Hapoel Tel Aviv suffered another loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday, 102-98, and fell behind 2-0 in the playoff final series. Despite opening with a strong 14-0 run, the Reds could not protect the early lead, watched their rival come back, and moved one step closer to losing the championship.
After the game, coach Dimitris Itoudis tried to project confidence ahead of Game 3 on Sunday. "The result is not good for us, of course, but we came to fight," he said. "Unfortunately we are down 2-0 now, but the series is still open. We are still going with fire in our eyes to force a Game 4." He also said the team had to make many adjustments, praised the crowd, and added that the early run was excellent but not enough after Maccabi responded with a run of its own.
Hapoel now believes there is almost no margin for error and will begin intensive preparation immediately. Itoudis said, "There is no day off tomorrow. We will do everything, go over everything, train, do three hours of video and come stronger on Sunday."
One of the main talking points from Thursday was the final timeout, taken when Hapoel was just one possession behind Maccabi. Assistant coach Stefanos Dedas handled it instead of Itoudis, which confused several players. They exchanged looks and later discussed it in the locker room, saying, "It was weird, we did not understand what was happening. There was chaos and that is something that does not happen in games, we did not understand why it was not Itoudis." If Hapoel loses Game 3, its season will end. The club still believes adjustments and home support can revive the series, and it is not ruling out roster changes, with Dan Oturu and Keydren Clarke under consideration. The team also praised the 7,200 fans who backed it from the stands.
