Even when the season is almost over, Maccabi Tel Aviv wants to restore its status in the Euroleague: tomorrow (Thursday, 21:00, live on5SPORT), She will go into an away game against Zalgiris – and will try to recover from a streak of two losses in the Euroleague, as well as with a lone win in the last five games. Those who will not take part are Othello Hunter, who remains in Israel due to pain in the twin muscles. Ahead of the meeting and departure for Lithuania, Yannis Sapropoulos Speaking today at a press conference.
“We are playing against a team that still has chances to qualify for the playoffs and we will fight very hard to reduce its chances,” the coach said. “We expect a very tough game that will require a lot of us. This is why we need to be with high concentration and high energy. It is important for us to continue to struggle and adapt to energy to play good basketball and continue as we have played in the last two Premier League games. Favors. “
When asked how to maintain high tension after the chances have run out, he replied: “First of all we are not happy about this situation from where we came from. We have six more games, we want to finish them in the best way. That is one of the goals, keep it alive. We now had two Training between the games and we try to maintain high intensity and high motivation. “
The Greek added about the opponent: “Zalgiris is a team that does not give up, sometimes they do not start well and then in the second half they are much more dangerous. We have to be focused on the whole game, not just the second half. This is a team that mainly plays with energy. “If we don’t play well for 2-3 minutes, it’s enough for them to make life difficult not only for us, for each team.”
On the difference in the league compared to the Euroleague, he said: “I do not believe the Israeli league is weaker. There are more good teams with good staff. We built better staffs than last year, there is more competition now. I think the Euroleague has richer teams than others, they were less affected by the plague. “And because of that they kept a higher level for longer. Teams like CSKA, Real Madrid, Barcelona, suffered less damage from the virus.”