The Winner Basket League playoff semifinal series kicked off tonight (Thursday) at Menora Mivtachim Hall with an intriguing encounter between the champion and the trophy holder, with Maccabi Tel Aviv, who finished the regular season in second place, hosting Bnei Herzliya for the third game in the best of three games.
Ante Žižić was signed by the Yellow-Blues at the expense of Jaylen Reynolds, who will remain on Citizens in the series alongside Angelo Cloiaro and Kyrie Thomas.
In the case of the group from Sharon, Quinton Hawker returns to the squad instead of DJ Cooper, who will not dress for the series, as well as Alexander Zaczewicz.
The champion defeated its city rival, Hapoel Tel Aviv, 1: 3 in the quarterfinals series. After two victories in the series opener, the Yellows were defeated at home in the third game, but recovered in the fourth game and maintained 100% all-time success in the playoff quarterfinals. The first sweep in its history: 0: 3 over Hapoel Haifa, with two home wins by a large margin and a big thriller in overtime in Game 2.
Only 10 teams in the top playoff history in the country went from a 1: 0 deficit to a 1: 2 victory in the best series of three games, with two of them doing so without having to win away, in the years when the series opened with a home game of the lower ranked.
The last to come out of such a lag was Hapoel Gilboa / Galil two years ago, which lost the first game of the playoff quarterfinals against Hapoel Holon, but won the next two on the way to the Final Four.
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