TB45.

No, not TB12. But TB45.

We’re talking about Tamir Blatt and not Tom Brady as Maccabi Tel Aviv’s stealth shooter almost singlehandedly won game one for the yellow-and-blue over Hapoel Jerusalem.

Blatt, the son of superstar coach David Blatt, the one time Cleveland Cavaliers bench boss and multiple time Euroleague champion maestro, scored his team’s final 9 points in a 91-88 win on their home court, Yad Eliyahu.

With Maccabi nursing a 2-point, 82-80 lead with 1:49 left in the game, Blatt nailed a 3-pointer to bump the advantage up to 5-points to give Oded Katash’s team a bit of breathing room. Then he went ahead to go 6/6 from the free throw line to stave off any thoughts of a Hapoel Jerusalem comeback and close out the game one win.

With the victory, Maccabi is just one game away from hoisting their third straight Israeli league championship plate and they will look to take care of business on Thursday night in the capital city at the Arena.

Blatt scored 14 points and dished out 5 assists while turning over the ball just once in 21 minutes of action to help put his team in the enviable position of winning the title in a facility that already saw Maccabi capture the Israel State Cup back in February against the same red team.

Maccabi didn’t come out playing their best basketball in game one and it was clear that the lengthy layoff that they had due to due to the break between their semifinal series sweep over Hapoel Holon and the finals. However, as the minutes ticked off the clock it soon looked like the yellow-and-blue were playing a regular season tilt in the month of January as the visitors built up an 11-point, 65-54 lead with 3:45 left in the third quarter.

There was no sense of urgency and no real passion or desire that was emanating from Katash’s crew whatsoever and it looked like they were heading to a loss at what was a dead silent Yad Eliyahu. One could hardly hear a peep of noise as Yovel Zoosman and Justin Smith built up the double-digit lead.

But all of a sudden John Dibartolomeo put in a deuce, Trevion Williams went from deep, Jaylen Hoard, Jimmy Clark and Rokas Jokubaitis all scored while playing with three guards as Jerusalem shot one blank after the next. Misses by Khadeen Carrington, Jared Harper and Zoosman from beyond the arc saw the lead disappear in quick order as Maccabi found themselves just 2 points in the hole, 69-67 by the end of the third quarter.

The reds coach Yonatan Alon didn’t call a timeout during the 15-4 run and it seemed that he certainly could have used one as Maccabi cut down the gap like a buzz saw sending the crowd into a frenzy. But when I asked him why he didn’t the bench boss said that it was not in his deck of cards to stop play and wanted to save the timeout for later in the game.

“Timeout is not a magic word to turn things around,” Alon. “I needed it at end. There are runs in basketball, we had three completely open 3-point opportunities, we got the shots we wanted to get.”

However, those shots didn’t fall and it cost him dearly as Maccabi and their fans got right back into the game.

As the final frame got underway, Jerusalem continued to miss and miss and miss some more as Harper missed another pair from deep and so Nimrod Levi while Jeremy Morgan who had played extremely well in the first half, also couldn’t hit the side of a barn.

While Jerusalem was missing their chances, it took Maccabi some time to finally get into the lead which they did when Rokas Juokubaitis flipped the score at 78-77 and then out his team ahead for good with a jumper with 2:35 to go. From there, it was all TB45 as Blatt took over and polished off the win in fine fashion.

I had asked Alon the day before the game about trying to stop Blatt who is averaging over 10 points and 6.5 assists in the playoffs alone and he said, “We have to guard him in a certain way, push him more into the paint, be very aggressive with him. You can’t stop him completely, he’s an excellent and versatile player, he does things and gets other players in an extraordinary way. We have to make it difficult for him.”

Unfortunately for Jerusalem, Alon and his squad didn’t make it difficult enough for TB45 to operate with ease down the stretch and it will now be back to the drawing table for the Reds coach.

For Katash, he praised Blatt while also explaining how he was finally able to break down the Hapoel defense by playing a trio of guards which included captain John Dibartolomeo who looked like he is making this series into his own personal vengeance tour for the loss he endured at Jerusalem’s hands when he was with Maccabi Haifa way back in 2017.

“We needed to find our way,” Katash said. “I felt at some point that I needed to switch to three guards, that’s what freed us up but also exposes us in some defensive and rebounding situations. In the end, switching to this lineup changed the game for us and also credit to John D who always comes through, he was great for us.”

The Maccabi coach continued, “Once we switched to this lineup, we adjusted the defense and were less predictable defensively. We were less predictable, and we took more chances. We took them out of their comfort zone at that point and that won the game. It was a game of runs, but I’m happy. We managed to hold on, Tamir stepped up and in the last few minutes made big plays but everyone contributed in their minutes. It wasn’t a one-sided game, we’re playing against a good, well-coached team. You have to give them credit.”

Maccabi will want to finish this series off in Jerusalem and Katash knows what it will take to do just that, “We must go into the game in Jerusalem feeling that if we win a championship, considering the circumstances, this is one of the most successful seasons for this club. We can’t take anything for granted, that we have home court advantage and are leading 1-0 after what we have been through. We must go there to Jerusalem as underdogs who want to win this title but we are not there yet as Hapoel Tel Aviv also led 1-0. If we manage to do this, it will be a very successful season.”