Hapoel Tel Aviv coach Dimitris Ittoudis was left frustrated after his team lost 102:98 at home to Maccabi Tel Aviv in Game 2 of the championship series on Thursday night, falling behind 2:0. In the Israeli Super League, no team has ever won the title after dropping the first two games of the final.
After the game, Ittoudis said Hapoel had battled hard, but the result did not go their way. “We fought the way we wanted in a game like this,” he said. “Unfortunately, the result was not good for us. It is not over. We believe we can come back from 2:0. It will be difficult considering the score, but it is not over. We will keep believing, keep working.”
He added that in many areas, his team was better on the night, but missed open looks. “There were good looks that did not go in. There were shots that did not go in,” he said, stressing that the problem was not whether Maccabi used man-to-man or zone defense, since it shifted to man coverage in the final minutes.
Ittoudis then bristled at a question about the final play and cut off the interview. Referring to assistant coach Dedas, he said, “Dedas? My assistant coach, I trust him. That is how we work on it in practice.” He also mentioned Barak Lederer in the context of drawing up the next play, and repeated, “I do not understand why this is even asked. That is how we work in practice.”
Now 14
