Maccabi’s coach after the loss to Eilat on the road: “Our focus was terrible”, Cohen: “They worked really hard and got us out of our comfort zone but we need to find ways to be better for sure”
“I don’t think it’s about the last minute, it’s about their fight”, said coach Neven Spahija. “We weren’t comfortable and waited to see how the game will end and that we will be winners just from walking on the court and not fighting on the court. We had three offensive rebounds and they had 14 or 15, and the 18 turnovers were not a result of any special pressure but only simple traps which is easy to resolve with a simple pass, but our focus was terrible”.
Coach added: “It’s not about analyzing the game as it happened to us all year so many times and we don’t learn from these mistakes it’s the DNA of this group; but we’re going to get back and work hard because it is impossible for this group to play this game like we played against Holon or Hapoel (i.e. derby) and now we came with this performance. For me it’s a shame, and this is the first time I use this word as a coach of Maccabi, we really need to apologize to the Maccabi franchise and fans, because this is a way to no way”.
“This was really a tough one, I thought we were right there but we didn’t execute down the stretch”, said Jake Cohen. “In the last minutes we made some mistakes and left a lot points out there, not getting enough defensive rebounds a couple of turnovers but that’s a part of the game and we got to learn and move on. I just think we need to execute a little better, get to our spots and hit some shots. Credit to Eilat they worked really hard and got us out of our comfort zone but we need to find ways to be better for sure. Nice to play with him again for sure it brought back some good memories but would have been nice to get a win and he feels the same”.
