Bnei Herzliya and Hapoel Holon will meet tonight (Monday, 21:00) in the first game of the Premier League final series. Both teams come with the same rosters that were also registered for the semifinal series, namely Holon with Haydn Dalton and without Steve Zack and Adam Smith, and on the other hand Bnei Herzliya with Sean Kemp and Andy Van Velit and without Alexander Zvitvich. Holon fans who will not come to the Jubilee Hall in Herzliya will watch the game on huge screens in La Perek, where the happening also takes place.
The significance of the staff registered for the series in terms of chaps is no less fascinating, since this series brings with it different styles. It is doubtful whether a series of three or even five games will give an unequivocal and long-term answer to why it is really better, because at the end of the day the team that manages to control the pace and dictate its style will win.
Holonia’s style relies quite a bit on the arc of the three. The back line players, as well as the forwards, can definitely score beyond the arc and in good percentages. Goodes’ players can score well for three, but they are not a distinct shooting team. On the other hand, the game of Bnei Herzliya is based quite a bit on the ability to do enormous damage from the inside in the form of Chinano Onoako, and the damage that Chris Bab did beyond the arc, among other things.
Bnei Herzliya will not want to enter a three-way competition with Holon, because the Purple-Yellows have an advantage. At the same time, if the threes of Andy Van Wallit, Chris Bab, Quinton Hawker, Sean Dawson and even Onoako come in – then Goodes and his players are expected to have an extra long evening.
Holonia will pin Chris Johnson, its best defensive player, on one of Herzliya’s key players or at least try to bring Chris Bab to the areas where Johnson is so that it can make it as difficult as possible for him. In addition, Tyros Maggie can also put pressure on the ball and create situations at a particularly high level. In the Holon attack, it is impossible not to refer to the composition of the three guards who can create situations for themselves and their teammates. And all this before arranging exercises for Dalton who can score excellently from the outside.
Hapoel Holon’s advantage will come beyond the arc, and when Bnei Herzliya will prefer to take the ball out of Joe Ragland’s hands, or alternatively close delivery lines for him and try to get the losing streak to surpass his assist line. If the Bnei Herzliya players manage to dismantle the team game of Goodes and his players and make them rely on net personal abilities, the purple-yellows may find themselves in trouble.
Guy Goodes (Itzik Belnitsky)Bnei Herzliya on the other hand, feels more balanced, she has a piece of goal player (Onoako), she has a long player in position four who can also profit (Andy Van Witt), another who is a player who likes to sacrifice and does the small actions that are not exactly seen in the statistics pages (Sean Kemp ), A not bad Israeli winger at all to say the least and who has already won the league championship (Sean Dawson), and another guard forward who showed clutch ability more than once from the moment he arrived in Israel, including when he wore yellow-blue when he felt it closely was Guy Goodes To mark (Sandy Cohen).
The series that brings together Bnei Herzliya and Hapoel Holon brings with it particularly high levels of interest, with Herzliya’s ability in the state cup against Holon in particular can hint at the problems that yellow yellows can have.
Oren Aharoni (Itzik Belnitsky)Holonia’s endurance this season has been put to the test more than once, and almost always Goodes’ team has managed to do what it needed to do – whether against Besiktas, Biram against Ludwigsburg and certainly against Hapoel Jerusalem, when Tyros Maggie was there for him whenever needed. The question that of course needs to be asked when the two teams have already met four times this season is who will be able to surprise and in what way.