Only a day has passed since Maccabi Tel Aviv lost in overtime dramatically to Olympiacos, and tomorrow (Thursday) the Yellows will host Basconia in the 20th round of the Euroleague, hoping to erase the loss with a win in a game of great importance for promotion to the next stage.
Ahead of the game the coach said Yannis Sapropoulos: “This is our second game this week, and tomorrow we will meet Basconia, which is a very good team. We respect it, but for us it is the moment to recover from yesterday’s loss and be ready to fight the upcoming game. “Animal. We have to keep going. We have another important game.”
The Greek continued: “Throughout the Euroleague there are a lot of ups and downs for all the teams. Basconia had big games – like against CSKA recently. In other games she was less good. We need to concentrate on ourselves, respect the opponent and not underestimate her. We have to be ready to fight for the victory. “
How critical tomorrow’s game is: “I do not believe there is no tomorrow, insist on what I always say – progress from game to game. If we do not think this way, we will lose direction. We should only concentrate on the upcoming game.”
Is the attack the key: “Not only that, but also the defense. When you play well on defense, you get into the rhythm on offense. Just as we kept well in the first game against Basconia, we also had games that were excellent on offense.”
About Yuval Sussman: “The players who were injured are still not at their peak fitness, both Caspi and Dibertolomao. Everyone is ready to play, but needs the time to get into the rhythm. We support and believe in them, know they will play well and we do everything we can to help them play well.”
“We have to play a much better attack tomorrow, our first half yesterday was very good both defensively and offensively, we need stability, to take care of the little things that cost us a loss,” Sapropolos concluded.