Hapoel Tel Aviv showed who the boss was in their 85-72 win over Hapoel Jerusalem in a game that was played in front of 6,200 fans in the capital city. Yonatan Alon’s Jerusalem squad played well over the course of the first half and caused Stefanos Dedas’s team trouble throughout the opening 20 minutes, but once Patrick Beverley, Johnathan Motley, Marcus Foster and Ish Wainwright figured out what they needed to do, it was bye, bye, so long and farewell for the hosts.

Hapoel Tel Aviv worked out their issues in the lockerroom at halftime and blew away Jerusalem to the tune of 51-33 over the course of the final twenty minutes of play showing that Ofer Yannay’s etam really is the top of the clash thus far early on in the camapaign.

Both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are playing in the EuroCup and both are looking to win the competition which then gives the champion a spot in the Euroleague which is where the respective owners Yannay and Matan Adelson desire to see their teams. Hapoel Tel Aviv splashed the cash over the summer bringing stars a plenty while Jerusalem took a more conservative approach building off of last year’s roster and filling in certain slots with some solid players.

However, it was clear in the second half how players like Beverley who has oodles of NBA experience, together with Motley who is a solid well tested veteran as well as Wainwright who brings plenty of know how from the greatest league in the world as well as Foster who can score in bundles, can really take a team to the Promised Land.

After losing their opening EuroCup game along with their Winner Cup preseason tournament quarterfinal matchup, it seems that Dedas and his side have slowly but surely figured out how to get the most out of the roster.

The most important factor for this was Dedas cutting down his rotation drastically.

The Greek tactician has a huge squad that also includes terrific players in Joe Ragland, Ben Bentil, Braian Angola, Bruno Caboclo along with Israelis Bar Timor, Tomer Ginat and many others but the bottom line is, it’s unwieldly to try and play 12 players over the course of a 40 minute game.

The cuts began in the EuroCup game against Besiktas where the likes of Ragland played very sparingly, Guy Palatin and Oz Blayzer didn’t see the floor and Ben Bentil wasn’t even registered. Dedas did give minutes to Noam Yaacov to see what he could provide while in the win over Jerusalem those minutes were cut down and were given Blayzer who hit a game changing triple and Palatin.

Dedas spoke about how he had to cut down the rotation and he knows full well that he “can’t satisfy everyone” and that the main goal is to win. The decision not to register Ragland for this game must have left the guard stewing because he himself knows what he can do to help the team win through his experience and fine play just as he did by taking Hapoel Holon to the Israeli league title.

This will be Dedas’s biggest challenge this season and it is to his credit that he realized that managing the rotation and cutting it down quickly enough that is was able to nip it in the bud and not lose games that they should be winning.

For Alon, not having Khadeen Carrington for a game against Hapoel Tel Aviv is not going to help you out as arguably the bench boss’s best scorer was away from the team due to personal issues but the guard should be back within a week. That will no doubt be a huge help for his squad both on and off of the floor.

But even with Carrington, Jerusalem would have had a very tough time finding a way to win the game once Tel Aviv figured out what they needed to do. Dedas’s team is light years ahead of Jerusalem in terms of talent and that was clear as day in the Arena on this night. That’s not to say that the capital city reds are not a good team, they are, but when you look up and down both of the rosters it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Jerusalem is just not there yet and even more so without Carrington.

Both teams hold 2-1 records in the EuroCup and it’s so, so early on in the season that anything and everything can still happen with these two squads.

Dedas said that the players on his team will need to sacrifice for the better of the collective and that’s abundantly true. If they can keep their egos in check then on paper Hapoel Tel Aviv will have already wrapped up the championship in the Israeli league along with the EuroCup.

But of course we all know that the games are played on the court and that the players are human with their own dreams and own desires. It’s so early on in the season that it wouldn’t shock anyone if Hapoel Jerusalem returns the favor the next time that the two teams play.

Can Hapoel Tel Aviv keep the letter “I” out of the word “Team”?

Ultimately, that is the beauty of sports.