So far three of the quarterfinal series in the Israel basketball league have gone as expected with Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv each taking a 1-0 lead against their respective foes, Nes Ziona, Maccabi Ramat Gan and Hapoel Gilboa Galil while the Hapoel Holon and Bnei Herzliya tilt could be the best of them all with the purples taking game one and stealing home court advantage.

1) While Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv playoff openers, the biggest difference between the two is that one series looks like it will be a battle while the other one not so much so if you take game one as a template for what will be in games two and three. Jerusalem smashed Ramat Gan 81-58 while Hapoel Tel Aviv got by Gilboa 103-95 in a game that was close throughout. 

The capital city reds scored early and often in a game that was never close as Shmulik Brenner’s squad had no answer to Yonatan Alon’s potent offense. The game was never close and the fact that Ramat Gan had two new players in their rotation in KeyShawn Feazell and Noam Dovrat who played 23 minutes and 19 minutes each, isn’t going to help matters out also. But that’s not Brenner’s fault. That was management who, A) decided to trade their Israeli point guard Roi Huber to the same Jerusalem just ahead of the postseason and, B) Amin Stevens who is out injured which is something that is uncontrollable. 

But the fact still remains that Ramat Gan allowed themselves to be run over like Wile E. Coyote by the ongoing truck, freight train or you name it. 26 points in a half is certainly not going to do it for any team and that would especially also be Ramat Gan. Brenner’s squad needs to do plenty of soul searching before game two which is slated for Wednesday night at Zisman Hall if they want to have any chance to compete. 

It’s quite amazing to see this Ramat Gan team who played admirably well in the Basketball Champions League look so discombobulated on the court and so out of sync with one another, it’s sad. 
They wanted to trade Roi Huber because he becomes a free agent this summer and they would lose any chance of cashing in on him once the season comes to an end. So they moved him to Jerusalem and pocketed a tidy sum that will no doubt be a help when they put together next season’s roster. But now it’s two years in a row that management pulled the rug from Brenner (last year they shipped Isaiah Miles to Hapoel Tel Aviv) and the chances are high that after bowing out to Kiryat Ata last season they will be ousted by Hapoel Jerusalem this campaign.

Drew Crawford said all of the right things when I asked if he felt that Ramat Gan would be able to compete and put on a better show in game two, but it’s clear as day that the players know where this series is heading. I just hope that I am wrong and that at their home arena they will be able to put on a better show than the one the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee witnessed in the first game of the best-of-5 tilt.

2) Hapoel Tel Aviv took the game one win in their series but in no way shape or form was it easy. Gilboa gave the hosts everything that they could handle and then some but they eventually fell to the EuroCup champions. While Sharon Avrahami’s team didn’t pick up the win and they are without their big man Ben Moore who returned to the US for the birth of his child and will not return, the Gan Ner based club did absolutely every thing they could throughout the 40 minutes to be there and go neck-and-neck with Dimitrios Itoudis side. 

Tel Aviv would bump the score up time and time again but Gilboa would then go on a mini-run and chop down the lead like a tree, but they would never be able to flip the score to their favor. The Reds go up by 9 and then swiftly the visitors cut it down in no time, but at the end of the day Hapoel’s quality was just too much, or more specifically Antonio Blakeney and Tomer Ginat who were absolutely unstoppable. 

The two scored and scored and scored some more from every which angle which prompted Avrahami to even say at the post game press conference that there hasn’t been a player like Blakeney for many years in Israel and if you don’t double team him he’s going to find the basket. 

But the one glaring issue that Hapoel Tel Aviv did have was that they lacked a point guard as Yam Madar is out injured and his return is in doubt. Yes, the Reds dished out 21 assists but it was clear that their offense was set by the Blakeney and Ginat duo with the latter knocking down 5 triples. Bar Timor with 5 assists led the way while Johnathan Motley and Blakeney each dished out four and piece as a number of their players including Noam Yaacov also added to the assist total. 

That’s all fine and dandy and Hapoel should advance over Gilboa but when it will come to a semifinal series against Hapoel Jerusalem and a finals versus Maccabi Tel Aviv, Itoudis will need a ready to rumble Yam Madar to help lead them just as he did in the EuroCup. Relying on just a pair of players will not be enough and others will need to step up should the Israeli star not be available. But that’s a ways away for Hapoel and Co. as it’s still very early on in the past season, however, it’s worth keeping an eye on.

