After eight consecutive victories in all formats, Hapoel Jerusalem's streak came to a halt yesterday (Friday) after it surrendered to Nes Ziona City 96:87 at the end of two overtimes, in one of the best games played so far this season in the league.
"We are close, a successful away game is a distance away from victory, but in the end they won. We are playing without a dominant coordinator and this is noticeable and affects us," said Aleksandar Džikić at the end.
"If we had a coordinator, you don't know how this game would have developed, certainly after Speedy Smith went out with five fouls. There were some basic rules that we set for ourselves and we didn't comply with them, and it bothers me."
At the club, we finished before the game with the goal of dictating a pace and preventing Elad Hassin's apprentices from generating points from bursts and second chances as they have been doing optimally so far from the start of the season, but the Oranges still managed to generate 19 points from turnovers and 14 from second chances en route to victory.
Dzikic yesterday, photo: Liron Moldovan
"We fought, but it's hard to play without Speedy two overtimes. Both teams made mistakes, they made a little less and that's why they won. We didn't play well enough defensively and conceded baskets that we don't usually get. We made mistakes that we don't usually make but we learn and learn from every loss ", noted Oz Blazer, who contributed 10 points and 6 rebounds.
The club knew the importance of Noam Dovara to the team formation and yesterday in his absence they felt it once again.
"This is the second game we are playing without him. Everyone knows how important he was to us, he is another coordinator who controls the pace of the game, but this is our reality right now and we will each have to make the leap without him. The season is still long," Blazer added.
After the match, the Reds will begin preparations for their next and critical game in the FIBA Champions League, when they will host Ludwigsburg on Tuesday in Germany. "This will be a new test in a situation that we have not been in before this season.
We have a lot of experienced players, we will finish going through this game and start preparing for the Germans to come and do our best because we have no other way," Dzi'kic concluded.
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