It might be Christmas but it‘s a hectic time in the NBL not only with that historic game on Christmas Day, but a match up every night to come as the Perth Wildcats continue to build, South East Melbourne Phoenix keep winning, and Cairns Taipans and Tasmania JackJumpers try to hit back.
The NBL’s 12 Games of Christmas continues over the next six nights with a game on each and every one of them highlighted by that first ever match up played on Christmas Day at Qudos Bank Arena when the Sydney Kings host Melbourne United.
There are plenty of other salivating match ups around the festive season too as the race for those top six positions heats up with every team but the Brisbane Bullets and Illawarra Hawks still right in the hunt.
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After Round 12 began on Wednesday night with the battle of two severely shorthanded teams that saw the South East Melbourne Phoenix beat the Brisbane Bullets 104-77, there‘s no let up in the action.
The Tasmania JackJumpers return home to MyState Bank Arena on Thursday night needing a win against the bottom placed Illawarra Hawks.
It‘s another big occasion then on Friday night at John Cain Arena with the roof set to be opened as Melbourne United looks to keep their season alive against a Cairns Taipans team wanting to rebound after Tuesday’s loss to Perth.
Christmas Eve should be another exciting occasion with the Adelaide 36ers hosting the South East Melbourne Phoenix. The Phoenix might be undermanned, but just keep winning while the Sixers are set to unveil NBL and NBA champion Ian Clark.
That leads into the Christmas Day match up with the Sydney Kings and Melbourne United before on Boxing Day, the Tasmania JackJumpers are back home to host a New Zealand Breakers team playing their first game in 18 days.
WILDCATS FIND PINDER’S KRYPTONITE
The Perth Wildcats continued their dominance over the Cairns Taipans on Tuesday night and a significant reason was the commanding performance of TaShawn Thomas opposed to MVP fancy Keanu Pinder.
The Wildcats have now strung four wins together heading into Christmas to be comfortably inside the top six following Tuesday night‘s impressive 105-83 win in Far North Queensland against the Taipans.
That was a 10th straight victory for Perth against Cairns with the two wins by a combined 51 points, quite the effort considering the Taipans have only lost four other matches all season.
Coming into Tuesday night’s game, emerging Taipans star Pinder was fresh off the best game of his career with 34 points on 11/17 shooting against the Tasmania JackJumpers to announce himself into the MVP discussion.
That meant for the ‘Cats to get the better of them again they needed to find a way to curtail his influence and that’s exactly what they were able to do largely thanks to import big man Thomas.
Thomas set the tone for the evening by establishing him in the low block early in the game and got Pinder frustrated and in foul trouble. By the end of the game what he did in the match up was huge in the Wildcats‘ 22-point win.
Thomas delivered 22 points, 12 rebounds and six assists on 9/13 shooting as he continues to build nicely into the season after a slow start.
He was instrumental in limiting Pinder to a season-low six points and six rebounds without a free-throw and with four turnovers as well.
It was a statement performance from Thomas and his coach John Rillie couldn’t have been more impressed.
“Can we talk about the defensive effort he did on Keanu Pinder,” Rillie said.
“Like it‘s great to look at him stuffing the stats sheet, and I haven’t followed Keanu closely statistically, but he did a phenomenal job on him.
“Keanu has shown that he is one of the elite Australian talents in the NBL this year. At the same time, I certainly didn’t lay out the challenge to him because I want our guys to be fired up and ready to compete.
“If he needs someone to give him some kind of rah-rah speech to fire up for Keanu Pinder, we‘re both not going to be sitting here for very long.”
Thomas himself realises he took longer than he hoped adjusting to his first NBL season after an ankle injury and then just finding his feet. He‘s feeling good now and thrived on the Pinder challenge.
“Every time you hear about a guy going off and then you get the match up with them, I feel like it makes everyone want to play their best,” Thomas said.
“With my confidence coming back and feeling healthy and with everything going well, I knew that this was a big game to kind of make an imprint for the team and myself.
“I just took the challenge and tried to make the game as uncomfortable for him as I could, and I feel like I did a really good job of that.
“I‘ve been playing ball for a while and I don’t really need anyone to amp me up, it’s just that I’ve heard his name a lot this season and I respect what he’s done because he’s a very good player. I just wanted to make him uncomfortable and by the end of the game it kind of felt like that was done.”
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PHOENIX KEEP WINNING DESPITE ANOTHER BLOW
The South East Melbourne Phoenix shook off a rough schedule and the loss of three key players to continue winning against the Brisbane Bullets on Wednesday night with coach Simon Mitchell wondering how many ladders he‘s walked under.
