The Israel Basketball Association Court ruled that Game 1 of the Hapoel Tel Aviv-Hapoel Jerusalem Winner League semifinal must be replayed in full, overriding a recommendation that Hapoel Tel Aviv be awarded a technical victory. Hapoel Tel Aviv answered on the court Tuesday with an 88-84 Game 2 win, sealed by a Vasilije Micic three-pointer at the buzzer. The prosecutor, the Israel Basketball League Administration, and Hapoel Tel Aviv have appealed the ruling, with a high-court hearing set for Thursday at Yad Eliyahu, hours before Game 3.
Hapoel Jerusalem refused to leave its locker room for the fourth quarter of Game 1 on Sunday night, after an Iranian missile barrage and a Home Front Command restriction-change forced the evacuation of about 6,000 fans. The team is now down a result on the scoreboard and shrinking on the roster, with several import players having left Israel since the attack. Hapoel Tel Aviv head coach Dimitrios Itoudis insists his side leads the best-of-five series 2-0; Jerusalem owner Matan Adelson is betting the court, and Thursday’s appeal, will reset the math.
The Court Overturns the Recommended Technical Win
Referees stopped play at the three-quarter mark with Hapoel Tel Aviv ahead 77-67 in Game 1 of the Israel Basketball Premier League semifinal. The Israel Basketball Association’s prosecutor and the Israel Basketball League Administration both recommended that a technical victory be issued to Hapoel Tel Aviv, on the grounds that the game had been allowed to continue and only one side walked off. The association’s court went the other way.
The court ordered the full four-quarter match replayed, a decision that landed with the Jerusalem faithful who had watched their side fall into a ten-point hole through thirty minutes of play. The ruling also set up an unusual situation playing out across the same playoff round: the parallel Holon semifinal opened behind closed doors after the same Iranian barrage, an echo of the security-driven scheduling now shaping the bracket (see how the parallel Holon semifinal opened behind closed doors).
The prosecutor, the league administration, and Hapoel Tel Aviv have all asked the high court to overturn the ruling. That appeal is set to be heard Thursday, just before Game 3 of the best-of-five series at Yad Eliyahu Arena. The high court’s call will determine whether Game 1 is replayed from the opening tip or whether the recommended technical win is restored to the books.
Adelson called the original ruling the right one and pointed at the silence from league chairman Ari Steinberg as proof that the league has stopped pretending to be neutral. “I haven’t heard from him personally. I know that the league put out a letter and I believe he was signed on that letter. So that’s Ari speaking publicly, then so be it. But no, I mean, I’m not surprised,” Adelson said.
I feel good. I’m pleased with the decision that they’ve made. Obviously with Game 1, the circumstances were very extraordinary and out of the ordinary and there’s no rule. The founding fathers of Israeli basketball, so to speak, never thought of a situation where a game could be interrupted by missiles or by change in Home Front Command restrictions and we felt that it wasn’t appropriate to go and continue the game.
That came from Adelson, the American-born owner of Hapoel Jerusalem, in remarks to reporters at the arena after the ruling was issued.
Why the Players Stayed in the Locker Room
Israeli Basketball Premier League CEO David Bassan announced from center court that the Home Front Command‘s nationwide activity restriction had triggered the evacuation of the roughly 6,000 fans at Yad Eliyahu on Sunday night. The Home Front Command had moved Israel to a restricted activity policy from 10 p.m. Sunday until 8 p.m. Monday, with educational activities canceled, indoor gatherings capped at 500, and beaches closed. Referees stopped play before the start of the fourth quarter, league officials said, because the conditions for a normal restart no longer existed.
After the spectators were sent out, Hapoel Tel Aviv’s players returned to the floor. Hapoel Jerusalem’s players did not. The team stayed in its locker room as sirens sounded across the country and Bassan tried to push the clubs to finish the quarter on the court. That walkout would later be presented to the association’s court as the trigger for the replay order, and as the act Bassan had warned against.
Jerusalem head coach Yonatan Alon defended his players on Sunday and again Tuesday night. “This is not a situation to play in. Our players cannot focus on basketball and I also can’t see myself drawing up a play right now,” he said at the time. “We promised them that whatever happened, we would stand behind them. We will not return to play tonight. We asked them how they felt about the game and they said they could not see themselves focusing on basketball.”
Itoudis, his Tel Aviv counterpart, questioned the stoppage in real time and accepted the technical win in retrospect. “The momentum is with us. I don’t understand much about security matters. Is there an air raid siren? So why are you stopping the game?” he said from the bench. After Game 2, he said his team was “ahead 2-0 as we were there and the other team didn’t show up.” The framing is the fault line the high court will have to choose between on Thursday.
Micic’s Late Three Seals Game 2 in Jerusalem
Hapoel Tel Aviv beat Hapoel Jerusalem 88-84 on Tuesday at the Pais Arena in the capital, taking the lead in a series Itoudis now reads as 2-0 and Adelson reads as, at most, 1-0. The game turned on a Vasilije Micic three-pointer as time expired, the kind of shot the Serbian guard has made across a career that has run through the EuroLeague and the NBA.
