The visitors put on a show in front of a limited crowd at Copper Box Arena.
Hapoel relied on smooth offense to prevail against London
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Regular Season
Round 5 of 18
Regular Season
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London LionsLDN
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Hapoel Shlomo Tel AvivHTA
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Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv visited the London Lions on Thursday night in what was expected to be a battle between two of the best teams in the BKT EuroCup so far this season. Before this game, Hapoel was undefeated in Group A with a 3-0 record, averaging a team PIR of 131.7, which put it in a position to shatter all existing records in the competition.
That out-of-this-world mark was based on a terrific offensive performance. Hapoel was averaging 102.7 points per game, plus dishing 26 assists and going for 61.1% on two-pointers, 50% from downtown and 70.3% from the line.
A forceful showing by Hapoel
Against London, Hapoel lived up to expectations, nearing a triple-digit score in a 90-98 win and dominating all the offensive stats of the contest.
Hapoel finished with 98 points thanks to a solid 23-of-40 from two-point range and an accurate 11-0f-23 from behind the arc, while it also netting 19 free-throws from 25 attempts (76%). And not only that, it finished with 27 assists, coming from seven different players.
The passing game performed by Hapoel was again one of the keys to the victory, a trademark that helped it stick to the plan, despite some last-time changes.
“The game itself was super competitive as we could expect. We planned for [Sam] Dekker to play, for Josh Sharma maybe coming back,” recognized Hapoel head coach Danny Franco in the post-game press conference.
“So a lot of things we prepared and got ready for were not used in the game, so we had to find our way and build up our game. We aligned to what we can do as a team, like being a team that shares the basketball, we got a lot of assists – we are leading the competition – and we tried to control the pace of the game as much as possible.”
Next up for Hapoel is a clash against the only other unbeaten team in Group A, Paris Basketball. It should be a fantastic game in the French capital, and Hapoel’s showing in London should cause a few headaches for Paris’s coaching staff.
