“We played really clever in those last 5 minutes in terms of defense – we knew exactly how to defend their main weapons,” said the Serbian star. “As we all know, Mike [James] is very tough and Mirotic very experienced. So we were ready, and then offensively we made the shots.”
Motley echoed those sentiments, adding that Hapoel was particularly motivated to tighten up defensively after allowing an average of 94.7 points over its last three games.
“We weren’t happy with our defense,” admitted the center. “So we went to the film room, figured out some things we could do better, and tonight we did a really good job.”
That combination of effective offense and improved defense added up to Hapoel’s fifth win of a remarkable start to the season, but Coach Itoudis warned his players that there’s still a lot of work to do.
“We didn’t lose our faith. Even when they took over, we were composed,” he said. “I’m happy that we’re in the process of becoming a real team. That will not make us relaxed – on the contrary, we’ve got to build on it.”
With Micic and Motley as the foundation stones, there’s certainly a lot to build upon.