By Amy Samin<\/FONT> \u201cBy the skin of their teeth\u201d doesn\u2019t even begin to describe it. After the game, Maccabi head coach Pini Gershon<\/B> remarked, \u201cI don\u2019t think Bnei Hasharon needed to go to the line so many times. \u201cThere\u2019s a certain situation that we didn\u2019t need to get into, but we did get into it. \u201cWe\u2019re playing without Lasme, who is a real anchor for us on defense, and Dan (Shamir, coach of Bnei Hasharon) in his wisdom knew how to take advantage of that. \u201cWith all the respect that I have for Bnei Hasharon and Dan Shamir, there\u2019s not a fifty point difference between the teams; but in two of the three games we\u2019ve lost this season, it was with the same referee a few times. \u201cCome to the Final Four and see if we win. \u201cIt was a fifth game with a lot of pressure, the whole season hung in the balance and the balls weren\u2019t dropping like they do in practice. \u201cFrom the first game I said that in my opinion things don\u2019t only depend on us, and now I can explain what I meant after the first and fourth games; you don\u2019t have to agree with me.\u201d<\/FONT> \u201cIt\u2019s only natural that teams under pressure see a decline in their productivity because of the pressure, it happens to the better players. \u201cI\u2019m not worried about my own minutes,\u201d said Maccabi team captain Derrick Sharp<\/B>. \u201cI try to believe in myself and to do my best. Guy Pnini<\/B> added, \u201cThey saw how much pressure there was and that we weren\u2019t playing our basketball, but when you\u2019re playing for a symbol and you give your all, it works. \u201cThey had a good match-up with us, they took advantage of our deficiencies, but I\u2019m happy that in the end we got the job done. Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv head coach Pini Gershon was satisfied after his team\u2019s 71 \u2013 69 victory over Bnei Hasharon. \u201cI respect the fight they gave us here tonight.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-29631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495444,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29631\/revisions\/495444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29631"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=29631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/P>
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv escaped with a 71 \u2013 69 victory over Bnei Hasharon Monday night, taking the best-of-five series 3 games to 2 and qualifying for the Final Four, where they will face Barak Netanya (in the other game, Hapoel Jerusalem will meet Gilboa\/Galil).<\/FONT>
<\/P>
You did a character assassination on one of the judges with four minutes left in a game.
The call by Sammy Bachar that came with 3 \u2013 4 minutes left in the game was, in my opinion, blown into a big controversy; either it was a good call or it wasn\u2019t.
Go and check who the judges were in all of the games we\u2019ve lost.
First and foremost, I ask that you go and apologize to Sammy Bachar.
You did a character assassination on him; the fact that we lost two out of three games just this year with the same referee didn\u2019t even show up in the press.
What is this?
You show up at a game with a whistle and show how big of a hero you are, you\u2019re not afraid of Maccabi Tel Aviv?
I respect the fight that Bnei Hasharon gave us here tonight.\u201d<\/FONT>
<\/P>
In my humble opinion, there are things that don\u2019t just depend on us.
In a game with this much pressure, it\u2019s only natural that a team\u2019s production will go down.
It doesn\u2019t only happen to us.
If a soccer team can take the championship only in the 92nd<\/SUP> minute, we\u2019re also allowed to be down by ten with thirty minutes left.
In the last game, we got a technical foul from the official observer.
Go and count how many times that has ever happened.\u201d<\/FONT>
<\/P>
They have three good inside players, and for long periods during the series we had a hard time with that.
I think if they had had the team they do now from the beginning of the season, they wouldn\u2019t be in the place (8th<\/SUP> in the league) they are now.\u201d<\/FONT>
<\/P>
I\u2019m not accusing anyone, I\u2019m just telling you to go and check.
We\u2019ve had reactions from dedicated fans of Hapoel (Maccabi rival Hapoel Jerusalem) who say they haven\u2019t seen officiating like this in the Israeli league in a lot of years.\u201d<\/FONT>
<\/P>
We\u2019re the team with the best percentages from three point range.
I was speaking generally when I said to check with which officials we lost games.
The only thing I said was to go and check; do some investigative reporting.
Everyone says I complain about the officiating after we lose; as a matter of fact it\u2019s after a win that is the right time to do it.\u201d<\/FONT>
<\/P>
We were missing from three point range and they were missing from the free throw line, which is supposedly an easier shot.
It\u2019s okay that there\u2019s pressure in this kind of game.
The fact is that at the crucial time we did our jobs.
I don\u2019t think that the difference between the two teams is as great as it would seem from the percentages.\u201d<\/FONT>
<\/P>
<\/P>
I compliment Bnei Hasharon on the struggle they put up; they were a stubborn opponent and they had a part in how we looked; it could be that if they had scored with better percentages from the free throw line, the game would have ended differently.\u201d<\/FONT>
<\/P>
Thank God I was able to bring the crowd into the game, and to win it in the end.
We had one foot in the grave and the crowd got us out.
Pnini has a big heart.
We have to play with emotion.\u201d<\/FONT>
<\/P>
Our guys showed amazing character.
Bnei Hasharon were amazing, they deserve a lot of respect.
It was a good series for Israeli basketball.\u201d<\/FONT><\/P>
We\u2019re going into the Final Four after a tough series but with a good attitude.
We\u2019ve already shown that we\u2019re above this league.
Everyone should go back into their holes.\u201d<\/FONT>
samintranslations@yahoo.com<\/U><\/FONT><\/A> <\/FONT>
<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"