1) For Bnei Herzliya, the 106-101 victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv was a valuable one for Yehu Orland and his squad after having fallen to Kiryat Ata. There’s no question that the team needs to find some sort of consistency and that is of utmost importance for them to have a successful campaign. The bench boss has some incredible tools and talent at his disposal including Xavier Sneed the one-time Charlotte Hornets, Utah Jazz and Memphis Grizzlies player featured in Italy last season after having played in the G-League since coming out of Kansas State in 2020.

Sneed had been injured for the opening month of the season but he certainly came back with a vengeance as he was stellar in the win, coolly dropping a trio of free throws at the end of regulation time to send the contest into overtime where he continued to score to hand his team the precious victory.

Following the game, Sneed discussed having the chance to hit the free throws in crunch time as well as how he landed up at Herzliya as well while also setting the goal of winning the league MVP.

“We won a hard fought game and we knew it was going to be tough coming into this game. We had to get stops and rebounds and while we didn’t play to our full potential we got the win. The home crowd brings a lot for us and they are a 6th man on the court.”

“A ‘W’ is a ‘W’. But we keep our help never too high and never too low. A ‘w’ is a ’W’ and we’re glad we came out with one. We all know Maccabi, they are a great team and we are happy that we came back and won.”

Did he ever have the chance to tie up the game from the line as time was expiring? “I had that before, I’ve been in that situation before so it wasn’t too much pressure as I’ve been in this type of environment where free throws wins the game and I hit them. It helped us survive another day.”

Is winning the league MVP a goal for this season? “It was one of my goals coming here to the team before even learning about the rest of my teammates too, knowing how good those guys are now so they are going to make it very tough on me and all of the other talents around the league as well. That’s my daily affirmation. When I wake up in the morning I want to try to be the MVP not just in basketball but everything in life. That’s how I build myself and hold myself to a certain stature.

How did you decide to come to Israel during a war? “I had a talk with the coach, Amit and the chairman before we had a full roster and before the season started. The game plan set in stone was that we should be at least one of the 3-4 teams in the league and that is what we got out everyday to try and prove. They believe in us and we believe in them.”

Can Bnei Herzliya make some serious noise this campaign? “I love being in an underdog role and I love along with the guys to come out and prove things to everybody that says anything about them. It’s a great position to be in and to come out and play together. The energy builds off of each other and if we can get wins like this it will just be a matter of time until they start talking about us.”

2) Maccabi Tel Aviv fell to Bnei Herzliya in a game that looked as if they were not here and not there for so many reasons.

1) the yellow-and-blue are still playing with a short roster
2) there are injuries as Jasiel Rivero sat with the media
3) they got back Tamir Blatt after an injury and he needed to get into game playing shape
4) David DeJulius one of the teams newcomers needed to play with his new teammates in order to get into the swing of things
5} Maccabi saw their two centers foul out
6) they played lackadaisical basketball
7) they are exhausted from travel and Euroleague play
8) they have two Euroleague games this week against the best of the best in the champs Panathinaikos and Final 4 finalist Olympiacos.

Is that enough? There are probably even more reasons as well.

But one thing that bothered the casual observer is that Maccabi never looked like they were in it to win it. They were nor here, nor there and really the game was used as a chance to get in a good scrimmage with Blatt and DeJulius given time with the hope that by the end of the 40 minutes they would take home the victory.

Instead, not only didn’t the game finish in 40 minutes at the start of a busy week after a game in Bologna on Friday, it went into overtime and that was just going to be too much. Maccabi played the game half-assed in essence and Bnei Herzliya took advantage of that to notch the win.

“Our challenge is the energy,” Katash explained. “Under the existing circumstances, we managed to muster almost enough energy to win the game. It is not an easy court and arena to play in and we aren’t the only Euroleague team that loses in domestic league play although we try to avoid this as much as possible. Those know what we are going through and there are many mitigating circumstances for all of us, certainly for the players. Let’s hope that very soon we will have a deeper roster and will be able to have a proper rotation.”

Ultimately, the Euroleague is the more important of the two competitions right now and every team will find themselves with some losses in their respective domestic leagues. Maccabi will certainly hope that this game won’t cost them later on when home court advantage is at stake, something that they needed the last two seasons when they beat Hapoel Tel Aviv in the finals.

3) Hapoel Tel Aviv had yet another tough day at the office on and off of the court as they just slipped by Kiryat Ata 96-95 in a game that really took the reds all the way to the limit. Whether it was owner Ofer Yannay’s halftime TV interview mentioning that he wants to bring in a coach to work with his current head coach Stefanos Dedas and then telling him not to speak to the media postgame. Or the unsportsmanlike foul that wasn’t called by Patrick Beverley on Chavaughn Lewis that the Israel Basketball Referee Association said should have been called. And that’s before we even get to the topic of Johnthan Motley, the “Ultras” protest about playing at Yad Eliyahu and on and on and on.

As Yannay said in the postgame press conference in place of Dedas that he was putting together the Avengers and it’s going to take time for such a crew to find a way to work with one another. Marcus Foster was with the owner and succinctly explained why it just takes time to jell.

“We have a team that has so many weapons that we want to use them all at once. People have been coming and going and that doesn’t help but we after trying different things. The two competitions are different. You never win titles in November but you win them in March, April and June.”

Hapoel needs to get some sort of consistency in order to meet their burgeoning potential. The Reds do have tons of quality and players who can take the team to the promised land but there may just be too much exterior noise that is hurting the potential that this club can reach.

