What's good everyone. We back with the predictions for Week 2 of the Winter 2024 Season for MB North Jersey. Thanks to everyone who showed up and performed last Wednesday, this league is only as big as we make it. Everyone who didn't showed up, try to clear up those Wednesday evenings and be a part of the fun.

To my surprise, these predictions seemed to be intriguing last time around, but looks like we gotta tone it down a bit. Anyways, I apologize if I offended anyone by my word choice, I will do better in making these predictions as fun as possible, while still maintaining that competitive banter.

Let's move on to the topic at hand. Last week, I went 5-4 in my predictions and I'll be keeping track as the season goes along so that I keep myself accountable in picking unbiasedly.


Predictions Week 2

Gaza – Al-Wehdat:
To start this week, we got two teams coming off of a win, which means they’ll both be looking to start a winning streak. Gaza looked amazing in their season opener and Mo Dirty turned into Mo Thirty, surprisingly leading the way for this team and taking home POTW. Al-Wehdat fought hard and newcomer Jay Mustafa led the way in their upset over a solid Ramla squad(without Mana). Al-Wehdat deserves credit for sure, but many believe luck was on their side with the way things ended, so I don’t think they’ve fully passed the eye test for me yet. Gaza is a proven bunch with a lot of high IQ players and they even have some of the top talent in the league to top it off. I don’t think Gaza will find things as easy as they did last week, but I still think they take care of this one handily.

Gaza by 13

Qibya – Al-Quds:
In our second game of the week, we have two teams coming off a loss last week. Qibya looked like they were out of their league and Al-Quds looked very uncharacteristic. Some say it was the shooting woes, but I think Yaffa’s advantages forced the game in their favor, as I predicted. Regardless, Al-Quds will be coming back with a vengeance and I expect the Cerberus that is Mustafa, Amir and Omar to light it up. Qibya will have to work extremely hard and be defensively sound to keep it close, but I don’t think they have enough firepower in the backcourt to keep up with those guys. I’m highlighting the Ammar Suliman and Jean Gomes matchup as I think Ammar can stretch the floor with his shooting while still providing the size to compete with Jean down low. This could open things up for Nader, but he’ll have a long night with the best defending Abbassi in Mustafa being his matchup.

Al-Quds by 15

Ramla – Bethlehem:
Rounding out the 7:30 games is an exciting one, as both of these teams have some well-known names in the league. Hassan and Mahdy vs Shahzaib and Mana, primarily. I think Shahzaib definitely wants to get back on the right track and he’ll come out aggressive in this one. Hassan Farhat was also a surprising player last week and I think he can definitely replicate that performance as Bethlehem does lack some size.

Overall, I think Ramla’s two 6’5 guys are a matchup nightmare for most teams. However, watching this Bethlehem team, I see a desire to bring energy on the defensive side of the floor, and that is exactly the recipe to overcoming the size disadvantage. These group of young friends bring the energy and love doing the little things right, which makes it so much easier for Hassan and Mahdy to work. If this game was later in the season, I’d pick Ramla, but for now….

Bethlehem by 7

Yaffa – Al-Bireh:
First game in the 8:30 slot is another great matchup as these two teams stack up well with eachother and are both top 10 in the power rankings. Yaffa put the league on notice after Week 1 and Ehsan “Dbook” Popal put me on notice, with his lights out shooting in the first half. I guess he took offense to the “hustle player” comment and showed that he can be a vital offensive piece. This team is full of shooting with Abdul, MP3, Ish, Humza, Ishaq and Ehsan all being able to knock down a 3. They also defend well as we saw them hold one of the highest powered offenses to a mundane performance.

On the Al-Bireh side, they’re coming off of a tough loss against the defending champs. I don’t think they expected to win that game, but they weren’t really competitive for much of the way, primarily due to their own struggles. Shafic definitely needs to be more assertive and I think they should bring Amir off the bench to kind of stagger some of the offensive ability. Suqi was surprising and maybe fitting him in to the starting lineup to provide energy on defense would go a long way. Mo Alzubidi, the newcomer, also is figuring his way into things and I expect him to look much more comfortable this week.

To be honest, this game could go either way but based off of what I saw last week, there is no way I can choose against Yaffa.

Yaffa by 7

Qalqilya – Baysan:
Alright, this time around the scheduling team got things a little wrong because putting these two games at the same time was not a smart move. Anyways, these two juggernauts are coming off expected wins, and one of them will not be able to keep a 0 in the loss column after this week. For Baysan, the task is simple. Match the energy of the young Qalqilya team while matching the output of their 3-headed, Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Zain, Sal, Jared, Sohaib, Idris and co. will need to play with the same unselfishness and ball movement to keep things close.

