{"id":503529,"date":"2019-03-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/defense-win-games\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T10:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:44:24","slug":"defense-win-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/defense-win-games\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDefense win games\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"responsive-video-container\" style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; margin-bottom: 20px;\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u4bXheOBQv0\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div style=\"direction: ltr;\">\n<div> \t\t<span style=\"font-size:14px;\">Maccabi went off to a great start in the domestic league\u2019s third round opener with an 86:74 home win versus Ness Ziona. After a close first half the yellows dictated the tempo in the third quarter and exploded in the fourth with a 17:0 run securing the home win. The crew in yellow and blue will now focus on their EuroLeague game against Herbalife Gran Canaria on Thursday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t\t<span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\u201cToday we played two different halves\u201d, said coach <strong>Giannis Sfairopoulos<\/strong>. \u201cThe first half we played for the fans, because we played only good offense and in the second half we played to win the game because we started to play defense. In the first half we had great offensive game,10\/15 three point shots, moving the ball well, finishing the open player to shoot, great statistics but we allowed our opponents to shoot 48 points&#8221;.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t\t<span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">&#8220;At halftime we discussed with the players that we need to change it because defense win games, and that\u2019s what happened in the end&#8221;, said the coach. &#8220;We allowed only a total of 26 points in the second half and this is why we won the game, we played good defense and we dominated the game from our good defense. It\u2019s good that we start the third round with a win especially against Ness Ziona which is a fighting team, they fight all the games and we will continue and finish the third round the best way we can &#8211; in the first place\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t\t<span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\u201cThey\u2019re a great team and they\u2019ve got a lot of offensive power\u201d, said <strong>Johnny O\u2019Bryant<\/strong>. \u201cWe knew coming out we had to limit their shooting, they got off to a great start in the first half. In the second half we kinda got into it and made it tough for them and we pulled out with the win\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maccabi\u2019s head coach Giannis Sfairopoulos after the home win against Ness Ziona: \u201cWe allowed only a total of 26 points in the second half\u201d. Johnny O\u2019Bryant: \u201cWe had to limit their shooting\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":503526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-503529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel-league"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503529","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=503529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503532,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503529\/revisions\/503532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503529"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=503529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}