Perhaps a step back by all, from the top to the bottom of the franchise would help them hit their goals.

4) Credit to Kiryat Ata for a valiant fight to take the last year’s finalist to the wire. Eldad Bentov’s team did what they could and perhaps had they not started out so poorly they could have taken the shock win, with or without the referees. One of the players who made the game so close was newcomer Chris Smith. The big man arrived in Israel in October and while he looked a bt out of sorts in his debut, he has really turned the corner and has provided the team with plenty of hustle, effort and more on both sides of the floor.

The UCLA product played in the G-League as well as the Canadian Summer League before heading to Israel and seems to be a perfect for Bentov’s squad, “I really wanted Chris this summer and it’s his first time overseas. He’s very aggressive and little by little he is getting even better and adjusting to European play,” the bench boss said.

Smith is adjusting well and explained what is making the difference for him as he looks to reach his potential, “It’s a different style of play for sure, a different feel on the court and I am trying to find my fit and I feel like I am starting to mesh better. I came later so I didn’t have the preseason but it’s coming along. It’s really nice to play off a guy like Chavaughn Lewis who has so much knowledge and I was able to make the plays because of him. I feel like I’m making my way.”

The 24-year old also spoke about how he sees ways that Kiryat Ata can continue to win, “The keys of the game is aggressiveness and fight to the game always the fight, 40 minutes of fight whether the shuts are falling or not. Every game bring the same level of toughness, the defense is keeping us in the games and winning games for us by keeping the intensity, understanding the identity and role that we can all have.”

Although Kiryat Ata came up oh just short of winning at the Drive In, Smith doesn’t want to blame the referees for any poor calls and wanted to look internally as what he and his teammates could have done better.

“He [Beverley] had a handful of jersey and they didn’t see it, but I have to look at the plays that I could have made. Ish Wainwright had a free lane for the put-back near the end of the game and we could have all made other plays, maybe I could have gotten another rebound.”

Smith has a bright future ahead of him as a modest and hard working player that will no doubt that he will hit the highest of heights.

5) Hapoel Jerusalem must be thrilled with how Noam Dovrat has been able to really turn it around this season after having been out for more than a year with a knee injury which had been his second serious knock after having suffered a brutal elbow issue a couple of years prior. Each one of these challenges could have been a devastating blow to the now 22 year old but he seems to have really gotten over the hump as he is putting in modest averages so far this season with 6.5 points and 3.8 assists in over 21 minutes per game.

“I gave Noam the opportunities and he took them,” Reds head coach Yonatan Alon said. “I really like him, we are very close but I also won’t give him anything he doesn’t deserve and he knows that. An opportunity was created with the injuries and then with a player leaving and it’s a clear lesson that when you have an opportunity, take a step forward and grab it.”

Over at Hapoel Haifa changes are afoot as JaKeenan Gant is back in Israel after having played with Hapoel Beer Sheva last season and with the rumors that Amit Simhon will also be returning to the team after having not been in action yet this season. Elad Hasin brought in Tyler Bey at the start of the campaign after having coached him at Nes Ziona a couple of years ago, but the reunification of the two hasn’t exactly gone as planned having scored in single digits in three of the five games he’s player thus far.

Hasin was asked if Bey’s motivation is just not there, “I didn’t feel any desire or passion from him, but whoever wants to will be here and whoever doesn’t won’t be here. I’m trying to help him and get him involved. There are things here that are not basketball which is the situation. As much as I want to help him, the most important thing is the team and if it doesn’t help, we’ll find solutions.”

On the possibility of Bay leaving Hasin said, “I don’t know, he has to decide how much he wants to be here and help us. We saw how much he helped. He understands the difficulties.”

6) Ryan Turell made his Israel league debut for Nes Ziona after returning from a knee injury that kept him out for the first month of the season. The Yeshiva University swingman scored 6 points in 12 minutes and had a solid first game in the Holy Land. He was no frills, did what was asked of him, committed one unsportsmanlike foul that wouldn’t have been called in the G-League and hit a triple while going only ¼ from the charity stripe. The most important thing was he didn’t look out of place on the court.

“Turell’s hustle and energy will help us,” Nes Ziona Head Coach Amit Sherf said. “He arrived a bit late in the preseason and now came back from the injury. He needs playing time because his last official game was way back in the spring in the G-League. I’m sure he will play well and contribute to the team.”

“It’s great his back in the rotation, he’s a little rusty but he will be fine,” Ricky Lindo added.

7) Hapoel Holon may have picked up a win over Nes Ziona but they may be losing their most important player in Marcus Bingham. There had been talk that Valencia had been trying to bring the player over to Spain, but as head coach Guy Goodes had said a couple of weeks ago that he and his agent understood that Holon was the right place for him now and that after a solid season he would have plenty of offers. Apparently another EuroCup team is making a move for the star who is averaging 19 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and that team happens to be just down the road in Hapoel Tel Aviv. There is talk that the Reds and Ofer Yannay are willing to pay upwards of $500K for Bingham’s services and there is also talk that Tel Aviv’s point guard Joe Ragland would head back to the purples where he helped the club win an Israel League Championship. Will it happen? We shall see, but as they say when there is smoke there is fire.

“He is tremendous,” Idan Zalmanson said of Bingham. “He has a very high ceiling and he is very talented. He is a very hard working and positive young player. I’m really happy about the season he’s given so far and I’m sure he can be better. I’m really happy for him and I want him to always improve.”

Guy Goodes when asked about Bingham’s status was clear and to the point, “I am not going to comment.”

‘Nuff said.