These teams match up well. Jared – Jay, Zain – Musa, Sohaib – Habi, but I don’t see who matches up with Qalqilya’s new addition in Anssoumane Kande. If Idris is assigned to him, that will be a tough matchup for him, even with the help of Zain backside. Add in the fact that Qalqilya can spread the court with the best of them and this makes it even more difficult.

It’s a rematch of last season’s chip, and the sample I have tells me what I need to know.

Qalqilya by 6

Safad – Areeha:
Rounding out the 8:30 games are two blue-collar style teams that will fight tooth and nail for the win. Safad did what I expected and capitalized on the lack of discipline from Jenin, granted Jake was not present. I just feel like this team has a bunch of guys that are not going to go down without a fight and that puts them in every game. Yes, they may be lacking that star, but Ali Sufian, Fursan Abbassi and Jawad are all capable enough to put the ball in the net. On the Areeha side, they had to deal with Farhad all night and he was obviously way too much to handle. I think they are feeling good coming into this one, but I hope they’ve been icing the knees leading up to this Wednesday. The Areeha guys are tough veterans that will also fight until the final whistle and I think they play this brand of basketball better than Safad does. Also, I don’t think there’s anyone to handle Big O all night in this one.

Gimme Areeha by 2

Shatila – Haifa:
To open up the 9:30 window, we have Shatila and Haifa, which is an interesting matchup. Farhad looked tremendous as he finally stepped onto a court against guys all his age. The struggle for this Shatila team is finding the other guys on the team who can be significant contributors for the offense. Too bad for them, Haifa has a bunch of those. I think Haifa may be the deepest team in the league and I’m calling on Deep to step up this week for them, no pun intended. Kareem is off to Umrah, and someone will need to replace the production he brought last week for them to convince everyone they are the real deal, which is what I believe to be the case. Omar Hussein coming on time may have given them the upset last week and his play will be vital to their success. There is also the frontcourt combo of Darr, Deeb and Qasem which are 3 guys that can do multiple things on both sides of the floor.

As you can see, there is a lot more to mention on the Haifa side and I think Shatila’s “others” will have to step up big for them to take this one.

Haifa by 4

Nablus – Jenin:
Alright, this is definitely going to be a fun one. I feel like these two times are somewhat of a meme, for whatever reason that may be. It’s probably because everyone expects a lot from these guys, but they have trouble putting it together consistently. Now lets bring in the deciding factor, Mo Abdelhadi. He turns Nablus from a meme team to an esteemed team and that is a player who is the definition of GAME CHANGER, especially in this one. What makes him special is the mix of experience and skill, similar to Farhad from Shatila.

Jenin’s top 3 tasks for winning this week are 1. Stop Abdelhadi, 2. Stop Abdelhadi, 3. Stop Abdelhadi. If DPOY runner up and GM Mo Abdelghani can make a gameplan for the Jenin guys to buy in on the defensive side of the floor, they can definitely take this one. Jake and Ian are a really solid combo that counteracts Abdelhadi’s presence. Its really all about defense for this team. Too early for them to figure it out though.

Nablus by 1

Sabra – Al-Khalil:
Ok rounding this week out, we got Sabra and Al-Khalil. Hasnan fooled us all and it’s funny that this team lost the way they did week 1 after all the hype around them. Talking the talk is one thing, walking it is a completely different thing and the Afzal brothers could attest to that after the rude awakening they received. This week, in my opinion, will be more of the same. There wasn’t much to be hopeful for out of Al-Khalil after week 1, but it is still super early in the season and there is a lot of growing pains they gotta fight through.

With Sabra, there really isn’t much to say. The two biggest matchup issues in the league are on the same team and only one of them needs to perform at an elite level for them to handle most teams. Last week was a prime example. Ty Jackson was doing it all and had 60% of the team’s total points, hitting shots from everywhere and at every necessary moment in the game. However, it was still a close game. This tells me that the team must figure out some things with the addition of the newest superstar in the MB community. They got this week to experiment and try some new things so let’s see what they can do while they’re having some fun.

Sabra by 20+


This ain't Lavar Ball, this ain't Lonzo Ball, this is the CRYSTAL BALL

Edited by user Tuesday, January 30, 2024 7:20:30 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified