TB45. No, not TB12 – Tom Brady – but TB45.
We’re talking about Tamir Blatt, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s stealth shooter who wears the No. 45 jersey and almost single-handedly secured Game 1 of the Israel basketball league finals for the yellow-and-blue against Hapoel Jerusalem.
Blatt, the son of superstar coach David Blatt, the former Cleveland Cavaliers bench boss and multiple Euroleague champion, scored his team’s last nine points in a 91-88 win on their home court at Yad Eliyahu.
With Maccabi nursing a two-point lead at 82-80 with 1:49 left in the game, Blatt nailed a three-pointer to bump the advantage up to five points to give Oded Katash’s team a bit of breathing room. Then he went 6-of-6 from the free-throw line to stave off any thoughts of a Hapoel Jerusalem comeback and close out the win.
With the victory, Maccabi is just one game away from hoisting its third straight Israeli league championship plate, and it will look to take care of business on Thursday night in the capital city at the Pais Arena.
Blatt scored 14 points total and dished out five assists while turning over the ball just once in 21 minutes 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 Reds team.
Maccabi didn’t come out playing its best basketball in Game 1, and it was clear that the lengthy layoff due to the break between the semifinal series sweep over Hapoel Holon and the finals played a role. 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 lead (65-54) with 3:45 left in the third quarter.
There was no sense of urgency and no real passion or desire emanating from Katash’s men, and it looked like they were heading to a loss at what was a dead-silent Yad Eliyahu. One could hardly hear a peep as Yovel Zoosman and Justin Smith built up Jerusalem’s 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 Hapoel’s lead disappear in quick order as Maccabi found itself just two points in the hole – 69-67 – by the end of the third quarter.
Reds coach Yonatan Alon didn’t call a timeout during the 15-4 run, and it seemed he could certainly have used one as Maccabi cut down the gap like a buzzsaw, sending the crowd into a frenzy. However, when asked why he didn’t try to stop the bleeding by halting play, Alon said that it was not in his deck of cards and he wanted to save the timeout for later in the game.
“‘Timeout’ is not a magic word to turn things around,” said Alon. “I needed it at the end. There are runs in basketball; we had three completely open three-point opportunities, and we got the shots we wanted to get.”
Those shots, however, didn’t fall, and it cost him dearly as Maccabi and their fans got right back into the game.
As the final frame got under way, Jerusalem continued to miss and miss and miss some more as Harper whiffed on another pair from deep and so did Nimrod Levi, while Jeremy Morgan – who had played extremely well in the first half – also couldn’t hit the side of a barn.
As Jerusalem was missing its chances, it took Maccabi some time to finally get into the lead, which it did when Juokubaitis flipped the score at 78-77 and then put 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.
Alon was asked the day before the game about trying to stop Blatt, who is averaging over 10 points and 6.5 assists in the playoffs alone.
“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 challenging enough for TB45 to operate easily down the stretch, and it will now be back to the drawing board for the Reds' coach.
Breaking down Hapoel's defense
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 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 that 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.”
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 a 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 against them [and lost]. If we manage to do this, it will be a very successful season.”