David Blatt analyzed Maccabi’s loss in Milan: “The most significant thing about this game is that we let a bad day on offense affect our defense.” Eliyahu: “My abilities don’t comfort me, I only care about winning.”
By Amy Samin
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s head coach David Blatt said after the game, “It wasn’t an easy game, and that stems from the fact that we moved away from all the things we’re good at, like playing a team game, moving the ball well, performing well in the transition game and the standing game. Perhaps the most significant thing about this game is that we let a bad day on offense affect our defense. We just kind of lost ourselves on defense and that’s the kind of thing you just can’t let happen. There were times when we guarded and put on the pressure like we know how to do, and that’s when we were able to get back into the game. But that didn’t happen enough, and we weren’t consistent; that’s no way to win an away game, certainly not here in Milan. We’ll learn from our mistakes and move on.”
Lior Eliyahu, who led Maccabi’s scorers with 23 points, said, “It’s our first loss this season, and it’s definitely not a good feeling, but it’s a long season and we need to take these things in proportion. We have another game in another two days. We knew it would be tough here in Milan; this summer they built a really strong team, but all of us definitely need to come to these games more prepared in the future. My abilities don’t comfort me, I only care about winning.”
Jordan Farmar: “It was a really hard game, you have to give credit to Milan, they really played good basketball. There’s no doubt that we need to improve as a team, and personally I need to be playing a lot better. I promise you that will happen. We learned a good lesson today and I’m sure we’ll come to the right conclusions and improve; everything will get better.”
David Blu: “It’s a tough loss, but it’s just the first Euroleague game in a long season. We can play much better basketball than we did, and I have no doubt we’ll get a hold of ourselves and improve in the coming games. I really believe in our team.”
