Hapoel Holon and Maccabi Tel Aviv both went up 2-0 in their series as they will look to advance to the semifinals on Sunday evening with a pair of 3-0 sweeps.

The purples once again defeated Bnei Herzliya as Justin Alston and captain Netanel Arzti starred in the 99-94 victory while Yehu Orland’s squad is still looking like they have not played much together which of course is a fact with a trio of newcomers taking the spots of injured players.

But really to me the big story was how Artzi, the captain took the bull by the horns and knew exactly how to chalk up the victory. He started scoring early and often for Guy Kaplan’s team and has been the consummate professional game in and game out, whether they win or lose.

I’ve seen it with my own eyes how he can take a loss, a bad one in fact really, really hard and let his teammates know that it’s unacceptable for a team like Hapoel Holon to ever look the way they did up in Afula last month when they blew a +20 point lead and took a brutal loss.

Artzi came out and spoke like a man, took the blame on the chin and said all the right things. Sometimes words can be hollow and I’m sure some of the fans didn’t buy what he said, but he backed up every single word from his monologue on that night.

The forward, who is a free agent after this season, has done everything in his power to do what needs to be in done at the end of the regular season as well as in the playoffs. Whether it’s scoring, playing defense or being a leader on or off of the court, Artzi has shown everyone involved in Israeli basketball fan what he can offer to a team.

He’s the ultimate glue guy, mature, intelligent, well spoken and is respected by those around him. He has served the Israel Basketball Association whether it’s been playing for the National Team when others may not have wanted to or playing in 3×3 action in far flung countries as well.

Listening to him after the game two win, it was clear as day as to how he views the upcoming game three back in Herzliya, it’s back to 0-0 and not 2-0 in the series. Artzi wasn’t going to jump the gun, “We are leading the series 2-0 but nothing is over and we haven’t done anything yet.”

“I feel much more consistent in my play than in other seasons,” Artzi continued. “I’ve been in the league long enough, I have a lot of responsibility and I’m happy to have gone through this positive change. What’s always important to me is doing the little things that make a difference that aren’t seen in the statistics, I really believe in myself and in God.”

As for this being the biggest game in his career with 23 points and just being so influential on the court, “I can’t say if this is the biggest game in my career and I don’t really want to say that either, because my career continues and there are many games to go. I always want more. I’m not in a place where I’m thinking about how many points I’ll score I just want to win. As far as I’m concerned, I can finish with 0 points, but knowing that in 20-30 minutes I contributed on defense and offense is just fine.”

I asked Head Coach Guy Kaplan about how Arzti has grown as a player and leader over the years,”First of all, he has matured, Netanel Artzi is already 28 years old, he is not the 21-year-old kid who arrived at Gilboa. He has found his own place and can influence his teammates in a positive manner. When everyone feels comfortable in their place on the team, they know how to relieve the pressure.”

Sure Holon celebrated in front go their home crowd but that was for a few minutes and now it’s back to practice and back to week to close out the series and then move into the semifinals where they will most probably play Maccabi Tel Aviv who also are on top of an overwhelmed Nes Ziona 2-0.

Over at the yellow-and-blue, they are just cruising against an overmatched Nes Ziona squad taking a 83-65 win. Maccabi has more depth, better players, bigger budget, the list can go on and on so it should’t come as much of a surprise that they are most probably going to sweep this series without too much of a problem.

The only real problem Maccabi was going to face in this series was the league’s scoring leader Bryce Brown who chalked up close to 20 points per game. In the first contest in the series he scored 15 points and caused a bit of issues and Katash was very well aware that he can go off any single game and didn’t want that to be at Lev HaMoshava in game two.

With that, Maccabi held Brown to 0/11(!) and 0 points for the first time this season as the game plan was as clear as day – stop the guard at all costs.

Brown was down in the dumps following the game and posted on social media that he was shooting hoops at a local park to get some more work in and shake off what was a disastrous game. Good for him.

In truth, it’s not that he did anything wrong, but Maccabi doing everything right.

“In the first game, we also put a mark on Brown,” Katash said. “We learned from the first game, came more focused and did a great job of preventing him from easy baskets. That was one of our keys, especially when they are playing with a short roster.”

Rafi Menco also spoke about stooping Brown, “He is their main scorer and we really prepared for him and I have to give credit to the staff for doing that.”

When Brown’s head coach Amit Sherf came into the press conference I asked him about what he will do to help the guard make sure he’s there Sunday night giving 100%, “We try to do what we can so that he has the chance to make the big plays. I told him in the lockerroom that we are all there for him and that he has to be aggressive and take the shots that he needs to take. He has the green light to take the shots he wants to but the focus that they are putting on him makes him need to help his teammates and pass the ball as he has done all season. I hope that he will be able to get his shot to fall on Sunday.”

If Nes Ziona has to have any chance in game three, Brown has got to have his host fall or else they will be heading out to the golf courses.