By Amy Samin

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s head coach Guy Goodes, who faced his coach and teacher last night (Sunday), said at the game’s conclusion: “After four years of working so closely with someone, it’s quite an experience to play against him. I felt like I was playing against myself, but without LeBron and Kyrie Irving. The most important thing now is to wish Cleveland and David the very best of luck in the new year.”

“It was very exciting. We opened well, and in the first half we stayed in the picture. After halftime they ran away with the game, we missed a lot of open shots and started playing catch up. Anyway, we can find some good things in the game. We need to check our level of intensity, although we were playing against one of the top teams in the world. For them, even the player who was number 17 in their rotation is a good player, and they are an opponent the likes of which we won’t see this season. We’re going to do everything we can to come into our Israeli and European seasons as ready as we can be, both physically and mentally.”

Yogev Ohayon had some compliments for his former coach: “First of all, I’m happy for David. He belongs at this level, and deserves to coach a team like Cleveland. I want to congratulate him. It was good to see him, and I really hope he succeeds.” About the game, the guard said: “We played a game against a team at the highest level; Cleveland is definitely not at our level. We wanted to work on a few things we’ve been practicing, and there’s a lot we can take away from this game. In the end, we gave them a good fight in the first half.”

Devin Smith also talked about the man who brought him to Maccabi and made him into one of the key players on the team: “I’m sure David will be successful here, he knows a lot about basketball. When I played for him it was great. As far as we’re concerned, I hope we’ll look better. We don’t have a lot of time before the season starts, and I hope we’ll fix things as quickly as possible.”

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