3) Hapoel Holon and Bnei Herzliya finally put on a show worthy of the playoffs. What a great game! Back and forth action, players laying it all out on the line and just plain old aggressiveness, intensity and end to end play that left you yearning for more. This is what the postseason is all about.

As Holon Head Coach Guy Kaplan said, “Players have to show up in the playoffs and we have experienced players who know how to show up for these moments. In the playoffs we need everyone and they all did a great job.”

Kaplan must have been thrilled after having seen his team choke up a massive 21 point lead at Hapoel Afula and also chalk up a loss to relegation candidate Elitzur Netanya. But when the chips were all on the table, at least for game one, the Purples knew how to take them in one fell swoop and cash them in.

That’s not to say Herzliya didn’t cause issues on their home court and that they didn’t come within a hair of finding a way to win a game that they never deserved to. Holon was the better team for 40 minutes plain and simple, but Herzliya did find a way to hit timely shots and keep the game close, especially down the stretch.

Ultimately, Holon despite not being able to hit the long shot for the majority of the game with only a trio heading into the second half, saw Mike Davis, who just came back from injury knock down a pair of critical ones in that frame to keep Holon in front. Those two triples were crucial as was the play from Michale Kyser who played arguably his best game of the season as well as Iftach Ziv who really turned it on for his team.

But truth be told, should Holon not win at home after snatching the home court advantage then the win will be long forgotten as the series will move to a best of 3 with Herzliya once again in control.

Speaking of Yehu Orland’s team, it was surprising to me to A) see that Ethan Burg was not back after an injury and B) Xavier Sneed who many around the team are saying that he is fit, wasn’t registered. Sure Chinanu Onuaku, the club’s former MVP was good with a double-double, but he was not the dominant force that he once was.

Herzliya really needs those two players in the lineup to give them the best chance to win. Orland played with 3 Israelis, Fred Bourdillion, Shalev Lugashi and Omer Ben David (Alon Michaeli didn’t see the floor) and boy would he have liked to have had Burg in there for the majority of the 40 minutes that the Sabra contingent played.

Let’s see what the head coach will have in store for Herzliya and Holon in game two as the series shifts over to the Toto Arena where Orland is really facing a do or die game because if he goes down 0-2, it will be close to curtains for his squad.

4) Nes Ziona kept the game close for the first half against Maccabi Tel Aviv, but basketball games in Europe are 40 minutes and not 20 as the yellow-and-blue turned on the jets in the second half and blew Amit Sherf’s team away.

Sure Maccabi was a bit rusty as both Head Coach Oded Katash and Jimmy Clark said in the post game presser and it took some time to get back into the swing of things but it’s clear who is going to win this series. In fact, it’s clear who is going to win three of the four quarterfinal series which is not a great look for the league. I asked Katash about these series not being competitive and he gave me as straight faced answer that this game was as was Saturday night’s Hapoel Tel Aviv matchup against Gilboa Galil.

Sure, they were competitive in their own ways, but one doesn’t need to have a masters in basketball to understand that the teams that finished in places 1-3 are going to win their series on depth alone, not even theoretically on talent. Maccabi, Hapoel and Jerusalem all have serious benches and in a best-of-5 series when they are playing a team that will go 7.5-8 players deep, there is no chance for the 6th-8th place teams to advance.

Can they win a game? Sure and I believe that Gilboa will cause Hapoel Tel Aviv issues at Gan Ner, but causing issues and winning a game are two separate things and even if the Reds do lose a game, it’s still a best of 3 after that with two of the games at Yad Eliyahu on their home court.

Jaylen Hoard, Rokas Jokubaitis, Tamir Blatt and Clark all benefited from the mini-break ahead of the playoffs and it showed clearly that Maccabi is going to be in this right up until the end. Along with having home court in the best-of-3 finals, Maccabi will have that advantage and it will make a difference whether they will play fellow Euroleague outfit Hapoel Tel Aviv or Euroleague wannabees Hapoel Jerusalem.

What Katash did say and it has been something many have been saying for quite some time is that the semifinals and finals should all be best-of-5 series and not best-of-3 as they are now. It’s true that best-of-3 is better than a final four format, but Israeli basketball can do better. Why can’t we have a 5 games series between Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv or one with Maccabi Tel Aviv against either of those foes.

Wouldn’t more competitive hoops make more sense?

Here’s hoping that this will become a reality sooner rather than later.