Smith was excited about his first game in Nokia: “It was a great feeling.” Farmar: “The atmosphere is like college basketball in America.”
By Amy Samin
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s head coach David Blatt said after the game, “It was a great game for the fans. There was a lot of action, a lot of good players. I think the team does well in certain things, but I also saw things that were not as good. We have a lot more shooting and a great inside game, and that makes our team more devastating. Last year we were devastating because of the teamwork. Tonight, we had that as well.”
Blatt added: “I don’t like it that we let them score 52 points in the second half, and that’s something that further down the road we can’t afford to allow. Cibona is a team with a lot of talent, but they aren’t really cohesive and we took advantage of that. It was annoying that the referees blew the whistle on every little thing. But I don’t blame them; I blame the people in charge who made the rules. But they made that decision and now we have to live with it.”
Devin Smith: “It was great to come out and play in front of our fans. They gave great support, and it’s always great to have that support when you go through difficult moments in a game. We look forward to having that situation every home game. Yeah, I made a couple of shots, but it’s a credit to my teammates. The point guards got me the ball in the right situation and the big guys set great screens for me to get open. That gave me the space and time to knock down the shots. I expect the same performance out of myself every day, but different games have different circumstances. I definitely feel comfortable with this team. I feel like any given night anybody can step up and play well, and it just so happened that I was making shots tonight. Cibona is a different caliber team from the other two teams we’ve played, they’re a Euroleague team and they have a lot of talent. They fought hard all night. I think we played well at certain times, but we still have to correct some of the mistakes that we made.”
Jordan Farmar: “It was a great feeling, the energy was amazing. We felt it, the crowd picked us up and carried us through the beginning and we took it from there.” When asked to compare the atmosphere in Nokia to that at an NBA game, Farmar replied: “The atmosphere is much more like college basketball in America. The fans are into it the whole time, they love their team, and they try to actually be part of the game. We have a lot of work to do, but it’s good to go out there and get a win and try to continue to grow and get better.”
