Maccabi Tel Aviv Stalls for 4:26 as Hapoel Tel Aviv Takes Control in Finals Game 2

Maccabi Tel Aviv entered Thursday night’s second game of the Israeli league finals with a 1-0 series lead, but it got off to a disastrous start and went 4:26 minutes without scoring. Hapoel Tel Aviv, by contrast, opened with a 0-14 run and looked far sharper on both ends of the floor.

Before Maccabi’s first basket, Hapoel had already forced two turnovers and attempted only one two-point shot. The first score of the game came from Oshae Brissett, who came off the bench for Maccabi and broke the drought. By that point, Hapoel had hit five of its first seven shots from the field, an extremely strong opening clip.

Coach Oded Kattash used seven of his eight rotation players before Brissett finally ended the scoreless stretch. The contrast with the previous game was stark, since Maccabi had won the first quarter of that matchup 16-25. The article frames the opening minutes as a sign of Maccabi’s crisis and Hapoel’s momentum in the championship series.