Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv have held their final practice before their semifinals versus Hapoel Eilat and everybody knows what's at stake and needs to be done on Monday (19:00, Sport5). Jeremy Pargo will not register for this game.
"I think we just got to make sure we come out from the beginning of the first quarter aggressive", said Scottie Wilbekin ahead of the Israeli final four where the crew in yellow and blue will want to retain their title. "We can't let other teams play harder than us and with more passion. They (i.e. Eilat) have a couple of main guys that really get the actions going for them and we got to do a good job of not letting them get going cause when they get going - then their entire get going and they start making threes so we got to limit their main playmakers".
When asked about Elijah Bryant, Scottie replied: "He's a really good player, I'm not going to be guarding him but we just got to try and limit him as much as we can, try to run him off the three point line- that's what he does well, and in transition. I think they (i.e. Eilat) have something to lose, they want to win the championship just like we do and they have the opportunity to be in the final four and I don't think they want to waste it just like us. The final against Jerusalem or Rishon sits in the back of my mind but I'm not really thinking about it right now because I know it's not going to be easy game tomorrow against Eilat".
"It's a whole week and we had many days to prepare for this", said Michael Roll. "We had really hard practices after we finished the first series to get us in tip top shape and just be ready for this; we've been working for 10 months, it's a long time coming, we all know that we want to go out with a bang; it's the end of the road and we're all focused for it and we've been talking about everything that we need to do and it's just up to us to come out and execute".
When asked about the whether it's an advantage to have a rest after the playoff series Michael said: "Doesn't really matter which it is because that's the scenario, we've been waiting for a while but we had great practices, we've really caught our rhythm and we've been playing great so it's time for us to do it and nothing else to it but to execute. I'm gonna let our game plan show out there but we have somethings that we want to do and everybody that's playing tomorrow is very capable of winning so we need to come out and it's really going to take 40 minutes".
"I think we just got to make sure we come out from the beginning of the first quarter aggressive", said Scottie Wilbekin ahead of the Israeli final four where the crew in yellow and blue will want to retain their title. "We can't let other teams play harder than us and with more passion. They (i.e. Eilat) have a couple of main guys that really get the actions going for them and we got to do a good job of not letting them get going cause when they get going - then their entire get going and they start making threes so we got to limit their main playmakers".
When asked about Elijah Bryant, Scottie replied: "He's a really good player, I'm not going to be guarding him but we just got to try and limit him as much as we can, try to run him off the three point line- that's what he does well, and in transition. I think they (i.e. Eilat) have something to lose, they want to win the championship just like we do and they have the opportunity to be in the final four and I don't think they want to waste it just like us. The final against Jerusalem or Rishon sits in the back of my mind but I'm not really thinking about it right now because I know it's not going to be easy game tomorrow against Eilat".
"It's a whole week and we had many days to prepare for this", said Michael Roll. "We had really hard practices after we finished the first series to get us in tip top shape and just be ready for this; we've been working for 10 months, it's a long time coming, we all know that we want to go out with a bang; it's the end of the road and we're all focused for it and we've been talking about everything that we need to do and it's just up to us to come out and execute".
When asked about the whether it's an advantage to have a rest after the playoff series Michael said: "Doesn't really matter which it is because that's the scenario, we've been waiting for a while but we had great practices, we've really caught our rhythm and we've been playing great so it's time for us to do it and nothing else to it but to execute. I'm gonna let our game plan show out there but we have somethings that we want to do and everybody that's playing tomorrow is very capable of winning so we need to come out and it's really going to take 40 minutes".