The Phoenix are well placed to make a charge at the championship now in their fourth season in the NBL with a 12-7 record but scarcely at all throughout NBL23 have they been at full strength and that continues.
They were counting the costs of the remarkable double overtime win against the Sydney Kings on Sunday with injuries to Gary Browne and Ryan Broekhoff, the departure of Zhou Qi and other banged up bodies when Wednesday‘s game in Brisbane was sprung on them.
Despite the challenging circumstances of missing three important players and playing a fifth game in 14 days, South East Melbourne dominated a similarly shorthanded Bullets team for the 104-77 win in impressive fashion.
Along the way imposing big man Alan Williams hurt his ankle and that meant Mitchell had to put faith in Dane Pineau to play 17 minutes and Grant Anticevich almost 10.
He has no problems going to deep into his bench and while the Phoenix do keep winning, eventually he’d like their luck to turn even though there’s no let up in the schedule.
South East Melbourne has already played 11 of 14 home games so six of their last nine are on the road starting Christmas Eve against an Adelaide 36ers team full of confidence and with the addition of Ian Clark.
It will be the Phoenix‘s sixth game in 17 days and there will be no Broekhoff, Browne or Zhou Qi, but Mitchell continues to marvel at how his players don’t let anything get them down.
“We came out of that win against Sydney a little bit scarred with some nicks even with the guys who were playing,” Mitchell said.
“Early Trey Kell looked like he was lumbering a little bit, but he warmed into the game and then Sauce (Williams) rolled an ankle early in the game and I‘m just wondering how many ladders I can walk under.
“It was a tremendously gutsy performance. We had guys stand up as well and Creeky was great again, but Kyle (Adnam) steps into that starting five very comfortably.
“I thought Junior Madut had some good minutes, Grant Anticevich when he had his moments came in and was very productive. Whilst Foxy (Owen Foxwell) wasn’t as good as he was in the Sydney game, he came in and provided some relief and solid minutes. Everyone is sort of answering the bell and that‘s important for us.”
SNAKES SET THEMSELVES TO FIRE BACK IN OPEN AIR GAME
Before the historic Christmas Day game in Sydney, Melbourne United will be part of something else special on Friday night with the roof open against the John Cain Arena but the Cairns Taipans will arrive with a chip on their shoulders.
Cairns has been mighty impressive this season coming back from winning just nine games in NBL22. They have already surpassed that with their current 10-6 record despite a second tough outing to the Perth Wildcats at home on Tuesday night.
Prior to that the Snakes had been terrific winning three straight including dominating down the stretch to beat the Tasmania JackJumpers 91-82 in Hobart on Saturday on the back of a career-best 34 points from Keanu Pinder.
It was a tough night for Cairns against Perth with 17 turnovers, losing the rebound count, only getting to the foul line nine times, and conceding 24 points from turnovers and 16 second chance points.
The Snakes have done a good job of bouncing back so far this season, though, and that‘s their focus for Friday night’s open air clash with Melbourne at John Cain Arena.
The Taipans have dominated Melbourne in the first two clashes this season winning both by a combined 29 points so that gives them confidence, but at the same time it‘s a different looking United now with Marcus Lee and Shea Ili.
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Cairns point guard Shannon Scott was disappointed in how the team performed at home to the Wildcats, but is looking forward to the United challenge and playing with the roof open after missing that chance Ohio State.
“I‘ve never played like that before with the roof open. I was supposed to play in one but it got cancelled back in college,” Scott said.
“We just have to move on from this game and we understand what we did in this game with Perth and we‘ve gotta learn from our mistakes.
“We have to be better on the rebounding, be better on turnovers and all that stuff. But Melbourne are playing good ball right now and we have to come out and prepare for them, and find a way to win that one.”
Taipans coach Adam Forde missed the chance to get his first ever win against the Wildcats, but his attention quickly turned to Melbourne United.
“The process has to remain the same. We can‘t waver from what we’ve been doing in terms of our preparation because it’s got us 10 wins at this stage,” Forde said.
“We‘ll go about our business in the next 48 hours the same and then we’ll be jumping on a flight. At least it’s a direct flight to Melbourne and we’ll prepare for one last hit out before Christmas and then we get a little bit of a break before playing Adelaide on New Year’s Eve.”
TROUBLING JACKJUMPERS SIGNS NEED TO BE HALTED
The Tasmania JackJumpers have now not won a game in Hobart since October 22 and after being overrun in uncharacteristic fashion twice in the last week, they need to bounce back to stay in the top six.
