Big disappointment in Maccabi Tel Aviv after the 89:87 to Olympiacos: "This game was in our hands and we let him run away", "Hard loss, we give gifts to the opponent"
A painful loss for the Yellows
Photography:
Alan Shiver
1.
Maccabi Tel Aviv planned to leave the double week with a pair of victories that would significantly improve their position in the battle for promotion to the Euroleague quarterfinals.
So there was a lot of disappointment last night (Tuesday) after the 89:87 to Olympiacos that lowered them to an 11: 8 balance, a distance of 2.5 wins from eighth place.
Yannis Sapropoulos understood the critical consequences that this game could have and therefore did not seem calm at the end.
When asked at the press conference what are the reasons for the close losses time and time again, he replied: "I will analyze the game with my players and not with you, I will tell them what I want to see differently".
2.
Since being injured under the eye in the game against Hapoel Jerusalem on December 30, Othello Hunter has neither played nor trained.
The initial assessment was that he would only return next week for the game against Real Madrid, but the chin recovered faster and on the morning of the game informed the professional and medical team that he was fit to play.
It's hard to believe that someone planned to play 21 minutes, but in such an important game that being dragged into overtime didn't really have a choice, but in the end his double-double wasn't enough either.
Unlike our coach, Hunter tried to answer why he and his teammates lose in the close games: "We lose a lot of balls. We need to know how to play together and be better. In the end we will win the close game, but the problem is that we lose the games we must win."
Do you think that in light of the results you still have a chance to qualify for the playoffs?
"I don't care who is in front of us, we can win against any team, we have to keep building ourselves to get to the playoffs. We have no doubt about our ability to get there, maybe you have, but we don't."
Also Tyler Dorsey who again showed instability and five days after the excellent game against Alba Berlin, looked bad, spoke openly: "We missed a lot of free throws, including my shots, and these are things we give as a gift to the opponent. It is a hard loss but must recover towards Thursday. "We lost games for small mistakes in the end, free throws, a mistake on defense. This game was also in our hands and we let it escape."
3.
Ten players shared last 8 minutes and up, but only seven have contributed significantly.
The Yellows' professional team will have to think about how to get more contribution from more players.
Especially in a double week with two hard and intense games within 48 hours.
The opponent on Thursday in Asconia will arrive as an injured animal after being defeated by 20 points against Fenerbahce and if Maccabi Tel Aviv does not arrive ready it could suffer another loss against a direct opponent in the fight for the playoffs, then Hunter will also have a hard time talking about chances of immigration.