Hapoel Tel Aviv 
Maccabi Tel Aviv Hapoel Tel Aviv
Made/Att
Made/Att
Made/Att
DEF OFF TOT
CM RV
FV AG
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Made/Att
Made/Att
Made/Att
DEF OFF TOT
CM RV
FV AG
"We need to do our job the best way we can"
Maccabi's head coach Giannis Sfairopoulos ahead of playoff game 2 against Hapoel: "We need to play together". Tarik Black: "It all starts on defense, defense wins championships"
“We know that it’s derby and that there will be a tough atmosphere”, said coach Giannis Sfairopoulos. “We need to stay focus, we know how it’s going to be. Basketball wise we know them and they know us; we need to do our job the best way we can”.
About Maccabi’s advantage in the paint coach Sfairopoulos said: “We are very athletic, we need to use our advantages not just with our bigs but with all the players. I think that defensively we need to play together and cooperate in order to stop the good things of our opponents, and on the offensive end we need to take advantage of our speed and our athleticism to attack and to play our game in one on one and in fastbreaks”.
“Hapoel is playing very good as a team”, coach concluded. “They are a tough team that fights, they have fighters, shooters in different positions, I don’t think that we need to isolate one or two of them, we need to do a good job on all of them because they have 8-9 players in a very high level and we need to play against all of them”.
Regarding the problems in Greek basketball with Olympiacos and the implications on the Israeli basketball, coach Sfairopoulos said: “I don’t know the culture and the mentality of the decision makers here, I’m still not here enough time to address this matter, I’m still learning the league in Israel, the atmosphere, and the consequences. I think that in general, not just in Israel or in Greece, teams are more demanding for equal chances, I think that in general we need to be wiser and think about how we need to do but for sure we need to change because basketball need to move forward to the future that will have new ideas and new ways that will be more attractive in how games are played”.
“I believe that basketball should progress all the time, you need to find new ideas and they need to be more attractive. I was in Olympiacos and I know that these things happen all the time, not just this season, they’ve tried to solve it in various ways an when it didn’t work they went for the extreme”.
Tarik Black spoke of the two overtime derbies: “The matchup hasn’t changed, the rosters remain the same, and the environment definitely plays into it and there were some circumstances that took place during the game that played into out of the game and the outcome of it and how it was played out, but we have to move forward, we’re looking ahead there’s a new playoff game”.
Regarding the keys to win the series Tarik said: “It all starts on defense, defense wins championships, and it is true to me and to all the players. It’s a team effort, the players helped me on defense and I helped them, it’s not a one man show, we all wear the Maccabi jersey together, we want to win the championship together and to come to every gym we play in as a team and as one unit, and if we do that together it’ll be very hard to stop us”.
Zoos, Cohen and Scottie lifts Maccabi over Hapoel
A 28:15 fourth quarter was enough to secure the justified away win for Maccabi. The crew in yellow and blue was led by Cohen (21P, 3R & 4A) and Scottie (19P, 2R, 4A & 3S)
Coach Sfairopoulos’ starting five: Wilbekin, Zoosman, Kane, Cohen and Black. Zoosman hit the first dagger in the game sparking the yellow offense to an early 2:10 lead. Ginat scored five points to keep the reds closer to the crew in yellow and blue (7:10). Cohen kept Maccabi ahead but Ginat and Howell reacted for the reds making it 14:16. Douglas scored back to back threes to put Hapoel ahead 20:18 Stephens was the last to score in the first quarter in a fastbreak to give his team the 22:19 lead after 10 minutes.
Scottie scored at the beginning of the second quarter but Ginat reacted from deep, increasing the locals’ lead to 21:25. Both teams had to get their points from the free throw line with neither one of the sides really being able to capitalize as Hapoel kept their lead (31:28). The yellows manage to get stops on defense and converted them beautifully to great offensive rhythm with Tarik being the man for coach Sfairopoulos (36:36). Tyus managed to give the visitors the 37:38 edge at halftime.
Douglas started the third quarter scoring five points to put the locals ahead, Cohen and Zoosman reacted but Douglas scored from deep keeping his team ahead 47:45. The heavyweight bout continued with Zoosman and Scottie hitting back to back threes to spark the offense in yellow and blue forcing coach Franco to call for a timeout with the scoreboard showing 49:53. Madar and Howell tied the game but Zoosman managed to keep Maccabi ahead 55:57 with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter. Douglas was the last to score in the third quarter making it a tie (57:57).
Roll and Zoosman scored to give the yellows the 60:62 edge; Johnny increased Maccabi’s lead, Limonad reacted and thus the sides started another round of trading blows with Scottie coming up big knocking down huge daggers to put Maccabi ahead 67:72. Limonad made both of his free throws but Cohen and Black answered with a 6:0 run making it 69:78 with just over two minutes remaining in the game. From that point on there was only one team on the court as the yellows secure the 72:85 away win.
