{"id":30232,"date":"2010-11-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/blatt-we-played-with-fire-in-our-eyes\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:36:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T05:36:04","slug":"blatt-we-played-with-fire-in-our-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/blatt-we-played-with-fire-in-our-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Blatt: \u201cWe played with fire in our eyes.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Amy Samin<\/SPAN>
<\/SPAN>
\u201cI\u2019m glad we took this game seriously.
We could have fallen into the trap of not taking our opponent seriously, and scaled down our game,\u201d said head coach <\/SPAN>David Blatt<\/SPAN> after the win against Asseco Prokom Gdynia.
\u201cWe came to the game with fire in our eyes and played outstanding defense.
We get a lot of love from the fans and the guys got excited and lost focus for a few minutes.
We started out a little too wild and that led to mistakes.
I mention that because the same thing could happen against Caja Laboral and that could cost us dearly.
It happened in the previous game against them and we can\u2019t let it happen again.
We need to come to the game relaxed and focused on both ends of the court.\u201d<\/SPAN>
<\/SPAN>
\u201cWe respected our opponent and we respected ourselves, and so we played the way we did,\u201d added the coach during the post-game press conference.
\u201cWe\u2019re working on defense.
Defense isn\u2019t just about legs, like they used to say in the past.
Of course athleticism helps, but defense is also about technique, judgment, and practice.
That\u2019s our identity today.
When I coached the Russian National Team we had this type of defense.\u201d<\/SPAN><\/P>

<\/EMBED><\/P><\/SPAN>

<\/SPAN>\u201cWe go deep to our bench and we get good contributions from those players,\u201d Blatt continued, then addressed the subject of Chuck Eidson. \u201cChuck is a very special player.
Before Maccabi signed him, I warmly recommended him because I played against him more than a few times while he was with Rytas.
I can\u2019t comment on what went on with him last year because I wasn\u2019t here and it wouldn\u2019t be fair, but this year Chuck is giving great performances, and a player who smiles is different from one who doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/SPAN>
<\/SPAN>
\u201cDerrick Sharp uses the expression \u201chunger and modesty\u201d and that\u2019s what we\u2019re about, exactly that,\u201d added the coach.
When asked about the future, Blatt said, \u201cI think that mathematically speaking we haven\u2019t advanced to the next stage, so let\u2019s hold our horses.
We\u2019re constantly thinking about the kind of reinforcement and the type of player we\u2019d like to bring without distorting the fabric of the team we have now, and that requires a lot of thought.
We have the game against Caja next week, and they\u2019re a team we have a tough time playing against, for a variety of reasons.
Our group in the Euroleague is very closely matched and unpredictable.\u201d<\/SPAN><\/P>

\"\"<\/SPAN><\/P>

<\/SPAN>MVP of the game, <\/SPAN>Chuck Eidson<\/SPAN> said, \u201cWe put on lots of defensive pressure; everybody contributed and that was really fun to watch and be a part of.
Defense is something our team has bought into, and that\u2019s the way we like to play.
We\u2019ve still got some work to do.
We\u2019ll do what we have to do.
If we finish first, okay.
We\u2019ll worry about the next round when it happens.\u201d
When asked whether Maccabi was a fun team to play on, Eidson said, \u201cWhen you have guys like this, really good guys, it makes it easier on the court.
These are all quality people so it\u2019s fun out there.\u201d<\/SPAN>
<\/SPAN>
Doron Perkins<\/SPAN> added, \u201cOur defense did real well today, we put a lot of pressure on them so that made a difference.\u201d
When asked if the team was a bit over-excited at tip off, playing in front of the home crowd, Perkins remarked, \u201cWe\u2019ve been coming out to good starts since the first game, it\u2019s been a staple of our team and if we keep coming out like that with the energy of the fans it\u2019s going to be great.\u201d<\/SPAN><\/P>

\"\"<\/SPAN><\/P>

<\/SPAN>samintranslations@yahoo.com<\/SPAN><\/A> <\/SPAN><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maccabi\u2019s head coach was satisfied after the win, and is already looking ahead to next week: \u201cWe started out a little too wild and that led to mistakes. We can\u2019t let that happen against Caja. We\u2019re hungry and modest.\u201d Chuck Eidson: \u201cEveryone contributed tonight, and it was really fun to see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-30232","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\/30232","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=30232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495771,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30232\/revisions\/495771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30232"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=30232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}