The talent gap Hapoel Tel Aviv had over Red Star Belgrade last night, with the Reds in white, produced run after run throughout the evening. The final one was enough to secure Hapoel’s first win of the season at Belgrade Arena. The talent advantage in Dimitris Itoudis’ squad was worth a far more convincing victory than the 81-80 scoreline Hapoel will carry into Thursday’s rematch with Real Madrid.

Throughout the night, Hapoel showed stretches of complete dominance over its opponent at virtually every position on the floor, only to follow them with spells of sloppiness, complacency and a lack of focus that allowed Red Star back into the game—even after roughly half of the home crowd had already started heading for the exits, convinced the game was over.

At several points last night, the camera caught Tomas Satoransky trying to catch his breath. In many ways, those images told the story of Hapoel Tel Aviv’s night in Belgrade. The talent is everywhere, but the discipline, pace and structure can disappear remarkably quickly.

Hapoel came out extremely focused in the first quarter. Dan Oturu, along with Hapoel’s trio of athletic guards—excluding Tomer Ginat—repeatedly went after the familiar pick-and-roll matchup involving the two former Hapoel players, Chris Jones and Johnathan Motley. They pulled the big man away from the basket and repeatedly attacked the smaller defender in the post, even after Odiase and Wainright replaced Oturu and Leday.

The strategy helped Hapoel build a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter, but it had completely evaporated by the middle of the second.

The Serbian’s coach responded by trying to disrupt Hapoel’s pick-and-roll with an aggressive hedge from the big man. It took the bite out of Hapoel’s bread-and-butter action and coaxed the Reds into settling for poor three-point attempts instead of getting downhill, attacking the paint and earning trips to the free-throw line. Only after seven minutes, with Red Star leading the quarter 17-6, did Itoudis react by putting Zach Leday back on the floor.

What a wildcard the Reds have at the four.

The player who first made his name with Gilboa/Galil finished with the best plus-minus on the floor (+13) and gave Itoudis exactly what he needed: a credible threat from beyond the arc (2-for-3) who could space the floor for the rolling big man, along with another dangerous pick-and-roll option thanks to his post-up game.

From the moment Leday checked in until halftime, Hapoel rediscovered its rhythm, ripping off an 11-0 run and giving the impression that it might turn the game into garbage time by the third quarter.

It never happened. Despite an excellent first performance of the season from Elijah Bryant—18 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and a steal—Itoudis’ Reds repeatedly settled for threes that simply weren’t falling. That allowed Butler and Carter to keep the home side within striking distance, before another scoring drought from Hapoel made things uncomfortably close.

The Belgrade Arena erupted when Izundu blew past Odiase, threw down a emphatic dunk and cut the deficit to five. The celebration was loud, but it didn’t last long.

When I said earlier that the Reds were tempted to rain down threes without much restraint, I was talking primarily about Vasilije Micic.

The Serbian guard knocked down the first three he attempted, then proceeded to miss 10 (!) straight wild attempts. That did nothing to discourage him. He took two more questionable threes, both off the dribble and directly in his defender’s face. He buried both, restoring Hapoel’s double-digit lead with just over a minute remaining.

That eruption of individual talent was enough to get Hapoel over the line, but not before a series of poor decisions on the Reds’ end allowed Red Star to score 10 points before the final buzzer. A game that, not just on paper but by the way it unfolded, should have ended in a Tel Aviv knockout ultimately became a nail-biter.

There is so much talent on this Hapoel Tel Aviv roster that it is worth remembering we have yet to see roughly half of it. Carrington barely touched the floor, while Timor and Caboclo never even took off their warmups.

For all the depth at Itoudis’ disposal, the quality of this rotation still hasn’t learned how to sustain itself over the long haul. Right now, Hapoel Tel Aviv knows how to explode and disappear, shine and fade, sprint and then run out of gas and call for a substitution.

Last night, those sprints were enough.

But this is only the beginning of the marathon.