This last stretch, as everyone can imagine, has not been easy for me. Beyond the team's losses, I haven't played much so in turn I have preferred to speak less, take a step back and withdraw into myself, like everyone should do at times.
I made a decision to work as hard so I can go back and win my place in the lineup again. I believe that once the coach does not trust you, the way to change this is labor intensive: Be the first to get to the court early before practice, be the last to leave at the end and hit the practice floor with maximum energy and effort to regain my minutes. Fortunately, this formula worked and slowly - slowly I got back into the rotation with the help of a great staff.
Beyond that, I'm glad I had a good game against the Clippers. I'm glad I was able to pitch in and I had the opportunity to give all - all of me to help the team. I feel I had a good game against the Clippers due to the fact that I played with aggression and didn't wait for the game to come to me, but also because of the incredible support I received from the crowd in Los Angeles. 5,000 Jews came and encouraged me from the stands and i made sure to let them know and tell them thank you for all their support and the energy they gave me.
After gaining some NBA experience last season and playing on the Israeli national team in the summer, I believe that I can make a huge leap in my game compared to my rookie year. Currently we are trying to adapt to the new situation with the team and I am learning my new role, but I believe I can give can make my best impression with improvement in my abilities through hard work.
The 21 points and 10 rebounds I had against the Clippers might be a surprise to people in the country and around the league, but I feel that if I get a minutes and the confidence of coach, I can have games like this. I'm not going to wait for someone to come save me, because there are things I can control myself, like the time I put into improvement. Therefore, I work hard every minute I get, I hope to build on this good game to put a string of good games together and then I hope to not look back.
Unfortunately, even though I had a good game it didn't result in a win for us as a team. We are finding it very difficult to win games and we are trying to find a way to get out of this negative slide. What happened to us against the Clippers is the same thing that has been happening to us in recent weeks: We have a problem finishing the game, putting the game away and getting that win in the final minutes of close games.
We make a lot of mistakes in the deciding minutes of close games. This problem plagued us last season as well. I just hope we learn to overcome these mistakes, because we really are tired of losing.
It may surprise you to know that the atmosphere in our locker room is really very positive and upbeat despite the losses. We are professionals just trying to find ways to get out of the slump we are in. We started the season with a lot of expectations, we wanted to make a big improvement over last season and it hasn't happened so far. However, if we try to stay positive as much as possible and support each other it will lead us to some wins.
There has been a lot of recent criticism against our coach and I think the arrow of blame should be directed towards everyone. As a group, the coaches and especially the players are not good enough. He just simply all need to get better. After the Miami Heat started off slow and were losing games Dwyane Wade called out everyone in the organization, he said everyone looked bad. Everything around us has to improve, the players, the coaches, and our situation. We are together, one unit, and right now we aren't doing a good job of being a team.
We really do have a few "Must Win" games coming up. Especially when you look at how tough our schedule is about to be, including the Miami Heat game coming up, we need to win the games we are supposed to win. Maybe towards the end of the Hanukkah a miracle will happen to us, turning over a new leaf, leading to a new winning streak .
I made a decision to work as hard so I can go back and win my place in the lineup again. I believe that once the coach does not trust you, the way to change this is labor intensive: Be the first to get to the court early before practice, be the last to leave at the end and hit the practice floor with maximum energy and effort to regain my minutes. Fortunately, this formula worked and slowly - slowly I got back into the rotation with the help of a great staff.
Beyond that, I'm glad I had a good game against the Clippers. I'm glad I was able to pitch in and I had the opportunity to give all - all of me to help the team. I feel I had a good game against the Clippers due to the fact that I played with aggression and didn't wait for the game to come to me, but also because of the incredible support I received from the crowd in Los Angeles. 5,000 Jews came and encouraged me from the stands and i made sure to let them know and tell them thank you for all their support and the energy they gave me.
After gaining some NBA experience last season and playing on the Israeli national team in the summer, I believe that I can make a huge leap in my game compared to my rookie year. Currently we are trying to adapt to the new situation with the team and I am learning my new role, but I believe I can give can make my best impression with improvement in my abilities through hard work.
The 21 points and 10 rebounds I had against the Clippers might be a surprise to people in the country and around the league, but I feel that if I get a minutes and the confidence of coach, I can have games like this. I'm not going to wait for someone to come save me, because there are things I can control myself, like the time I put into improvement. Therefore, I work hard every minute I get, I hope to build on this good game to put a string of good games together and then I hope to not look back.
Unfortunately, even though I had a good game it didn't result in a win for us as a team. We are finding it very difficult to win games and we are trying to find a way to get out of this negative slide. What happened to us against the Clippers is the same thing that has been happening to us in recent weeks: We have a problem finishing the game, putting the game away and getting that win in the final minutes of close games.
We make a lot of mistakes in the deciding minutes of close games. This problem plagued us last season as well. I just hope we learn to overcome these mistakes, because we really are tired of losing.
It may surprise you to know that the atmosphere in our locker room is really very positive and upbeat despite the losses. We are professionals just trying to find ways to get out of the slump we are in. We started the season with a lot of expectations, we wanted to make a big improvement over last season and it hasn't happened so far. However, if we try to stay positive as much as possible and support each other it will lead us to some wins.
There has been a lot of recent criticism against our coach and I think the arrow of blame should be directed towards everyone. As a group, the coaches and especially the players are not good enough. He just simply all need to get better. After the Miami Heat started off slow and were losing games Dwyane Wade called out everyone in the organization, he said everyone looked bad. Everything around us has to improve, the players, the coaches, and our situation. We are together, one unit, and right now we aren't doing a good job of being a team.
We really do have a few "Must Win" games coming up. Especially when you look at how tough our schedule is about to be, including the Miami Heat game coming up, we need to win the games we are supposed to win. Maybe towards the end of the Hanukkah a miracle will happen to us, turning over a new leaf, leading to a new winning streak .
This was written the day before we won against the Wizards.
