Maccabi Tel Aviv came out very encouraged by the Menora Mivtachim Arena last night (Thursday) after the 79:90 victory over Hapoel Tel Aviv in the first game of the playoff finals, which raised them to 0-1 in the series, one victory away from winning the championship.
A look at the stat sheets reveals that in eight of the previous ten best-of-three playoff finals series, the team that won the first game went on to win the championship.
The Yellows dominated the action on the court throughout the game, utilizing their size and physicality under the baskets (28:38 on rebounds, 16 on offense), enjoyed a Jake Cohen highlight game alongside great ability from Wade Baldwin and displayed a strong defense that stopped the Reds on just 4 threes on 20%.
Jake Cohen. Excelled at Maccabi, photo: Alan Shaver
With the exception of Jordan McRae, who showed good ability, the rest of the Reds' key players struggled to influence the game offensively. Jacoben Brown was stopped for 8 points, Chinano Onuaku for 8 and Bar Timur for 2.
"It was a good game for us, we were very focused, we met our two goals - to prevent them from the running game and to control the rebound," Oded Katsch said. "Game 2 won't be easy, they're a talented team, and sometimes in an away game we're more focused, and that's what we need for the second game."
Beyond the fact that we are Maccabi Tel Aviv and want all the titles. The cup final was not easy for us and players understand that in order to turn the season from good to excellent you have to finish with a title. These players are competitive, we deserve it."
Jake Cohen, who had a great game with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, received compliments from his coach at the end: "Jake Cohen is great for us, it was an exceptional game for him on both sides of the game. He also showed defensive, offensive responsibility in the way they guarded us, most of the help they brought on the guards was one of our highest and Jake knew how to punish them, he was tremendous."
Ketch. His team came to the important game, photo: Alan Shaver
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On Sunday, the series will move to the Solomon Group Arena for the second game of the series. As reported in Israel Hayom last night, due to the bitter rivalry between the clubs and fan camps and in the shadow of the harsh scenes from the Israel State Cup final a few weeks ago, when thousands of fans broke into the grass at Sammy Ofer Stadium, senior sources in the industry believe that if Oded Katsch's pupils win the second game in the series, the plate-raising ceremony may be postponed and take place in a different location and not in an entire team arena. Due to the possible desire to avoid confrontations and difficult scenes.
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