The Yellow & Blue summarized the win over Eilat as they look ahead to the State Cup game on Monday. Ante Zizic: “The chemistry with my teammates is growing, they are finding me better”
Three and a half months after winning the Israeli championship, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv began the 2020/21 Israeli Winner League with an 86:74 home victory over Hapoel Eilat in Menora Mivtachim Arena. The Yellow & Blue check down their first game of the loaded week that will feature Maccabi Ashdod on Monday in the State Cup and end on Thursday at home vs. Zalgiris Kaunas.
“Overall, we played really well for most of the minutes starting great defensively, and that was our first goal coming into tonight”, Said head Giannis Sfairopoulos after the win. “In the first half we disorganized them, in the second half they found the solutions, but from the end of the third period we played good defensively, and in general, we played really smart offensively”.
Zizic’s development: “For our league, he’s very important because he has the quality to play inside the paint, and it’s tough to stop him, but the same could be said about him in the EuroLeague competition. He’s picking it up, he’s doing a really great job, improving in comparison to the first games a month ago. As long as we will play him, he will be better and better”.
Sandy Cohen’s performance: “I’m pleased with him because he now understands what I ask from him. Last year he was with us, but he didn’t have the opportunity to play, and now he’s adjusted to the philosophy, he started well defensively, and offensively he was very good. His presence was significant for us tonight”.
Ante Zizic, who finished the night with 24 points and nine rebounds, spoke after his first performance in the domestic league: “I’m proud of the guys and the way we started the Israeli league after missing some vital players. Today we played on and off, in some points we played great, and in some, we need to play better but all round we won the game, and that is the most important”.
Feeling more comfortable on the court: “The chemistry with my teammates is growing, and they are finding me better, and tonight I got some easy points. Today was my day”.
On the tough scheduled week: “We’re professionals. At the end of the day, we play what we like to do, so we have to be ready every single night”.
