Hapoel Jerusalem players celebrate winning the cup (Twitter, JerusalemBasket)
Shock in Maccabi Tel Aviv after the loss in the final of the State Cup 68:61 to Hapoel Jerusalem last night (Thursday).
The team members left the arena in the capital one by one with their sealed faces telling of the storm going on inside.
Maccabi presented its weakest offensive game of the season, precisely in the final game, and perhaps not surprisingly, since its opponent is considered one of the quality defensive teams that Israeli basketball has known in recent years.
The disappointment with the Maccabi Tel Aviv men was that the solutions were not found in the very wide squad available to coach Oded Ketch to subdue the Jerusalem defense.
"They play a strong defense, we couldn't get into our rhythm, we felt that on our field we were out of rhythm and it took us out of our usual positions. It's a learning experience for all of us, you can learn from losses and we'll have to build on it. We weren't in rhythm and it hurt us for sure," said Bonzi Coulson at the end of the game.
"It was embarrassing and humiliating."
Criticism of Ketch (Photo: Barney Ardov)
61 points in such an important game.
Maccabi is disappointed (Photo: Barney Ardov)
Most of the blame for the game was directed at the end of the game naturally towards the coach Oded Ketch, but nevertheless it seems that despite this loss his immediate status was not damaged.
"It was embarrassing and humiliating," said one of the people from Maccabi Tel Aviv on his way to the center, "they saw an inability to influence and find solutions, it just looked bad. Jerusalem was not moved by anything we were doing, it was there all the time, and we didn't know how to react. This is the role of coach, to find these solutions."
Ketch himself did not run away from responsibility, but at Maccabi he admitted that it was clear that he did not find the right formations throughout the game, "He tried formations with Sorkin, with Nibo, with Martin, without Martin, with Coulson, without Coulson, with and without Baldwin and also with Lorenzo. He kept trying to change, he just couldn't find what worked," the group concluded.
Maccabi also said that the coming period will be decisive for the future of the coach in the team, "We must not enter into a crisis at this point in time," said one of the team members in the wee hours of the night, "We have around the corner a series of critical games in the Euroleague. If we know how to enter the playoffs, and we will take Championship, maybe we can put this failure in the final behind us."
Suffered from severe pain.
Brown (Photo: Barney Ardov)
What didn't work?
Manko and the Yellows are frustrated (Photo: Barney Ardov)
Maccabi Tel Aviv will wait this morning to check the condition of Lorenzo Brown's injured ankle.
The guard was injured during the third quarter of the game, but continued to play and did not give up, but looked very sore at the end.
Brown, Bonzie Colson and Josh Niebo are the only players who came out clean from last night's game in terms of criticism, when the team members have quite a bit for the choice to dress Jarl Martin for the game, but they also admit that in light of the uneven entrance of Suleiman Breimo into the rotation, it was difficult to keep the Martin is out of the five foreigners.
"The 3-point fouls were significant, but I feel we lost in rebounding, we couldn't get stops. Obviously we can score better from the outside, defensively we could have done a better job," Colson tried to explain what didn't work last night, "we couldn't get into our offense. It happens, it's a big learning point for all of us, especially for me, to stay motivated and hungry to be a better player, I think we all have to learn from it. We'll have to grow from it as a team."
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Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball
Oded Ketch