Hapoel Jerusalem wanted to get to the meeting with Maccabi Tel Aviv the next day when it is the only team in the Premier League that remains perfect, but Ness Ziona had other plans, and Brad Greenberg’s Oranges took advantage of a very weak evening of many key players in red, on their way to their first ever victory in Jerusalem, 83: 99.
A lot of things did not work on Oded Katash’s side. Tamir Blatt recorded a rare game in which he lost 5 balls, Malcolm Hill still did not return well from injury, Chris Kramer returned to the unstable shooting with just 2 threes out of 7 attempts, and Jamil Wilson, after his first good games, was too passive and finished with Only 6 points and only 4 shots in 23 minutes. After the game Wilson stayed on the floor for a long time and practiced his shooting along with assistant coach Daniel Lutz.
Despite the bad performance, Oded Katash Looks pretty calm at the end, and agreed that maybe the fact that his players finished some kind of mental record after the pair of games in Bosnia, and on Thursday the big game of the season against Maccabi Tel Aviv awaits them, influenced how they got to last night’s game. “I guess it has an effect. “We need a degree of modesty, it’s not that every game we win lightly. Every team that plays against us gets a boost of energy, both mentally and professionally. Part of being an athlete is knowing how to recover from such losses, we got our kick in the ass and I hope it is. It will do us good. ‘
Regarding his dependence on Jacoben Brown, who did not sign up for last night’s game, Katsch said: “From the moment he signed we knew the game depended on him but we proved we could play very well even without him. Its disadvantage can not be an excuse for losses. Malcolm Hill also still does not find the place, the hand still bothers him a bit. There is no reason why we should not have the mental ability to recover and come differently against Maccabi. “
The almost lone bright spot for Jerusalem was Adam Ariel, who scored 17 points, but unlike previous cases, this time he scored his points in a variety of ways, and versatility seems to be the key for him to develop into a whole and better player not just waiting for a shot from outside the arc. ‘I know I have to give more than the shot because everyone knows I’m shooting, and I did, and I work on it a lot every day. But it does not improve the disappointment from the loss, we must not be seen with him we were seen, and we feel that if until now the audience was missing, then now we feel it more and more. We are upset now, we will get up in the morning and work towards Maccabi, we know very well how important this game is for the club, I especially know. “
