Tomorrow: Hapoel will try to close the series

While the other three series in the quarter-final stage of the playoffs ended in a sweep, Bnei Herzliya and Hapoel "Bank Yahav" Jerusalem continue to fight for the last ticket to the big four, and tomorrow (Sunday), the runner-up will host the cup holder in the Yovel Arena, with the aim of returning the series to a decisive fifth game in the capital (20:45, live broadcast on the SPORT5 channel, referees: Sefi Shemesh, Omer Esteron, Dan Yalon). If Herzliya wins and draws 2:2, game no. 5 will be held on Tuesday at 19:00 at Pais Arena. The winner of the series will meet Hapoel Tel Aviv in the semi-finals.

In all three games so far, the host team has won: 70:81 for Hapoel in the first game, 64:75 for Herzliya in the second, and a dramatic 69:74 for the Reds in the third. Oren Aharoni's team seemed to be on the right path to turning the series around when they led for long minutes of the second half at Piss Arena, but the cup holder again showed a lot of character and managed to take the victory by the teeth, thanks to a final quarter in which she scored 26 points—almost double the third quarter, in which she was content with 14 points only.

Hapoel led the league in scoring with only 73.9 mandatory points in the regular season, and Herzliya ranked third with 81.9. Therefore, it is no wonder that this is a series with the lowest results so far in the current playoffs: only 144.3 points per game compared to 171.3 points shared on average in the other three series. Another thing that characterizes the series is low shooting percentages from the line: the cup holder is last in the playoffs with only 61.5%, and the runner-up is just slightly above her with 61.7%. Julian Gamble, who in the regular season made 49.3% of his free throws, has already left 17 points on the line in the series (10 of 27, 37%).

Another interesting trend is the team's choice of shots from beyond the arc: in the first game, it took 28 attempts from beyond the arc, and in the two games since then, it has taken only 30 cumulatively (15 in each game). Her number of shots for two gradually increased with each game: 34, 43, and 50, respectively. Levi Randolph, who in the two opening games of the series stopped at 10.5 points with only 1 of 9 for threes, led the Hapoel scorers in the third game with 18 points, including 2 of 4 for threes. TJ Cline, who in the first two games was satisfied with 2.0 points and a -0.5 rating, went up in the top five in the last game and stood out with 9 points, 4 of 5 from the field, and an 11 rating before going out with five fouls.

Chris Babb, who led the Bnei Herzliya scorers in Game No. 1 with 23 points, 4 of 12 for three, and an eff. index of 26, has been content in the two games since then with a cumulative 15 points, 1 of 11 beyond the arc, and an eff. index of 9. In the 2022 playoffs, where the team came from the Sharon For the first time in Finals history, he scored 15+ points in all wins (20.0 points and a 47% three-point average) and was held to 12 points or less in all losses (9.7 points and a 14% three-point average).

The last series in the Israeli playoffs that reached a fifth game was five years ago, when Hapoel Holon, in which rookie TJ Cline played at the time, beat Hapoel Eilat 2:3. The last time Hapoel Jerusalem reached a decisive game in a best-of-5 series, against Ironi Nahariya in the 2017 quarterfinals, they went on to win the championship. Bnei Herzliya, then under the name Bnei Hasharon, reached Game 5 for the last time in the 2010 quarterfinals, when they lost in a thriller to Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Out of 40 best-of-5 series that reached a 1:1 tie, only once did the team that lost the third game recover and win the series. That is, in a situation of equality after two games, the balance of winners in game #3 stands at 1:39 in the entire series (97.5%). The only team ever to recover from a loss in the third game when the series was tied 1:1 was Hapoel Gilboa Galil in 2009 against the then-defending champion Hapoel Holon: they tied it 2:2 with an easy 55:77 at home, and in the fifth game away, they won 80:87 at the end. Extra time on the way to the Final Four

The three playoff leaders in minutes so far come from Herzliya: Maurice Kemp, first with 36.7, and immediately after Chris Babb and Quinton Hawker, with an average of 36.3. No other team has a player who averages 34 minutes per game in the current playoffs (Randolph ranks fourth with 33.7 minutes). The bench of the runner-up, which is missing Sandy Cohen, as I remember, ranks last in the playoffs in minutes with 46.3 per game, a decrease of about 12 minutes from the average of its substitute players during the regular season.