1. We are only at the end of October and Hapoel Jerusalem is waiting for a season game tonight.
The Reds will be hosted in Poland by Stal Ostrov in a direct battle for immigration from home.
To be precise, this is a double final - tonight's match and the rematch against the Poles in the arena in two weeks will determine the fate of both teams in the Champions League this season.
The first at home will advance directly to the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup, and the teams that finish in second and third places will go to the play-offs against the corresponding home teams.
In light of Jerusalem's opening with two losses, the first and second places look out of bounds, so what remains is the battle for third place, which promises a tough road in the next stage without a home advantage in the series.
Fourth place and relegation is already a nightmare for the Reds from the capital, who are very proud of their European tradition but also last season finished their way early.
In this complex situation, Jerusalem is preparing for the game in a non-ideal way.
It seems that even coach Oren Amiel still does not understand the tools he has in hand now.
Oren Amiel with Retin Obasohan and Adam Ariel.
Is it all a matter of construction ?, Photo: Berni Ardov
If we look at the results, there is a clear separation - against rivals like Galil Elyon and BS this staff is definitely enough, but against rivals at a European level, as well as Maccabi Tel Aviv, not at all.
You can see the glass ceiling above Jerusalem's head, but it's still hard to tell if it's capable of breaking it.
This uncertainty, as well as a host of problems and confidence on the floor after the defeat to Maccabi Tel Aviv, will accompany the Reds tonight to the first cup final out of two. It is certain that Jerusalem is in a more complicated situation. True, the Poles also lost twice, but that was in away games.
If before a game so critical you think about changes in the squad, your situation is not good and it mainly indicates a pile of mistakes in team building.
I have no doubt that they worked day and night on the staff train, but the end result is a kind of gamble - both at the individual level and at the group level.
Oren Amiel is looking for answers, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
It is allowed and desirable to think differently and experiment, but this is problematic in a team that needs to reach a kind of record early in the season.
In the Euroleague every game is important - but the league structure allows for correction.
In the Champions League, the early October-November home game decides the future of the season.
We mentioned the "bets", so here are some of them: a gray Israeli staff without a leading star;
Anthony Bennett may have been the No. 1 pick in the draft, but there was a fall everywhere he went;
Thun Maker did not just drop out of the NBA;
Two-thirds of foreigners with no European experience;
Front line without defensive stopper and offensive goal-scoring player;
Too great a dependence on ability outside the arc;
Sparse in the coordinator position.
Too many question marks for a team that needs to provide receipts in the first few months of the season.
Anthony Bennett.
Jerusalem guards it, Photo: Danny Maron
2. Tonight's opponent is a team on the line.
In balance within a few months: reaching the European Cup final, winning the first local championship and reaching the FIBA Champions League for the first time.
Next month, Igor Milicic will arrive in Israel as the coach of the Polish national team for the World Cup qualifiers.
The 45-year-old Stal's coach has recently been appointed to the prestigious position and this is a clear sign that he is the important coaching force in Poland and a rising star in the coaching skies of European basketball.
One who is marked in the future to be a Euroleague coach.
Milicic (previously played for a short time at Maccabi Hadera) is a Croatian, who spent much of his career as a player and in fact his entire career as a coach in Poland.
After his marriage he also received a Polish passport in 2016.
His record is two championships with Wloclawek.
The arrival of the coach to Stal last December in place of Lukasz Maywski, in fact changed the team and as mentioned, ended in the championship and the European Cup final.
The goal for the season is another step forward at the European level.