“Is there any other type of fun like this?”

And with that Israel and Deni Avdija were off and running.

What we witnessed at the O2 Arena in Prague was a coming of age party for one Deni Avdija. The Washington Wizards third year forward played well beyond his years and proved to any doubters as to why he was selected 9th overall at the 2020 NBA Draft.

His guile, his desire, his deftness, his defense, his drive, his toughness were all on display as he paced Israel to a dramatic 89-87 win over Finland to open up the 2022 Eurobasket. Avdija was simply put magnificent after having a very frustrating lead up to the competition first with COVID and then just not being able to find his place in the team. As much as he tried in the two World Cup Qualifiers against Finland and Sweden to be the leader and the one who would set the tone for Israel, it just didn’t click and didn’t come together.

Finally, when the chips were all pushed to the middle of the table and he needed to step up and play big minutes against an NBA star in Lauri Markkanen who still scored 33 points, Avdija was able to do just that. His defense on Markkanen, the way he put his body right up to the NBA star and now member of the Utah Jazz showed that Avdija was going to back down from no one.

“Guarding Lauri was key for us, Avdija said. “I kept trying to stop him as much as possible. The defense brought me into the game as well as the three on Lauri.”

The Israeli sensation looked a bit out of sorts after a frustrating first quarter but as the game moved into the second frame, Avdija was able to come alive especially after he nailed a 3-pointer over Markkanen’s head and immediately gained every ounce of confidence that a 21-year old would need especially with Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard in Prague.

Whether it was a key rebound as he pulled down 11 of them with 4 of the boards coming on the offensive end, a big 3-pointer and he hit a few of them, or just his court vision, Avdija was just plain and simple stellar.

“I don’t want to talk about specific players,” Goodes said. “Deni isn’t the national team, he is a team player and he came in late to camp and was ill. But today he really helped us in things that he is good at, one on one defense, dishing off to the bigs under the basket and this is what I was talking about integrating him into the team and with the rest of the players before the Eurobasket started.”

But the name of the game in playoff style basketball is defense, D-E-F-E-N-S-E. And Deni did plenty of that along with the rest of the team. While Markkanen was going to get his points, they needed to stop him down the stretch while also limiting the other key marksmen in Petteri Koponen and Sasu Salin.

“Markkanen is a superstar and he averages many points a game in the NBA,” Goodes said, “Deni didn’t play much defense on him in the World Cup qualifier and here we gave him the task. Lauri made some tough shots but players make plays at the end of the day. It was important that we closed down Salin and Koponen and not get them into the game off screens and with 3-pointers. We did a good job as we planned on Salin.”

Avdija’s contributions weren’t lost on his teammates either who were all smiled after the win which for most of them was their first ever Eurobasket game, “Deni played huge defense on Lauri and did a great job he did,” Tomer Ginat who had 13 points explained. “Today it was Deni. Each day can be someone else. We also did good team work on Lauri. We all helped as much as we could to guard him and limit him.”

While Ginat was also an important player in this game logging in 28+ minutes while also grabbing 5 boards and dishing out 4 assists, Nimrod Levi also played a key role with 10 points and 5 rebounds.

“What a game for Deni, I’m really happy for him and he deserves this so much,” Levi commented. “This is the Deni we know. We knew we had to stop Lauri in the last minutes and Deni did a good job on him as we were able to limit him down the stretch.”

Avdija didn’t shy away from looking back at his subpar showing heading into the Eurobasket which was concerning to say the least to everyone around the Israel National Team. But Avdija did what he had to do and all of sudden what hadn’t clicked the last few weeks seemed to come together just at the right time.

But this shouldn’t surprise anyone who has covered Avdija over the years before he went to the NBA. Whether he was a 15 year old, 16 year old or 17 year old he has always been the epitome of a winner helping the Under-20 National Team to back-to-back European Championships in 2018 and 2019.

“I will do everything to win but we are a team, this game took some years off my life but now we have another game tomorrow to prepare for. It was hard for me to play well in the preparation games due to Covid mainly but no excuses. I spoke to who I had to. I want to thank my parents, even when you feel the whole world is against you they are there and I just played my game. I didn’t think or worry, I just came to have fun,” Avdija said.

Now it’s on to Holland who should not be taken lightly. Despite being a team that is happy to be here, they have prepared well for this championship and will look to expose any weakness they can while also playing as tough as they can as well. Israel will need all hands in deck and take advantage of the quality okay they saw from both Nimrod Levi and Tomer Ginat in addition to Avdija.

“We do not have much time to celebrate but this big win for the rest of the way,” Ginat said. “Tomorrow is another one and we will come focused as the Netherlands are good and we will be ready for a battle.”

Levi echoed his teammates sentiments, “I am so proud of us, but there are no easy games here. We need to prepare well and defeat Holland.”

Should Israel do just that, they will be 2-0 and very close to punching their ticket to head to Berlin for the knockout games. But they can’t underestimate any opponent that comes their way. They need to be calm, cool and collected in order to take it one game at a time and be patient.

If Avdija can continue his fine showing from the first game then maybe, just maybe something very special will happen. But as they say, let’s take it one game at a time.