The war no doubt has affected all parts of Israeli society, and one of the industries that has been faced with some of the collateral damage, so to speak, is sports, in particular basketball.From league schedules being turned upside down to rosters being in constant flux and upheaval, there has been plenty of chaos.One of the teams that has had its fair share of challenges is Maccabi Tel Aviv. When the war began, the yellow-and-blue needed to figure out a plan of action and fast with their foreign players on edge and a Euroleague season that had just begun two days earlier.Belgrade quickly became Maccabi’s home away from home for the foreseeable future as the club rented apartments for the players and decided not to put them up in hotels in order to create the best conditions possible in the circumstances that presented themselves.Despite a far-from-ideal situation, Maccabi has done well in continental play, sporting a 9-7 record thus far while playing in an empty Pionir Arena for home games. But now, with Israeli games back, the club has already had to face some challenges with the roster for those local contests.
This was due to a number of reasons - from the fear of the war, the Christmas holiday, or the club reducing their contracted salaries because of the losses that the club is incurring.With no foreigners available, Maccabi needed to fill its roster with players from the youth department and others who had been loaned out to Leumit League teams. When the yellow-and-blue took to the court for its first home Israel Premier League game of the season, there was no question that this was not a normal matchup, no matter how much the surroundings seemed to be the same.
Maccabi has a solid start
While the familiar faces of Jake Cohen, Roman Sorkin, Tamir Blatt, Rafi Menco and John DiBartolomeo were all on the Yad Eliyahu court, so were the likes of Omer Mayer, who has been with the senior team the entire season, along with Shachar Doron, Roi Behar, Yaron Goldman, Ziv Berko and Oren Sahar, making for quite an eclectic group.Maccabi looked good out of the gate as both big men, Cohen and Sorkin, found their groove inside while Mayer hit a pair of jumpers, but Haifa found their stroke from deep with Amit Gershon, Mike McGuirl and Jon Davis all finding points from the outside. With no defense to be found early on from both squads, Sorkin kept eating up the inside, but Davis answered, and McGuirl continued to score with ease to give the Carmel Reds a 31-24 lead after 10 minutes.Only 5,000 people were allowed inside the arena for the game due to Home Front Command regulations, and right before tipoff, Maccabi told the fans in the upper deck to move down to the lower bowl of the arena, which made the facility look a bit more full but nowhere near what Yad Eliyahu would look like in a Euroleague game.Sorkin kept chewing up the Haifa defense in the paint for more and more points while Davis, McGuirl, and Gershon found the bucket at the other end. Menco drilled a pair from deep, Marvin Clark answered with points in the paint, and Gershon kept hitting his shots from beyond the arc to keep Guy Goodes’s team in front 53-48 at halftime.At the break, Maccabi Tel Aviv personnel were saying how the most important thing is not so much the game, the result, and who is or isn’t playing but the fact that there is basketball back at Yad Eliyahu and that there were many children in attendance who most probably had not had an ounce of fun since that dark Saturday on October 7.Menco began the third quarter with more points, while DiBartolomeo and Blatt finally added their names to the scoresheet. But McGuirl, Davis, and Gershon just continued to hit from downtown as Haifa continued to lead 79-70 after 30 minutes of action.Maccabi made sure to treat those kids in the arena to a good time with some great on-court activities as well as tossing plenty of basketballs and T-shirts into the crowd for them to take home as more smiles filled the building despite the home team being down.Sorkin, DiBartolomeo, and Menco all started the final frame with points, while Clark and Davis answered for Haifa. But Cohen hit another shot, and Menco came out of a timeout on fire to cut the lead down to two.However, Davis went from the outside and inside with hands in his face for back-to-back buckets, and Gershon went from deep, as did McGuirl, to wrap up the 104-96 road win for Haifa.While Sorkin (35 points) and Menco, with (29 points) and Blatt (14 assists) set their Israeli league highs, it would be McGuirl’s 29 points, Davis’s 27, and Gershon’s 24 that would propel the Carmel Reds to the victory.“We knew Maccabi was coming in with a very short squad, but I was also aware that they still had five excellent Israelis, and that worried me as I am fairly new with Haifa,” Goodes said after the game. “I knew it was an opportunity, and I told the guys to take it, and they did. I’m happy with the win, but we have a lot of work, and we have Holon on Friday.”Katsh also spoke about the challenges that were presented in returning to play.“It’s a tough situation, and it’s challenging to come into a game like this with the short roster, especially after a double Euroleague week. The guys here knew they had to play more and deal with both the physical and mental aspects. The roster is good enough to win the game, and if the shooting percentages would have been different, that could have been the case, but it’s just not a simple situation since October 7.”Maccabi has another game coming up on Monday night at Hapoel Beersheba, and it will be interesting to see how many minutes some of the yellow-and-blue players will play, as some really played above and beyond what would be normal for them.With an important road Euroleague game on tap against Zalgiris in Lithuania on Thursday, Katash will need to be super careful with his squad and with those who will be counting on him in continental play.However, Menco said that he and his teammates aren’t going to rest too much and will want to give the best they can, no matter the situation.“We are all doing the best that we can by splitting up the minutes. We didn’t feel that we were the underdogs coming into this game, and we won’t come into any game and feel that way with any roster. We will come into the game on Monday and do the best that we can.”