{"id":506987,"date":"2021-03-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/it-was-a-completely-different-feeling-to-have-here-1000-supporters\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T12:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:00:19","slug":"it-was-a-completely-different-feeling-to-have-here-1000-supporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/it-was-a-completely-different-feeling-to-have-here-1000-supporters\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;It was a completely different feeling to have here 1,000 supporters&#8221;"},"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\/Pi3A-iBhYkw\" 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<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-family: \" segoe ui web system-ui roboto neue sans-serif font-size: color: rgb margin-top: margin-bottom:> \t<span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"margin: 0pt 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: inherit;\">With #Itanu member&#8217;s names on their jerseys and 1000 fans in the Menora Mivtachim Arena stands, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv&#8217;s players gave their hearts with a convincing 96:74 performance over Ironi Ness Ziona. With their 8th consecutive home win in the Israeli Winner League, the Yellow &amp; Blue improved their record to 15 wins compared to 3 losses, keeping their spot at the top of the standings. Maccabi&#8217;s next challenge comes on Tuesday as they&#8217;ll host Anadolu Efes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Maccabi struggled to run away from the Oranges in the first half, receiving excellent production from Wayne Selden, who notched 17 first-half points. However, the second half was a different story thanks to Scottie Wilbekin, who produced 16 points and 7 assists. Dragan Bender had another outstanding performance against the Oranges finishing the night with 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Tyler Dorsey added 14 points, and Chris Jones contributed 13 points and 5 assists.<\/p>\n<p> \t<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; margin: 0pt 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">&#8220;It was very important for us to perform the way we did in front of the number of fans that came out tonight and with the #Itanu jerseys&#8221;, Stated head coach&nbsp;<\/span><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;\">Giannis Sfairopoulos<\/strong><span style=\"color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; margin: 0pt 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">&nbsp;after the win. &#8220;I&#8217;m delighted we had a very good game against a good team, giving happiness to our fans, it was a completely different feeling to have here 1000 supporters, and hopefully, the numbers will increase. We performed a complete game on both ends of the court for most of the contest, and from here, we continue to our next game against Anadolu Efes&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">The Greek coach spoke about Bender&#8217;s performance: &#8220;Dragan is taking advantage of his length protecting the paint really well, and he&#8217;s doing this understanding the tactics behind the plays being in the right place in the right moment&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p> \t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"980\" height=\"420\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/casspi-5.jpg\" style=\"width: 980px; height: 420px;\" class=\"wp-image-506985 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/casspi-5.jpg 980w, https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/casspi-5-300x129.jpg 300w, https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/casspi-5-768x329.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; margin: 0pt 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">&#8220;To have this many people here is amazing as it feels different and even unfamiliar playing so much time without fans&#8221;, Added the player of the game&nbsp;<\/span><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;\">Dragan Bender<\/strong><span style=\"color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; margin: 0pt 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">. &#8220;We are thrilled having them back, and tonight, wearing these jerseys was a special occasion. I&#8217;m happy we came out focused and got the win&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; margin: 0pt 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">&#8220;It was nice having more fans than regular, showing our appreciation to them, getting the win was big for us, especially with their names on our jerseys&#8221;, Said&nbsp;<\/span><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;\">Chris Jones<\/strong><span style=\"color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; margin: 0pt 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;\">&nbsp;at the postgame press conference. &#8220;Protecting the paint was big for us, and slowing them down in the second half helped us getting scores on the other end&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Yellow &#038; Blue summarized the home win over Ness Ziona. Sfairopoulos: &#8220;We performed a complete game on both ends of the court for most of the contest&#8221;. Jones: &#8220;Slowing them down in the second half helped us getting scores on the other end&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":471110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-506987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-54"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506987","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=506987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506989,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506987\/revisions\/506989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506987"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=506987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}