Hapoel Tel Aviv demolished Nes Ziona at Lev HaMoshava in a game that was over before it even started. Sure within minutes of play the Reds were up 18-1 and the hosts didn’t even know what hit them as Antonio Blakeney, Yam Madar and Jonathan Motley came out flying and that was that as Dimitrios Itoudis’s team won 90-54.

When I write that the game was over before it began, I’m referring to the fact that Nes Ziona head coach Amit Sherf didn’t have his players ready and ready mentally for this game. It was an embarrassment. It was an embarrassment for the club, it was an embarrassment for the league as a whole that this was the product that was on full display.

His squad did not know what hit them from the get go, they were in no way into this game and before they knew it they saw that there was over 35 minutes of garbage time ahead to play leaving the home crowd just staring into oblivion with no hope whatsoever.

I’ve seen Nes Ziona plenty this season and they have had some bad performances, but this one took the cake from the top to the bottom. There have been teams that have at least competed with Hapoel from the get go, Afula, Gilboa Galil and Kiryat Ata, but in this case, Sherf’s team would have been better off not even coming out of the locker room with the way they were prepared or lack of preparedness for this game.

Fans are paying good, hard earned money and are not only spending it to see their team play but are also spending their time which must have left plenty of the supporters Sunday night thinking that they could have been doing something else instead.

Bryce Brown, who is arguably the most talented player on the Nes Ziona roster, spoke about what went wrong, “Going into the game we felt that we had a chance. We got down early and we felt that. They are EuroCup team and once they got on us right from the start, we lay down and we didn’t come to play, it felt like they made every shot. I have to be better, I didn’t even know I was going to play as I had a stomach virus and didn’t practice much, I wanted to have some type of rhythm and I thought about sitting out. I want to be a vocal leader.”

Nes Ziona need to figure it out and figure it out quickly because they have another game coming up right around the corner when they host Roi Perel and Hapoel Haifa on Friday afternoon.

Over at Hapoel Tel Aviv, it was good to get such a dominant win in a game that Itoudis was able to test some things out to maximize his team’s abilities see what he can get out of different player pairings and lineups. While many thought that Joe Ragland would finally be registered for the Israeli league following Patrick Beverley’s injury, Itoudis decided against it and went with Antonio Blakeney, and Noam Yaacov in this game and his decision paid off wonderfully. Blakeney scored 20 first half points and shot lights out while Yaacov had his best game of the season with 13 points (3/4 from deep) and 9 assists in the win.

Blakeney has been in and out of the lineup in the Israeli league, but hopefully with games like this, he will be there more often than not under coach Itoudis, “It’s my first time really playing in Europe other than a short time with Hapoel Beer Sheva, being able to learn from a great like that every single day. He’s very detailed and is on the guys really hard and on me really hard about every single little thing so it helps our growth. At the end of the day everyone is trying to grow. It’s different, in the Israeli league you can only dress five foreigners and we have 8 really good foreigners. I am a guy who likes to compete every day whether it’s practice, getting shots up, whatever I am doing I’m always trying to compete.”

Itoudis, who is still trying to understand what he can do with the squad that he has in his hands, was super impressed with Yaacov in this game after some tough times over the past few weeks, “He had a hell of a game and he’s motivated and he was very good. You can see how he can evolve, he likes the game and we are happy to have him with us.”

“The future belongs to him when he is going to work at that level on a daily basis. You need to give answers in practice every time as well. As I said to the squad, sometimes you have to compete with yourself, with the potential that you have. Playing hard is something you need to have at this level otherwise you have to stay at home. That’s another question.”

It’s clear that Itoudis is going to give Yaacov a chance to play but the guard will need to really put in his time and work hard in order to get that opportunity. Just because he’s an Israeli and on the roster doesn’t mean he’s going to get playing time. But if he plays as he did on Sunday then the sky’s the limit.

Another area that Itoudis was working on in this game was playing the duo of Jonathan Motley and Bruno Caboclo together on the court at the same time, instead of splitting the minutes between the two of them and the results for the bench boss were encouraging. Motley scored 16 points and pulled down 8 rebounds in his first Israeli league game since returning to the Holy Land while Caboclo put in 7 points and collected 6 rebounds.

Itoudis spoke about what he sees from Motley since he has rejoined the team, “I talk to Mot a lot and at practice and he is practicing well but he’s about 60-65%, so he’s not 100% ready which is normal but he needs time with playing minutes and he is practicing well. We played him together with Bruno as we wanted to see some things defensively, especially in regards to the spacing and see how we can operate. We are in the process and Motely is in the process, he’s doing better but he’s still not 100%.”

The Greek tactician also spoke about Caboclo and what he saw from him in this game, “He’s a player that we have to take something off of him, he jumped well. He wasn’t that efficient on offense but we tried to play him at 4 and at 5. We didn’t dress Bingham and we can have him spreading the floor. It’s about the momentum and game and what it requires he has to keep working and develop different parts of his game.”

