Yellow-blue-white. In a quote from the concluding training ahead of the Cup semi-final against Hapoel Holon, Oz Blazer He well described the future to come: “Tactics are nice, but in a trophy you win with your heart.” 24 hours later, the Maccabi Tel Aviv forward showed that he knew exactly what he was talking about, when he brought the heart, the soul, and yes, also a pair of you-know-what, and was the main factor in the champion’s huge comeback on the way to the final, with an excellent 19-point performance And a string of crucial baskets.
There was a lot of talk about Maccabi’s key players, such as Scotty Wilbkin or Othello Hunter, but the ones who brought the Yellows back to the finals after 3 years were the Israelis: alongside Blazer, Yuval Sussman (13 points, 8 rebounds) also gave a great game, including the important basket he put out Holon got the wind out of their sails towards the end of extra time, and John Dibertolomeo, who saved Maccabi with 5 steals and squeezed the most offenses in the team (6), positively took the “flush” that Mianis Sapropoulos snatched in one of the timeouts You’re the oldest here and make the most mistakes! “).
Seconds after the buzzer, Blazer Approached the team manager Ami Bitton and shouted in his direction: “That’s why I’m here! That’s why I’m here!”. A few minutes later, he said Sapropolus: “We brought him in because he is a fighter and because he has the quality and heart to play great games, and he showed it once again.”
“I decide who I sign up for the game.” For three quarters it did not look good for the champion, and the Yellows had a hard time dealing with Holon’s unconventional style of play. “We tried to do a lot of tactics,” he explained Sapropolus“We tried to control the pace of the game because Holon is a team that scores a lot. Currently, Holon plays the best basketball in the league after us. What brought about the turnaround was our pressure on the whole court that turned out to be very effective.”
Maccabi scored only 50 points in those three quarters, and in the first half received only 9 points from those who are supposed to lead the attack – Scotty Wilbkin and Elijah Bryant. In those minutes, the absence of Tyler Dorsey was well felt. When Sapropoulos was asked at the end by the writer of these lines whether in light of the first half it would not have been better in retrospect to register Dorsey for the game at the expense of another foreigner, he replied: “It’s a question that is a mistake. Ask it after the result is known. “What are you asking me? It’s unbelievable. We won the cup semi-final, and you ask me if I should have registered someone else? It’s my decision who to register. I registered who I believe we could have won the game with – and we won.”
Spuropoulos was later asked about Blazer’s status in the team in light of the excellent performance, and replied: “My job is not to make sure all the players are happy, but to win games. I do not say that in relation to Blazer but in general. It does not matter to me who plays 5, 10 or “15 minutes, our goal is to win the game, but you keep dealing with who is satisfied and who is not.”
Maccabi continues for another busy week. On Sunday, it will meet Holon again, this time in the league, just before it takes off for Italy for the first Euroleague game in almost three weeks, against Milan. Next Saturday she will play against Bnei Herzliya. The integration of TJ Klein, who registered for the game yesterday but is not a partner, will be slightly delayed due to his release to the Israeli national team in the bubble in Poland.