Jerusalem opened hot. Khadeen Carrington, Justin Smith, and Cassius Winston all scored early, and Hapoel jumped to a 12-1 lead. Yam Madar, who had carried the late-season rotation with a 41-point derby performance against Maccabi Tel Aviv (see Madar’s 41-point derby that set up the playoff rotation), answered with two threes of his own, and Ish Wainright and Chris Jones kept Tel Aviv within striking distance. Madar, Wainright, and Micic built a 43-40 halftime lead for the visitors. Madar and Wainright hit from deep to open the third, and Micic added a pair of threes of his own to push the gap to double digits before Carrington, Winston, and Smith closed the quarter within 71-68. The final frame traded baskets until Micic’s three did the rest.
Itoudis called the win “an amazing second win” and credited his team’s depth, with four players in double figures. Alon kept his focus on the wider series. “Great players make great plays and we saw that with the late three-pointer by Vasilije Micic, but games like this can go either way and it went theirs,” he said. “There are a lot of thoughts and opinions as to what should have happened but it’s been a long ride this entire season.”
The stat sheet tells its own story of how the game tilted in the second half:
| Team | Top Scorer | Points | Others in Double Figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hapoel Tel Aviv | Yam Madar | 25 | Wainright 21, Jones 15, Micic 14 |
| Hapoel Jerusalem | Khadeen Carrington | 16 | Winston 13, Smith 12 |
A Roster Shrunken to Four Imports
Several of Hapoel Jerusalem’s import players left Israel after Sunday’s attack, leaving the club with four import players for the rest of the series. Adelson said the front office had worked around the clock for forty-eight hours to keep the group together, and accepted that the pull was real even as he called the outcome a disappointment.
“We’ve put immense effort in the last 48 hours to keep the team together and from one side, I’m very disappointed, but from the other side, as someone that didn’t grow up here, I understand them because what’s going on in this country is not normal,” Adelson said. He added that the players who left had not been forced out and that the team was “going to go all the way” with those who stayed, including Carrington, who had wavered on playing Game 2 before deciding to take the floor.
Adelson also pushed back on talk that Carrington has already agreed to join Hapoel Tel Aviv for next season. “You have to ask Khadeen what he has in mind, I hope he has Game 2 in mind tonight. As of now, there’s no progress (with his contract) and I hope he’s just focused on the game tonight,” Adelson said. Hapoel Jerusalem guard Eitan Burg, who has stayed through the security crisis, said the team’s effort against a thinner rotation came down to respect for the imports who had not left.
It’s rough and we wanted to win this game and that was the goal going into it. The last couple of days have been very difficult and I really have a ton of respect for the foreign players who stayed here. They really gave it all in this game.
That tribute came from Burg, a Hapoel Jerusalem guard, in his postgame comments after the 88-84 loss in Game 2.
Thursday Brings Both the Appeal and Game 3
Thursday’s schedule at Yad Eliyahu starts with a hearing and ends with a basketball game, and the order could reshape the whole series. The high-court appeal on the Game 1 ruling is set to be heard first, and Game 3 of the best-of-five set follows in the evening. If the high court overturns the association court’s decision, the prosecutor and league administration will get the technical win they originally recommended; if it upholds, Hapoel Jerusalem could face having to play Game 1 from scratch later in the series, on top of Game 3.
Itoudis has been clear about where he sees the series. “As far as I see it we are ahead 2-0 as we were there and the other team didn’t show up,” he said after Game 2, in a comment that assumes the technical win survives. Adelson, who said Jerusalem is “very pleased” with the replay order and is “going to continue to fight all the way,” has framed every result since Game 1 as provisional.
The Israeli league’s playoff calendar has absorbed a war-driven stoppage before. The 2024-25 championship series between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem was halted at 1-1 because of the conflict with Iran and never restarted, an ending the Jerusalem Post called one of the most unusual in Israeli sports history. The current playoff round is the first time the league has had to make a public call on a single interrupted semifinal game, and Thursday’s appeal will be the first time that call has been reviewed.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Game 3 of the Hapoel Tel Aviv-Hapoel Jerusalem semifinal?
Game 3 is scheduled for Thursday night at Yad Eliyahu Arena, hours after the high-court appeal on the Game 1 ruling is heard.
What is the appeal about?
The Israel Basketball Association’s prosecutor, the Israel Basketball League Administration, and Hapoel Tel Aviv have all asked the high court to overturn the association court’s order to replay Game 1 in full and reinstate the recommended technical win for Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Why did Hapoel Jerusalem refuse to return to the court in Game 1?
Owner Matan Adelson said the team followed Home Front Command instructions, that the players were not comfortable continuing after about 6,000 fans were evacuated, and that the association’s existing rules did not contemplate a game interrupted by missile fire.
Who hit the game-winning shot in Game 2?
Vasilije Micic drained a three-pointer as time expired to give Hapoel Tel Aviv an 88-84 win at the Pais Arena in Jerusalem.
