Welcome to Hapoel Jerusalem Brandon Brown! The point guard finally made his presence felt in the Reds 91-73 home win over Hapoel Holon just a few days after capturing the Israel State Cup.

Brown, who has not had an easy time on the court in the capital city since joining Aleksandar Dzikic’s squad made it look easy as pie going 7/8 from beyond the arc good for 21 points to help lead the Reds to a 19/30 shooting night from 3-point land.

The point guard who did not dress for the Israel State Cup, came out and set the tone early by hitting his shots and then closed out the game by draining his attempts late in what was a superb showing. If Brown can keep up this play, Jerusalem has yet another option and what was a deep squad to begin with becomes even deeper.

“This was not really our style as we are a defensive team,” Brown began. “We had every reason to just show up against Holon after the cup win, but we were all here and present to play. It’s a game of runs, but I’m proud of the guys and it was a statement.”

“For sure this was my best game,” the 33-year old Tacoma, Washington native continued. “Based on the stats it was my best game shooting wise. I’m older, I try to help the team any way I can. If it’s defense I try to do my best. I have to give credit to Zach Hankins and Speedy Smith who drew attention away from me. I’m proud of my group.”

Coach Dzikic brought Brown on board a few months ago and has been very patient as the point guard began to find his stroke and boy did he ever against Holon which made the bench boss very content, knowing how difficult he had been on himself.

“Yes, I’m very happy because BB is a special person. We are all aware of his career and now he is 30+. He accepted his role here, if it’s just BCL it’s just BCL. If he has to play in the Israeli league he does it. The effort he is putting himself on the level, he’s killing my staff with extra work and he is killing us. It’s amazing when a player who hasn’t played in how long does this. Hopefully that will help us the rest of the season.”

Brown, who was not selected by the coach to be one of the 5 import players in the State Cup victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv, would have loved to have been a part of the action on the court. However, since he was not, that didn’t mean he was no less important to the club’s victory.

“I came here knowing that two players had to sit and I try to approach my job as best as can be. If I’m not on the roster it’s not going to serve me to be upset. I look at how I can prepare and help the guys and at the end of the day it’s making sure everyone is ready to play.”

For Brown to be able to put in a game like he did versus Holon was certainly special. The guard has had plenty of these performances in the past be it with Cluj, Metropolitans or any of the other teams he has played with over the course of his decade long career.

“Obviously as a player you want to have big games and at my stage of my career. If it’s a night that you hit like this then you want to continue to stay consistent. I wasn’t waiting for it, but it was good to have the shots going.”

While Brown helps Dzikic and gives him yet another weapon on a very solid 12-man squad, Hapeol Holon would be only thrilled to have such an embarrassment of riches.

Right now, Guy Goodes has a rotation of roughly 7 players which will be very, very difficult to play with going forward should the purples want to get back to the Basketball Champions League Final Four or repeat as league champions.

Holon is as short than ever and with Frederic Bourdillon out, the Israeli contingent became even that much smaller. Sure, Holon has some high quality players but to be able to compete in two leagues with such a roster makes life very, very difficult for Goodes.

Joe Ragland, Chris Johnson, Marvin Jones are all solid veterans, but playing 30+ minutes game in and game out won’t do them any favors when they want to find a way to play to the standards that they did last season.

One of Holon’s second year foreigners is Hayden Dalton and he is completely aware as to the challenges facing the team right now.

“It’s tough and not an excuse as we have every position covered with those guys. I’m happy that Shachar Amir came in to contribute some minutes and we miss Freddy. We can win games with seven guys, we just have to bring more energy.”

“I don’t have any option,” Goodes said when asked by The Sports Rabbi. “Freddy can come back in maybe 3-4 weeks and we had an option to get TJ Cline but he went to Jerusalem. We have 7.5 players and a very short roster also in Europe which has been the case for the past couple of months. There is very little available in the Israeli market. Jerusalem has 10+ players and they have more room to play with. We will do the best that we can with what we have.”

The two teams will face one another in just a couple of weeks in Champions League play which will be a do or die matchup for Holon who sit winless with a 0-3 record. Goodes has to win in the capital city if he has any designs of continuing to have a chance to get to the playoffs and Dalton is well aware as to what his team can do to turn the tables.

“Come with more energy and be ready to play as it’s one of those games. We will have an extra big (Javin Delaurier a 6th import) who plays with more energy. The break will be good for us to refocus on what we need to do.”