“We really missed playing here,” admitted forward Roman Sorkin, who powered his team’s efforts with 13 points and 8 rebounds. “Every night we play here, it’s amazing energy and an amazing atmosphere. We’re happy to play here, and it just means more to us to play at home.”
Those views were echoed by Tamir Blatt, who scored all his 15 points from long range as he converted a personal best 5 of his 6 three-point attempts in an isolated example of offensive efficiency.
“The energy in the arena was unbelievable,” said the playmaker. “We’re blessed to have these fans pushing us, and we’re enjoying this kind of atmosphere.”
Fans can only do so much, of course, and coach Kattash emphasised the defensive work undertaken by his players.
“Great effort,” Kattash noted. “In the second half, defensively we stepped up, and that was a team effort. It wasn’t always nice, especially offensively – we could do better. But still, we were fighting, we stuck to the game plan and I like the effort. We had a specific game plan against Kostas Sloukas and we did a good job on him.”
The win keeps Maccabi hoping that it can recover from its terrible 2-8 start and climb all the way into the playoff places, but Kattash certainly wasn’t getting carried away as he concluded: “Every game we have to keep improving and be better for our next challenges.”
There are indeed many challenges ahead and Maccabi’s chances of making the postseason are still slim, but if the kind of defensive effort displayed on Thursday night becomes a weekly habit, you never know.