{"id":507339,"date":"2021-05-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/we-need-to-shift-our-focus-and-be-ready-for-thursday\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T12:05:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:05:41","slug":"we-need-to-shift-our-focus-and-be-ready-for-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/we-need-to-shift-our-focus-and-be-ready-for-thursday\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;We need to shift our focus and be ready for Thursday&#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\/PlEdSq10A0U\" 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\"> \t<span style=\"font-size:14px;\">Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv concluded the Israeli Winner League regular season with a dramatic road defeat on Monday night to Hapoel Jerusalem 82:83. Adam Ariel&#8217;s buzzer-beating three-pointer led to the Israeli champions&#8217; sixth loss this season as Giannis Sfairopoulos&#8217;s squad will make a quick mindset switch towards Thursday when they meet Maccabi Rishon Le&#8217;Zion in the State Cup Finals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">The game was delayed by 45 minutes due to complications issues in the 24-second clock. After the long wait, Maccabi started off slow but still went down to the break with a slim 2 point advantage. Similar to the last two victories, Giannis Sfairopoulos&#8217;s unit came out determined and much more focused in the first minutes of the second half, going on a 17:4 run. Still, Jerusalem narrowed the gap down to 6 by the end of the quarter and stayed close until the final seconds, which gave them a chance for Ariel&#8217;s last-second winning shot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Scottie Wilbekin led the Yellow &amp; Blue with an impressive double-double, scoring 27 points while grabbing 10 rebounds. Angelo Caloiaro (7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals), Oz Blayzer (4 rebounds), and Chris Jones each contributed 10 points in the defeat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">&#8220;Defensively, we weren&#8217;t good allowing easy points. We emphasized at halftime the importance of locking it in on the defensive front&#8221;, Said head coach&nbsp;<strong>Giannis Sfairopoulos<\/strong>&nbsp;what the team was missing tonight. &#8220;In the first minutes of the second half, we were able to make that switch gaining a comfortable double-digit advantage, but then we took our leg off the pedal, giving Jerusalem opportunities to come back to the game, and they did that with big shots&#8221;.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">About the way, the regular season came to an end and the tasks as we advance: &#8220;We are happy we finished the regular season in first place with a three-game difference between the second-placed team. Before the playoffs, we need to shift our focus and be ready to play for a title on Thursday&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> \t<span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">&#8220;We knew Jerusalem would fight, and as coach said before, we didn&#8217;t play great&#8221;, Added&nbsp;<strong>Angelo Caloiaro<\/strong>, who finished an efficient game of 10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what they were playing in terms of seeding wise. Obviously, we had first place locked up, but we had to go in with pride, and we didn&#8217;t do that tonight. It&#8217;s a wake-up call no matter who is on the court, you have to come ready, so we will be ready come Thursday&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Yellow &#038; Blue summarised the dramatic loss in the capital and spoke about getting ready for the State Cup Finals. Sfairopoulos: &#8220;Defensively, we weren&#8217;t good allowing easy points&#8221;. Caloiaro: &#8220;It&#8217;s a wake-up call, we will be ready come Thursday&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":507337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-507339","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\/507339","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=507339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507341,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507339\/revisions\/507341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507339"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=507339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}