There’s plenty of good food for thought here on both teams as they each try to work through their struggles.

Roman Sorkin came back after being out for a little less than a week due to the passing of his stepfather. It wasn’t clear as to how effective he was going to be in his first game back against Hapoel Holon, but that question was answered swiftly as the big man was dominant and earned MVP honors after scoring 21 points and taking 7 rebounds in Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 79-72 win over the purples.

Katash commented on Sorkin’s performance, “Roman is a player with a very impressive skill set, certainly in our league but not only. He went through a few difficult days mentally, but his ability to come and play a game like this here is very impressive.”

Sorkin spoke passionately about the situation he had been going through, “First of all, this game is for my stepfather. I knew him for 21 years, like the number of points I scored. They say there are people who love you, they watch over you from above. I am happy and thank him for everything he did for my life. My mother asked me to play for my stepfather. This is for him.”

The Israeli continued, “He was like a father to me. They say stepfather, but my parents divorced and my biological father was abroad and lives in Belarus. We are not a big family. It’s me, my mother, him and my older sister. My stepfather gave me all the love there is, he was there for me. This is for him, I love him, I hope he sees this from the heavens.”

“I didn’t practice for three days and scored, maybe it was also thanks to him. I made some tough shots at the beginning, we didn’t start well and weren’t focused. The guys play a lot, I rested this week but it’s a lot of playing time. We play every other day. What did Rafi say? It’s like a festival, every other day a performance. We have to win every game and I’m also very competitive. There are good teams here. Every game can decide something and we have to stay as sharp and focused as possible. We have to win, I’m happy we won. Holon almost came back at the end.”

Hapoel Holon have bigger fish to fry than Maccabi right now as they tipoff against Nanterre in BCL action as they will look to secure their Play In with home court advantage which is something that can’t be taken for granted after a poor start to the European campaign.

Guy Goodes and Co. know that the game in France is much more important than the one that had just concluded against Maccabi and that he has plenty of games ahead including the State Cup along with the BCL that he will need to have his team playing the best basketball that they can. The Israeli League may not be as long as it once was, but there are plenty of games to go and right now it’s not the #1 priority for his squad.

Holon brought in a pair of guards in Brendan Adams and Mike Davis Jr. after losing Niv Misgav who moved to Hapoel Gilboa Galil and an injury to Jalen Adams and will still will need to fund a replacement for Marcus Bingham but Goodes explained that he is in no rush to do so.

“The season is a marathon and not a sprint,” Goodes commented. “We have to stay healthy and we have some challenges in front of us with the BCL and State Cup. The changes we made are significant and it’s going to take time for things to fall into place. I’m not going to bring a big man just to bring one as I have patience, the league isn’t over in November and we are looking for someone who will be the right fit. We lost two guards and we had to bring in two guards which is what we did. Jalen Adams has to go through some rehab and it may take a month or more. But we need guards in any case because we have the BCL and State Cup and I wanted to make sure I brought two to make sure we are covered for this exact reason.”

I’ve seen both Adams and Davis Jr. in person twice already and the former is very big for a guard which will allow Goodes to do some creative things with him while Davis Jr. is a sniper, a guy who looks like there’s no shot he doesn’t like and that he can shoot forever. Will both players be with the team by the end of the season? Who knows, but for right now, Goodes has a pair of players that he needs to reach the sort term goals that he has in front of him.

Maccabi Ramat Gan Head Coach Shmulik Brenner on one hand was not crushed that his team fell to Hapoel Gilboa Galil 83-79 on Saturday night with a massive BCL game at Riga coming up this week for a spot in the Play In, but he also wasn’t thrilled to lose, that’s for sure. Following the loss, when he was asked if his team was looking back and ahead to the European challenge at hand, he answered with a resounding “NO”.

However, as I was leaving the arena an walking by the parking lot, I spoke with one of the Ramat Gan players who adamantly said, right now we are all in for the BCL game on Wednesday and it was of the loss to Gilboa didn’t register a blip on their radar, which is really totally fine. I get it and so should their fans and club as a whole. Advancing to the Play In and perhaps from 2nd place in the group would be a mega sized accomplishment and one that will no doubt give the team a huge boost. And rightfully so.

Gilboa looked so much more in sync like a team against Ramat Gan than they did just a couple of weeks ago when Niv Mןsgav played his first game under Sharon Avrahami. It was night and day. Misgav recorded a double-double, Gil Beni hit the game changing 3-pointer to get Gilboa over the hump and the team as a whole seem to be jelling very nicely after some rough patches. While it’s only one game and I have seen plenty of “one game wonders” where a team who had been struggling puts together a good game, but it really seemed that Gilboa had something special going. They are in 7th place with a 4-6 record which means that there are, yes, 7 teams that are worse. YIKES!