"Bad loss, such a thing must not happen" Israel today

1. A big

disappointment for Maccabi Tel Aviv after the loss last night (Thursday) 75:63 to the Red Star Belgrade in one of the weak offensive displays shown by the Yellows at Menora Mivtachim Hall for many years.

An ability that caused hundreds of fans to leave the hall long minutes before the final whistle.

Yannis Sapropoulos' team looked bad at all stages of the game and did not lead even once against a team that is considered one of the weakest in the factory.

"It's a bad loss and it's a shame it happened in our house," the Greek coach admitted.

"But it's a long way to go. It's too early to cry, we'll have to work harder and learn from our mistakes. We need to learn from this game and not let it happen again."

"The worst thing that has happened is that we have allowed so many easy baskets," Sapropolos added.

"We did not fight on defense, we gave them easy baskets, so many easy baskets, because of the loss of defensive concentration. I know our attack was not good, but when the opponent hits easily then it is difficult to be good on offense as well. It's easy, and not to lose so many balls and make better decisions. "

2.

The Greek coach may be talking about the defense not being good enough, but most of the hall's occupants yesterday put on a terribly weak offensive display.

Pay attention to the numbers.

In two consecutive games on the home field, Maccabi does not reach 70 points, a figure that has not been remembered for many years at the yellow club.

The Yellows threw only 30 shots for 2 and scored a low percentage of 36.7, delivering only 11 assists compared to 14 turnovers, while opposite the Red Star delivered 17 assists and lost 12 balls.

The Serbs also scored almost 60 percent to 2, a figure that shows the damage defense within the paint.

In short, neither defense nor attack.

Yesterday, probably for the first time since Sapropoulos' appointment as coach almost three years ago, cries were heard from the stands "Yannis home".

It should be noted that these are individual fans and that dozens of fans silenced them with shouts of contempt and encouraged the Greek coach despite the loss.

"We are not in our good shape," the coach tried to explain at the end.

"Feeling the effect of the Corona is still in the team. This is not an excuse, this is the reality. We are not ready to play yet."

Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, Photo: Alan Shiver,

3. The

almost only bright spot was the ability of the new acquisition Mathias to leave.

The French chin, who only joined training on Sunday, has looked in good shape in recent days and also contributed his share of the game with 16 points (8 out of 10 from the penalty line) and an index of 21, the highest in the team.

"There was a great atmosphere, the game was not good and the atmosphere is still crazy," the actor said.

"We play here for the audience, and we have to respect that, we have to respect the people who come to see us. We have to fight for them. 11,000 people paid money to see us and we have to respect them, but we did not do a good enough job and we have a long way to go. More later. "

4.

Dragan Bender, who landed in Israel in the last day after spending the last few months in Croatia, appeared in the hall yesterday and watched his teammates from the sidelines.

The Croatian forward will continue the rehabilitation process from the serious injury to his knee under the supervision of the medical staff of Maccabi Tel Aviv, but his recovery period will continue for a few more months before he returns to the pitches.

5. In the

best tradition, one of the standouts in the opposing team was a yellow ex.

The Red Star says that Knight Walters was full of motivation before the game, perhaps as a reminder that Maccabi Tel Aviv did not extend his contract in the summer of 2020 due to a past injury. The player was not one hundred percent qualified in recent days,

"We've played with Knight before and we know he's a player piece," Angelo Cloiaro said.

"It's fun to play against your former friends, but when you're on the pitch you don't think about it too much. He scored three threes that pretty much closed out the game. He had a good game."

Photo: Alan Shiver,