First of all: a huge, huge, critical, championship-changing, dramatic change of direction for a five-year project.
It is permissible and desirable and important and obligatory to enjoy, cuddle, praise, bless, smile big and release all hardships.
And that's the beauty of team sports and European championships like this: two more lost balls, two more penalty fouls, another Finnish ball that would have rolled in, and we would sing here a lament, a funeral prayer and farewell words.
And yes it is completely legitimate, and this is sport at its best.
Two teams of similar talent, each with a talented NBA star and supporting cast, who stood for 15 rounds and wrestled until one remained victorious.
Fortunately, Danny did the finishing touches, and we weren't left with a bitter-cannon taste in our mouths.
Avdia
It was big, photo: FIBA
And now let's get down to the details.
After the poor preparation and the unpopulist statement of Guy Goodes at the end of the loss to Sweden, the eyes looked for the external changes.
Maybe five?
But Blatt and Avdia were still there, despite the expectation that they might be benched.
And Nimrod Levy came up to protect Markkanen, but because of the substitution defense it didn't really work.
Markkanen had a wonderful first quarter, with his coach allowing himself to take him out and bring him in for air.
The rotation didn't shrink as expected either, and already in the first quarter 10 players were sent to the field, with the two best players in preparation (at least offensively) - Sorkin and Madar - coming on last.
So, at least from the outside, no learning or change was observed at all, the first quarter looked like a direct continuation of the game against Sweden, and we scored 27 points in it.
a garden
The beginning was bad, photo: Reuters
But then something clicked.
Although Danny Avdia did not come off the bench in the first quarter, he did it in the second quarter.
And he entered a defensive task that gave him excellent focus - he hermetically closed Markkanen.
From that moment the flying Finn calmed down, and our team got back to business.
And the one who connected the attack to her was the old goat Guy Panini, who if not him.
Hits the three-pointer, delivers the right passes, and in general instills an atmosphere of confidence and wisdom.
The rotation stabilized and settled, and the composition of Blatt and the forwards continued into the third quarter as well, with Danny helping to lead the ball.
Nimrod Levy showed that he knows how to put the ball in the basket with shots close to the ring, very difficult shots in basketball, and that's what the Finns gave.
So we took
And above all - we started to fight in defense and get less than twenty in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
The fourth quarter was already a private show for Danny Avdia with the assisting team.
Like his breakthrough game in Turkey in the uniform of Maccabi Tel Aviv, with the dunk on Luigi Datuma, this time it was the game that broke the ceiling and crowned the team.
Gal Mekel and Avdia celebrate, photo: AP
Avdia arrived just in time, took the reins and led us to the land of choice.
A tremendous double-double of 23 points and 15 rebounds, an index of 31, and especially taking responsibility and performing the decisive actions.
Small penetrations and high dishes, critical rebounds, almost maximum exploitation of Markanen's defense.
Wonderful.
The authentic anger at Gal Mekel for not handing it to him at the end of the game was not true, Gal really wanted to hand it to him but Danny was not free enough.
So they both corrected in overtime with big actions.
Guy Goodes is a strong guy, was a strong player and is now a strong coach.
He has been under pressure since he took over the team, and he stands up to it bravely.
I expected him to keep his promise of changes and updates, but it happened late in the game.
The brave part was the (excessive) sacrifice of the best offensive player in the team, Yam Medar, and the reduction of the rotation to an almost permanent five.
All this should have been done before the game, but better late than never.
Goods.
Satisfied, photo: EPA
I feel that if Madar had gotten half the minutes of Tamir Blatt, who did give 10 assists but didn't hit from a distance and didn't really save, we would have won already in legal time.
Maybe Pennini played too much, or Sorkin played too little, but you never know of course, and it's good that the hierarchy worked out, regardless of the identity of the leads.
And it's good that Tomer Ginat returned to the all-powerful role in the defense, he was everywhere, and was the X factor that brought the victory.
Now the whole championship looks different, and we are already planning to reach Serbia 3:0 and attack Jokic in the low post.
How fun is the European Championship, how fun is it to win the first match.
The two times we've done it in the last twenty years, we've reached at least the round of 16.
And now we will concentrate on oranges.
Now everything looks different, photo: EPA
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