There’s an old saying that “derbies have rules of their own,” and that was certainly the case this past week as Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv squared off in another pair of heated encounters, adding two more chapters to a rivalry that has delivered plenty of drama in recent years.

The Reds came out on top in the Israeli League derby at Yad Eliyahu, dismantling the yellow-and-blue 105-87 in a game that was never particularly close. Vasilije Micic caught fire from beyond the arc, while Oded Katash’s defense had no answers for the Serbian guard, who carved up Maccabi at will.

Suddenly, Katash’s future with the club appeared increasingly uncertain. Calls for his dismissal began growing louder following back-to-back league defeats and a disastrous EuroLeague campaign that had left the yellow-and-blue languishing near the bottom of the standings with a 2-8 record. With their continental hopes already looking bleak before the winter, the pressure was mounting.

Things appeared to go from bad to worse in the Winner Cup Final at Toto Arena in Holon, where Maccabi once again found itself being thoroughly outplayed by Hapoel. Eugene German stepped into Micic’s shoes, knocking down five three-pointers in the second quarter as Dimitris Itoudis’s squad took control. The Reds eventually opened up a 23-point advantage and held Maccabi scoreless for the first seven minutes of the third quarter.

But that was when everything changed for Katash and his crew.

Jimmy Clark, Keaton Wallace and Daniel Theis began scoring at will, combining with John DiBartolomeo to produce an almost flawless stretch of basketball. Before anyone knew what had happened, Maccabi had erased the massive deficit and completed a stunning comeback, cruising to an 86-75 victory.

That set the stage for the third installment of this derby trilogy, this time in Cyprus, with both teams desperately needing a EuroLeague victory. Maccabi was looking to prevent its season from completely unraveling with nearly 30 games still remaining, while Hapoel was hoping to snap a two-game losing streak.

What followed was a classic, hard-nosed battle that will go down as one of the more physical encounters between these two clubs since they began facing one another in European competition.

The fouls were hard, deliberate and purposeful. Players battled for every loose ball as if it were the last possession of the season. Nearly every other sequence seemed to require a trip to the monitor to determine whether a foul warranted an unsportsmanlike or disqualifying call, while out-of-bounds decisions were scrutinized as if the entire game depended on them.

The nearly two-and-a-half-hour spectacle was everything the roughly 1,200 fans at the Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Center in Limassol could have hoped for and then some.

Yam Madar left the arena with a broken nose, but even after being bandaged up, he returned to the floor and continued battling against his former club. Elijah Bryant delivered a particularly hard foul on Madar, one that seemed to send shockwaves all the way back to Tel Aviv.

Oshae Brissett also took a nasty fall on his lower back and was unable to return, while Tomas Satoransky was whistled for an unsportsmanlike foul on Madar with 21 seconds remaining in regulation. Madar calmly knocked down the resulting free throws to put Maccabi in control, before Bryant committed another foul with 14 seconds left, sending the guard back to the line to add two more points.

Theis then capped off the evening with a dunk off a long-distance assist from Madar as the final seconds ticked away and that was that in an 80-73 Maccabi victory.

Katash had gotten the better of Itoudis once again, taking a hard-earned victory back to Israel.

Ultimately, Maccabi was the better team on the night, even before the final buzzer confirmed its 3-8 EuroLeague record. The yellow-and-blue had already established control by halftime, taking a 41-33 advantage into the break. Hapoel, however, managed to chip away at the deficit and closed the third quarter trailing just 56-52, setting up an intriguing final frame.

In fact, Amir Coffey and Satoransky opened the fourth quarter by giving Itoudis’s team a 57-56 lead, raising the possibility that Maccabi might once again let the game slip away. But Bonzie Colson answered with a huge three-pointer to put Katash’s squad back in front.

Bryant then gave Hapoel a 61-60 advantage, and once again it appeared that the momentum might swing decisively in the Reds’ favor.

But who came to the rescue, just as he had in the Winner Cup Final?

None other than Clark, who buried a pair of three-pointers, followed by Theis with one of his own and Wallace with a two-pointer. That combination kept Maccabi in front for good, before Madar put the finishing touches on the victory.

Both teams left absolutely everything on the floor and then some. Really, the only thing missing was the opportunity to play this game in their actual home city of Tel Aviv rather than in Cyprus.

For Katash, who came under considerable pressure as November began, the victory provides some much-needed breathing room. However, there is little time to celebrate, with a demanding schedule waiting around the corner.

First up is the Israeli Classico against Hapoel Jerusalem at Yad Eliyahu on Saturday night, followed by a EuroLeague double week in Cyprus featuring home games against Olympiacos and Dubai.

Those two European contests are enormously important if Maccabi hopes to climb back into the playoff picture. Winning both would move the club to 5-8, although realistically, taking down Olympiacos will be a difficult assignment. A split would be a more reasonable expectation, leaving the yellow-and-blue at 4-9.

That would hardly be an ideal position, but it would not be the end of the world. Maccabi will have opportunities to string together victories against the likes of Bayern Munich, Baskonia, Virtus Bologna and Zalgiris before facing a pair of Turkish challenges against Fenerbahce and Anadolu Efes. After those two contests, another derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv awaits.

For Itoudis, who was rather combative during his postgame press conference, the defeat drops the Reds to 6-5, and the pressure is beginning to build.

One never quite knows which version of Hapoel will show up, which players will be available or who will ultimately emerge as the primary contributors. That uncertainty makes life considerably more difficult for the coaching staff and the players themselves. When the Reds are winning, everything appears to be working beautifully. When the losses start piling up, however, it’s an entirely different story.

Now sitting in 10th place, Itoudis must find a way to get his team back on track. The first opportunity comes Saturday night against a struggling Bnei Herzliya, before Hapoel heads out on the road for matchups against Baskonia and Paris.

Ultimately, the biggest question coming out of these two derbies is how much they will impact each team’s EuroLeague campaign moving forward.

Can Maccabi build on these two victories and use the momentum to finally get its season heading in the right direction? And can Hapoel quickly turn the page, regroup and return to the form that made it one of the most dangerous teams in the competition?

The upcoming week could prove extremely telling for both clubs. The derby victories and defeats have provided plenty of drama, but the real test will be whether either team can translate what happened on the court in Cyprus into meaningful momentum in the EuroLeague standings.