Maccabi is one game away from the Final Four after their 81 – 60 victory over Caja Laboral puts the best of five series at 2 – 1. Blatt: “It’s fun to coach this team. Pargo was tremendous.” Eliyahu: “It wasn’t easy.”
By Amy Samin
Unlike the first two games, Caja Laboral posted very low shooting averages (5 of 22 from three point range). What made the difference? Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s head coach David Blatt explained: “Tonight we played at home and that made things easier for the players in terms of the atmosphere, and also perhaps the intensity we’re able to implement here. The guys played defense at the highest of levels, and they deserve a lot of praise. That’s exactly the way to lower your opponent’s shooting averages.”
“It was obvious that sooner or later our shooting averages would come back up to what they’ve been,” Blatt added. “Their averages from the distances they love so much declined, and the result reflects that. It’s one game, and doesn’t have a lot of impact on Thursday’s game, though we’re going into another home game with a 2 – 1 advantage. It’s obvious today that we are among the 8 best teams in Europe. It’s a lot of fun to coach Maccabi, the players love the team. The people here [in Nokia Arena] understand how much these players are giving everything they have, and playing with all their hearts.”
“We knew that Pargo has great ability,” the coach said in reference to the game’s MVP. “He’s so young, but with the qualities of a more experienced player. He was tremendous today. The fans helped us when things weren’t going well, and that shows the maturity of the crowd. It wasn’t as easy as it looked today; we simply played better. In a way, the guys were playing for Perkins [who was injured at the start of the second quarter and left the game].”
Sofoklis Schortsanitis: “The game was difficult, but Jeremy had a great game, as did Blu. We looked at Blu and saw that this was his day. I screened for him and he made some crazy shots, that was amazing – it was fun to watch.”
When asked if he was surprised by the big point difference, Sofo replied, “We shouldn’t be relaxed about the difference because you never know. We’ll try to do the same on Thursday; we’re on the right way but it’s not going to happen easily. The fans helped us greatly tonight, especially in the third quarter when we really needed it. With these fans and our strong will, I feel we will win the next game and advance to the Final Four in Barcelona.”
Chuck Eidson: “It was a big game for us, we played good, and did the things that Coach asked us to do. We played like a team. Unfortunately, tonight we lost Doron and I think everybody in the locker room right now is feeling that.” When asked if he played for him after Perkins left the game, Eidson replied, “Yeah, you have to. This is a guy who’s been with us every day all year, and it hurts your heart a little bit, but you know that you’ve got to keep going and keep playing.” When asked what Maccabi needs to do to get the win on Thursday against a team that will be fighting for their lives, Eidson said, “They’re a good team, and we don’t expect anything different. We’re going to need to carry over from this game and play just as hard.”
Lior Eliyahu added: “In the second and third quarters we played great defense, and that was what helped us win the game.”
Dusko Ivanovic: “We didn’t play good defense tonight. We turned the ball over too many times and it allowed Maccabi to make runs and punish us with fast break points. This series is wide open and anything can happen. The injury of Perkins will affect Maccabi, not my team, so they need to be the ones to say how it will affect the next games. We’re not as tired as people as people may think. We can still win.”