There‘s a strong argument to be made that the JackJumpers have the best home court atmosphere in the NBL even in their second season, but winning at MyState Bank Arena hasn’t come easy in NBL23.
The last win the JackJumpers have had in Hobart was a 31-point hammering of the Perth Wildcats on October 22. They‘ve only played on their home floor twice in the two months since for losses to the Brisbane Bullets and Cairns Taipans.
Tasmania has now lost their past two games as well with that defeat to Cairns on Saturday and then an 11-point road loss to the Adelaide 36ers on Monday.
Both games featured decidedly un-JackJumpers like finishes which they will be determined to turnaround starting Thursday night when they host the Illawarra Hawks.
Firstly against Cairns, Tasmania led 80-75 midway through the fourth quarter before the Taipans outscored them 16-2 the rest of the way. Then against Adelaide, the JackJumpers were up 76-69 before being outscored 24-7 to close it out.
That means after being in winning positions in both games, with it on the line they were outscored 40 points to nine and that‘s just not what we are used to seeing from the JackJumpers.
They have made a habit of being the team to do that to their opponents, but even more concerning was losing in the effort areas in those moments, especially against the 36ers who collected 11 offensive rebounds to three in the second half.
Losing in those effort areas is something captain Clint Steindl sees as unacceptable as they now look to make the most of some home games this week against Illawarra on Thursday and New Zealand on Boxing Day.
“This is where we‘ve got to capitalise on our season with some of the work that we’ve done on the road,” Steindl said.
“I guess anytime you go home you want to play your best and we haven’t shown that yet this season. There‘s some things that we have to figure out but the effort areas can’t come into play, especially at home.
“They have to be nailed every time and then you are just going to have to make some winning plays. This is a chance for us to capitalise on our season and keep ourselves in touch in that top six. To be able to do it at home is a really good chance, we just have to do it now moving forward.”
CAPTAIN, COACH BACK NBA CHAMPION TO LIFT SIXERS
Momentum is already starting to build with the Adelaide 36ers ahead of adding NBA and NBL champion Ian Clark to their roster, and both coach CJ Bruton and captain Mitch McCarron have no doubt the impact he can have.
The 36ers came into NBL23 with great expectations, which were magnified when they beat the Phoenix Suns and then the bubble very quickly burst as quickly as it was inflated.
They would lose three of their first five, and eight of their first 14 matches and along the way, chemistry became a significant issue with import guard Craig Randall II so disruptive he had to be released.
However, the signs had largely been better at least in terms of them coming together as a team but the wins weren’t coming how they hoped as they continued to look for Randall‘s replacement.
That changed last week with two strong wins over the Brisbane Bullets and Tasmania JackJumpers by a combined 42 points. Their defence was tremendous led by Antonius Cleveland whose offensive output was also significant.
Robert Franks, Anthony Drmic, Sunday Dech, Kai Sotto and McCarron were all playing at a high level too, and then came the confirmation of their new signing, NBA and NBL championship winner Ian Clark.
He joined the Sydney Kings midway through last season and was a key part in that championship run having previously won in the NBA at the Golden State Warriors.
More significant than the position or role he will play on the floor, after what the 36ers went through with Randall, what they wanted was a good teammate and that‘s exactly what Clark will be.
He will arrive in Adelaide on Thursday and will be with the team on Christmas Eve for the home game with the South East Melbourne Phoenix, and remains a chance to play.
Bruton was excited by the signing and for what Clark will bring.
“His ability to be a great leader, we all know he can score the ball and the way guys can come in seamlessly and impact not only a league, but a club and organisation the way he did not only in Sydney,” Bruton said.
“You go back to their struggles before he got there, that tells you the type of person he is. From all the people I spoke to, from the NBA to people in Australia has said nothing but great things about him.
“He is going to help our guys take their game to another level. Wanting to win, we all want that, we all want those type of people. For our fans, it’s a nice reward, Ian is here to do his job. He is well liked in the NBA, he knows a lot of people and a lot of people know him.”
Meanwhile, 36ers captain McCarron is also excited to welcome Clark into the group.
“We had a chat about it as a group, so now it’s official it’s exciting. The role he played for Sydney last year was great, he looks like he’s going to be a veteran and a good leader for us and brings us that experience, so we’re excited,” McCarron said.
“He’s a tough cover because I think he is a smart player and he knows when to pick his moments. He can be an aggressive scorer but at the same time he can be a facilitator, he might play a slightly different role for us than what he did in Sydney but at the same time his IQ is going to help us.”
