“You can call me the Israeli Russell Westbrook”

That’s all you need to know about Iftach Ziv who led Hapoel Gilboa Galil to an upset 74-72 semifinal game one win over Hapoel Holon on the road to snatch home court advantage away from the favorites.

There’s no question that Ziv is arguably the best Israeli player in the league today and he also has that award as well to back it up. The 25-year old has matured well beyond his years and knows exactly what to do on the court and more importantly when to do it for Avishay Gordon’s team.

“You can see how much I trust him,” Gordon said. “He takes the ball, he wants it. He’s a winner and made a huge basket.”

It wasn’t just one huge basket that Ziv scored down the stretch, it was a couple.

The winning shot was a masterpiece of muscle as Ziv went from his right hand to his left, jumped high in the air as he was parallel the baseline, fumbled the ball and was fouled by Nate Sestina, but was able to get the shot off as it went through the hoop to give Gilboa the lead for good.

In fact, the previous bucket was similar in style but Ziv was able to get to the backboard after almost losing control of the ball as he put it off of the glass to keep his team in the game. He may have been fouled on the play but the referees weren’t interested in calling anything close in what was the lion’s den of the Holon Arena.

“You can call me the Israeli Russell Westbrook, Ziv said. “My team trusted me to take the ball and I’m happy that I was able to do what I needed to. It’s a great feeling but this is only halftime we have another 40 minutes to go.”

The three game series is far from being over, but game two now turns to Gan Ner where over 2,000 Galilee fans will raise the roof to will their team to the finals where they will face the winner of the Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Eilat series in which the Yellow & Blue have a 1—0 lead and can punch their ticket on Tuesday night at the Red Sea city.

With Ziv leading the way, there’s no doubt that the Sabra wants to take his team a step further than where they finished last season which was the semifinals where they fell to Maccabi in a Final Four format.

“I understand more as to what I need to do as a leader, a point guard and how to be mentally focused,” the man of the hour said. “This was my Achilles heel and I’ve worked on this so much and I’m not afraid to play against bigger players and talented players.”

Ziv has no fear and neither does the team which was clear from the get go. While Holon presents a very macho appearance and have been able to walk the walk and talk the talk, the same can be said of Gilboa. They have NO FEAR.

“I’m happy that is how you view us,” Ziv commented with a smile. “That is how we want to look like, like warriors who will look at everyone in the white of the eyes and we have that. One game it’s me, last game it was Floyd but that is what we are as a team, a team with no fear.”

Holon has been playing second day over the past couple of weeks and are also without Chris Johnson who suffered a concussion as well as Isaiah Miles who left during the security situation and Tyus McGee who was injured, which forced coach Stefanos Dedas to bring in two new players in Michal Sokolowski and Joe Alexander. Gilboa on the other hand have been able to run with the same roster all season long using up to ten men in any given game while also having an extra two days of rest after polishing off Hapoel Jerusalem in a sweep.

Those days were a Godsend for Gordon, “The extra days gave us some rest, do some treatments, add some wrinkles and also work on video.”

“They had more rest and waited four days while we had only 46 hours from the last game,” Dedas explained. “They were better for most of the game but it’s a game of 40 minutes. Chris was out and we made a great effort. I’m proud as to how we played. Gilboa has the same team for 9-months so they had an advantage on the small details. If Iftach misses the floater no one remembers how we played. We will go to Galil and try to get the win.”

“Chris is our guy,” Willy Workman said about the injured Johnson. “Great player, played in the NBA and when you don’t have a guy like that, it hurts. All year we have found a way to win and right now his health is first and foremost. It’s not an ankle but his head.”

Ziv may have scored the big buckets at the end, but Gordon was clear that it’s defense first when winning games especially down the stretch and in the postseason. One player that was key in the win was Amit Gershon with 15 big minutes in which he went 3/3 from downtown and played lockdown defense in the final frame, “It begins with defense and that is what we have to do to keep a low score. Amit reminds me of me. So I always tell him to shoot, but he did a great job defensively plus the three pointers he scored gave us some breathing room.”

With defense being a priority in the playoffs, Dedas’s Holon had a tough time stepping up to the plate while also trying to paint his team as the underdogs, “We made a bad play defensively. We had a chance to win and some parts of the game were bad. You can cheat one opponent but you can’t cheat the sport. Galil is more sympathetic. Dedas is the foreigner. Better Galil win, it’s more sexy and they are outsider.”

Workman knows full well what his team needs to do in order to win the series in which their backs are now against the wall, needing to win two in a row, Wednesday at Gilboa and then Friday back at home. “Every loss hurts. We have to go up there and win and comeback and win. It hurts to lose on an amazing shot but my focus isn’t there now it’s on the next game.”

The next game is certainly the focus for Iftach Ziv and company, no doubt about that because the last thing they want to do on Friday is to have to return to Holon for a decisive game 3.

“We have to win on order not to come back to Holon on Friday. We want to come to our home court and be with our fans. We believe in our team.”