Monday, December 14, 2009
Fans are a player in this group!
Hello again, everyone! Three games into the regular season and looking at the other groups, we can see that our group is the most unpredictable one. Ours is the only team without any team either undefeated or winless. And although Aris was the favorite to win the group following their road win in Zadar, their subsequent loss in Lithuania to Siauliai showed that things can change very quickly.
I can say that we started the season well at home against Siauliai. We did not know what to expect and it was a tough game because they are very persistent and did not let us win easily. The next week, on the road at Aris, was a different story, of course. It was great to play in such an atmosphere, and even though the gym was not full, the noise and the songs of the Aris fans were unbelievable. I must add that we also had 120 fans travelling with us, standing out in their red colors, and singing enough to sometimes compete very well with the home fans!
The game in Greece was weird in a way, Aris controlled the first two quarters and slowly the margin went up to 18 points. But in the third quarter we came out a different team and made the game tight into the last minutes. We felt that we could have won the game because we thought that Aris suddenly lost their grip on the tempo and we surprised them. I had a good game, I felt. It is my second year in Europe as a senior player and what everybody says is true: experience is a key factor. Andrew Betts and Juan Dixon played great for Aris and it was hard to stop them, but I guess they found it hard to compete with our self-confidence, too.
After the game, our coach told us that the games against Zadar would be like cup finals, so we prepared ourselves mentally for that. On the Saturday before Zadar came to Jerusalem, we had a tough away game is the Israeli League that we won, but we did not play well. We knew that to beat Zadar we had to upgrade our game.
Against the Croatian team three nights later, we took control from the first minute and had a great team performance. Even when Zadar made baskets, most of them were not easy. It is hard to play against them because they are quick and they are clever and you can see that they are well trained. We had to be at our best and we were. Everybody said afterwards that it was interesting game to watch, regardless of the score line. Two teams, very similar in their style, both running all the time, very quick offence. Although we were in control, the 19-point final margin is not an accurate measure of the difference between us. Zadar is a good team, and we just made it very hard on them to feel comfortable in our gym.
One player from Zadar said to me just before the end: "Wait until you get to Zadar; we will beat you easily." I believe that there is a strong belief on the Croatian team that they can win easily there. And it brings me back to what I wrote in my first blog: the home fans are playing a major role in our group, and I can say that our home fans have treated the Zadar game like a cup final and helped us a lot. It is hard to play against us in Jerusalem and I feel that some teams are intimidated by the support we get from our fans.
I will not surprise anyone by saying that in Zadar it will be a similar story of home fans. So, just before the Christmas break we are off to Zadar, taking three flights to face another cup final atmosphere in the Eurocup. We hope that we can win there and continue our journey towards the next stage but…it's still early in this group!
Happy Christmas and Hanukah to everyone, and a Happy New Year.
POSTED BY
Yuval Naimy - Jerusalem, Israel