After qualifying for the playoffs with a victory over Siena, Maccabi’s head coach said: “Most of our players outdid themselves. A quarter like we had this evening hasn’t been seen here in a long time.” Raviv Limonad: “We achieved something great for the club.” Siena coach Simone Pianigiani: “We’re out of the playoffs, but I know my players gave their all.”
By Amy Samin
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv faced a tough challenge, and more than rose to the occasion.
In Thursday night’s game against Montepaschi Siena, Pini Gershon’s players put on the biggest quarter ever in the history of the club (scoring 43 points), and winning 97 – 82 at Nokia Arena, thereby erasing the loss they suffered in an earlier game in Italy.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid defeated Efes Pilsen in Turkey, securing their own place in the quarterfinals.
Maccabi’s next task is to steal a win against Real in Madrid and secure the top spot in Group F; if they fail, they can expect to face a best-of-three against the intimidating Barcelona.
Pini Gershon praised his players after the game: “No offense, but I expected a little more from the crowd tonight; the fans were okay in the decisive moments.
We played the smartest game possible in the fourth quarter.
It wasn’t a 15 point game, more like 5 or 7, but if we hadn’t had so many turnovers in the first half, our lead would have been bigger earlier on.”
“Most of our players outdid themselves in the crucial moments.
I hope that this time was only 50% and in the next game we’ll finish the job.
Obviously it will be tough in Madrid, but you can’t look back, only ahead.
In the second half we made the minimum number of mistakes.
The most important thing was to keep everyone focused, because Siena is a team that can heat up quickly.
We did a good job guarding McIntyre, Hawkins and Sato, and kept them below their averages.”
“The crowd showed up for the fourth quarter, just like us.
The last thing I want is a problem with the fans, and in the fourth quarter we played a very exciting game, but in a game this important I expect 11,000 fans to be on their feet the whole game.”
“Three teams from our previous group are going to the playoffs,” the coach added.
“That shows you that the first round, and also this one, were no picnic.
We ended up in two tough groups, and if God wills it, we’ll be in the Final Four.
If we win in Madrid, we’ve done something great; if not we’ll do our best from second place.
We’re still in a tough position.
There are better teams than ours that didn’t qualify, and I’d be happy if there wasn’t a knock out at this point, because there are also teams in the Top 8 that aren’t as good as we are.”
Alan Anderson, who was MVP with 24 points, said: “I was a little disappointing in the third quarter, so I’m happy that in the fourth quarter everything worked.
A real leader on the court doesn’t wait for good things to happen, he makes them happen.
We have a lot of great players who can make the big shots; we just have to create those shots for them.”
Center D’or Fischer, who had an excellent defensive game, said, “It was an amazing game.
I think that in the moments when we needed the crowd most, they gave us their all. We had a tough three quarters, and if you want to be precise, a tough three and a half quarters.
I didn’t believe we’d finish the game with a 15 point lead; in fact I didn’t think at all about point spread, I just wanted to win and I’m happy we did.
Next week we’re going to Madrid to win; we want first place in our group.
That’s been our goal since the start of this season and right now we’re as happy as can be,” concluded the center.
Point guard Doron Perkins added: “The match-up against McIntyre wasn’t as easy this time as it was in the game in Italy, but in the end that wasn’t what’s important.
I’m happy that we won tonight and that we did what we had to.
Our goal against Real Madrid next week is to win; that’s always Maccabi’s goal.
We’re not really thinking about who we’ll play against later; we can play against any team.”
David Bluthenthal added, “It was a great game.
We had a tough time in the first three quarters and we made some mistakes, but what’s important is that in the crucial minutes at the end of the game, we outdid ourselves and played almost without any mistakes.
We’ve taken an important step towards the playoffs, and next week we want to also beat Real Madrid in order to finish in first place in our group.
It won’t be an easy game, but we’re coming to it with character and a will to win and we hope to do it.”
Andrew Wisniewski concluded, “We’re really excited about the playoffs.
This was one of our best team efforts of the season.
We’re happy right now because there were people who thought we wouldn’t make it to the playoffs.
We have a tough game against Real coming up and we need to keep working hard.
This was a big test of our character, and we showed we’ve got a lot of it.”
Guy Pnini, who was the only Israeli to score in the game (two points in 19 minutes) said, “All week we talked about what a fight this would be.
We watched the game between Siena and Real; there was a lot of rough play but not much basketball.
We prepared for that kind of game.
There was a boxing match here, for three and a half quarters they didn’t let up.
Thanks to the crowd and our character, we opened things up at the end.”
Raviv Limonad, who played for two minutes, added, “You can’t ignore it, we achieved something great for the club.
It’s an honor to be one of the eight best teams in Europe.
Now we need to win in Madrid. I think that we can get to the Final Four.”
At the press conference after the game, Siena head coach Simone Pianigiani said, “What happened at the end of the game isn’t clear.
The game was pretty equal, we played well, we controlled the game, we attacked like we should, and we did what we’d planned.
Unfortunately, we missed open shots, we turned over the ball, and Maccabi took advantage.
We missed free throws, and games like this are decided by little things.
We missed our real chance to qualify for the playoffs in the last two minutes of the game in Madrid.”
“That’s basketball, and that’s the Euroleague,” Pianigiani continued.
“We lost the game in the last few minutes and let them win by 15 points.
We had no energy at the end.
We knew the situation in the group, and we knew we had to stay focused for the entire 40 minutes in every game, and that’s the reason we’re out of it.
I congratulate Maccabi.
It’s over for us, but we showed everyone in Europe that we play well and I have nothing bad to say about my players.”
The coach also talked about Maccabi’s next steps: “It matters if you finish in first or second place in the group. Barcelona is the best team in Europe, and the home court advantage is important for Maccabi.
Everyone knows what it’s like here.
Maccabi has a tradition, and anything can happen.”
