Tom Nahum 12/02/2021 07:00
Suleiman Braimo disappointed (Radad Jabara)
The nightmarish season of Hapoel Jerusalem reached a new low last night (Thursday), when after the relegations from the FIBA Champions League and the Balkan League, the trophy holder in the last two years parted ways with the title after surrendering 90:84 to Maccabi Rishon Lezion in the state cup semifinals. Is the league only.
Although in the capital it is difficult to blame him for the situation of the team, but Dainius Adumaitis, who has not yet closed a month in the capital, recorded in his seventh game as Hapoel Jerusalem coach dismissed from a third factory after losing 79:73 to the same Maccabi Rishon Lezion in the final round of the first home stage -88: 83 to Limoges in his second game in the relegation from the Champions League. At the moment, Adumatis’ balance sheet in Jerusalem stands at 5 losses compared to only 2 wins.
Along with the criticism and great disappointment from the team and most of the players, in Jerusalem there were also quite a few voices that criticized the refereeing in the game, emphasizing a number of critical decisions, including those in the capital who argued for deprivation, while in the fourth quarter a number of controversial refereeing decisions were made. Suleiman Braimo continued the continuity of the basket and offense move, while Isaiah Taylor was given the continuity and an incident was recorded in which Rishon LeZion doubtfully managed to pass the half in 8 seconds, but the referees allowed the move to continue. Incidentally, all three incidents in question were not even monitored despite the critical timing in which they occurred.
Back in the game, after a balanced and unimpressive start, Jerusalem managed to open a double-digit lead of 11 points during the second quarter, but a terrible lack of concentration of Dainius Adumaitis ‘players allowed Guy Goodes’ oranges to return to the game and shrink to just 2 in the 1:10 half. Klila, which was riddled with critical errors of Jerusalem. In the third quarter, Jerusalem opened with an 8-point advantage, but once again suffocated and Rishon LeZion equalized at the end of the quarter and even took the lead in the fourth quarter, when an orange 9 advantage with 1:34 minutes to go overcame the outgoing trophy holder.
The capital understands that now they must lift the team so that there will be no mental collapse that will cause even the only title that Jerusalem can still fight for, within the league, to be lost. Also in the capital are considering how to act following the injury of Chris Kramer, who is suffering from a tear in his meniscus, will undergo surgery on Sunday and is expected to be out for 6 to 8 weeks, with the possibility of releasing Jamil Wilson, who continued to disappoint with 3 points (1 of 6 from the field). – 16.6%), 2 assists and 2 blocks only, and sign a new guard in his place, who will fill Kramer’s place until he returns.
Like Wilson, three of Jerusalem’s most prominent players in the past three years have failed to deliver the goods and have been disappointed. Although Jacob Brown provided 11 points, 10 assists and 4 rebounds, he scored only 1 of 10 (10%) for three, Tyson Thomas provided 7 points and only 4 rebounds and Tamir Blatt was stopped for only 5 points (2 from 5 from the field – 40%), along with 7 assists and 3 rebounds.
Jerusalem’s only two bright spots were Suleiman Braimo, who excelled with 27 points, 9 rebounds and assists and Malcolm Hill, who continued to significantly improve his personal ability recently after recovering and returning from injury with 23 points, 9 rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.
Suleiman Braimo He concluded the relegation from the cup and said: “This is a difficult day for us, if we had made a few fewer mistakes, scored a few more shots, a few more rebounds and a few stops in defense and I think we would have won, but the credit goes to Maccabi Rishon Lezion, they played hard and they deserve To be in the final. “
Decline in the last quarter: “I guess everyone saw what happened to us, but for me personally I think we needed to find some more ways to execute things and I think there were some times we got shots we wanted and they just did not come in and there were some times we did not read the game correctly, I think if we did a little “More as a team, we could have won this game.”
Disappointment: “I am very disappointed, I hate to lose, it does not matter if it is in a cup or a regular league game, so I hate to lose in general. It was a great game and I expected to win, I wanted to win and I played hard and I think we played hard as a team, but sometimes things just don’t go your way and that’s what happened this time. “
Status of the group: “I just think it’s a tough time, I think we have a good team and we believe in each other and play hard, but I just think it’s growth pains, a lot of changes and a lot of things are no longer the same, so like anything in life it takes time to adjust to it. “I think we as a team do our best to adapt to that and play in this situation of the Corona, a new coach and a new team, without fans and losses, there are many things that have happened to us, but I think we continue to work hard every day and get ourselves out of this situation.”
The fact that all that is left for Jerusalem this season is the league: “That’s exactly the point, we still have something to fight for and until we have something to fight for more, we will continue to fight.”
