragmatic. “We’ve taken a tough away win and tied the series, but anything can happen in the Euroleague. Don’t go planning on the Final Four just yet.” Blatt also noted that, “The officiating here was biased towards the home team, to put it mildly. I want normal officiating that will allow us to come in and play our game, and perhaps we’ll be able to win the third.”
When told by a reporter that he personally won the game for Maccabi, Jeremy Pargo replied, “No, we won the game. One shot doesn’t make up for all the other points. We had 81 other points. We still had to play that entire game, and luckily for me [that shot] went down.” When told that now the game is in Maccabi’s hands, Pargo said, “Yeah, that’s what we wanted to come out here and do. We wanted to win both games, obviously, but a big goal was accomplished today by winning that game. We just have to keep taking care of business and keep playing hard. Nothing’s going to come easy; we have to come out and beat those guys in the next couple of games. They’re not going to give us anything. They’re a great team, as you saw these last two games.”
Sofoklis Schortsanitis, who scored 22 points in the game, said, “We had a tough time here, this is their home court and they scored fifty percent of their three-point shots here, and it was difficult. They scored a lot of them, but in Israel it won’t be so easy for them, and we want to finish the job in Israel.”
David Blu, who in a fantastic game scored 18 points (including 4 three-pointers), said, “This win means nothing if we don’t finish the job in Israel. We have two games that are going to be tough games, but we believe in ourselves and we know what we can do. Nokia is such an advantage that hopefully we’ll do what we want to do.”
