The Brisbane Bullets might be out of the NBL playoff race but are coming off another eventful week while the South East Melbourne Phoenix have hit back, the Adelaide 36ers and New Zealand Breakers need to, and there’s two Friday night blockbusters with four of the top five teams.
The last three rounds of the NBL season is now underway and what a fascinating race it’s shaping up to be for the playoff positions.
The Sydney Kings and Cairns Taipans do look secure in the top two spots, but the other six teams are locked in a battle over the four play-in position slots.
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Cellar dwellers scare mighty Kings! | 00:54
There was already movement when Round 16 got underway on Wednesday night with the South East Melbourne Phoenix snapping a five-game losing slide by beating the Tasmania JackJumpers 86-75. That saw the Phoenix replace Melbourne United in sixth position again and the JackJumpers slip down to fifth.
Things go up another notch for the rest of the round with four nights of double-headers from Thursday through Sunday.
It all gets underway in Auckland on Thursday where the New Zealand Breakers need to snap their own three-game losing skid up against an Illawarra Hawks team that might be last at 2-21, but has been far more competitive than that suggests.
Second up on Thursday and it’s the Brisbane Bullets looking to make it consecutive wins up against an Adelaide 36ers team in a must-win situation having lost their past three including to Tasmania and Perth last week by 31 points.
Friday night could then feature the two biggest games of the season so far beginning in Far North Queensland with the Cairns Taipans hosting the Tasmania JackJumpers. Next up is the Perth wildcats at home to the Sydney Kings.
There’s another two matches on Saturday starting with the Illawarra Hawks at home to the Brisbane Bullets, and then the Adelaide 36ers hosting Melbourne United in a potentially season-defining game for both teams.
Round 16 wraps up with two more games on Sunday which sees the South East Melbourne Phoenix firstly at home to the Perth Wildcats, and then the Sydney Kings play host to the New Zealand Breakers.
PHOENIX RESPOND TO KEEP PLAYOFF RACE FASCINATING
The South East Melbourne Phoenix lost to the Brisbane Bullets at home Monday night, suffered a fifth consecutive defeat and fell outside of the top six in the process. To say things were looking bleak was a major understatement.
However, 48 hours later and the Phoenix went to Launceston, knocked off the Tasmania JackJumpers in impressive fashion being in control of the contest virtually from go to woe, and suddenly things are looking a whole lot rosier again.
The Phoenix slipped outside the top six with the Monday night loss to a Brisbane team who only five days earlier had been destroyed by the Sydney Kings by 49 points on their home floor.
However, with Olympians Aron Baynes and Nathan Sobey, former NBA imports Tyler Johnson and Andrew White III, veteran Jason Cadee and the emerging DJ Mitchell and Tyrell Harrison, and it’s not too surprising that the Bullets can pull off upsets.
Circumstances just conspired against South East Melbourne though. While imports Gary Browne and Trey Kell III returned from injury layoffs, they looked like they were playing their first games in a while.
Then while there were positives with the Phoenix taking 11 more field goals, 11 more free-throws and pulling down 23 extra rebounds including 24 to six at the offensive end, they had a horror shooting night, turned the ball over and came up short.
Taipans make it SIX in a row! | 00:57
What the positive was, though, that if the Phoenix could continue to win the possession battle in games to that degree, if Browne and Kell found their groove again then impressive performances weren’t too far away.
While they still didn’t shoot the ball great on Wednesday night in Launceston against the JackJumpers going at just 39 per cent from the field, they did everything else at a high level.
They again outrebounded their opponents, took an extra 12 field goals, forced the JackJumpers into 14 turnovers and as a result scored the crucial 11-point win to improve to a 13-12 record and return to sixth position.
The Phoenix need to keep that going now on Sunday at home to the Perth Wildcats and coach Simon Mitchell was happy to win, but knows they need to continue to build on that performance.
“A sigh of relief? Nah I’m just glad we won,” Mitchell said.
“Look, people are going to say that we were bums for losing to Brisbane and firstly, tip your hat to them. We gave up 29 points in the last four seconds of the shot clock during the course of the game and some of those shots were prayers, and some under our control and we were poor.
“We outrebounded them by 23 and we had more field goal attempts and free-throw attempts so there was a lot of good things we did, but bad stuff as well.
“We focused on trying to improve on that but at the end of the day we go into every game the same, looking to get the win. So I don’t feel relief, I’m looking forward to the next game now.”
BREAKERS CHALLENGED TO REDISCOVER BEST WITH SEASON ON THE LINE
A top two finish has almost slipped from the grasp of the New Zealand Breakers, but what is of greater concern to coach Mody Maor is the drop off in the effort levels of his team, and he knows it needs to immediately be remedied.
For a lot of this season, the Breakers have dealt with plenty of adversity from some horror travel stretches, having an enforced three-week break and having played only two games out of 22 with a full roster available.
They have shaken that off and turned themselves into a championship contender and it’s largely been on the back of just making themselves damn hard to play against. They have played physical, intense defence to lock down their opponents, and then been efficient at the offensive end.
However, their physical approach has drawn the ire of opposition coach. Breakers mentor Maor has noted the change in officiating since their opponents have made their feelings public, but that’s not where his concerns lie right now.
The Breakers were locked in a battle over top spot going back to the start of December. They had won five straight games, were sitting at 11-3 and they looked every bit a team capable of winning the championship.
Wildcats pip Breakers in close battle | 01:16
Then they lost to Perth and Sydney before COVID struck and they didn’t play a game for 18 days. Coming out of that break, they lost to the JackJumpers but appeared getting back on track with wins over the Wildcats and 36ers.
But since, New Zealand has lost to Perth, Melbourne and Cairns, and all of a sudden top two looks unlikely to be possible for them. At 13-9, they need to get back to winning quickly or just reaching one of the play-in positions could be in jeopardy.
The key to the Breakers success in winning 11 of the first 14 games was that they outworked their opponents, outhustled them and simply wore them down.
That hasn’t been happening especially since coming back from that 18-day break and coach Maor has had enough. He knows it needs to change starting Thursday night when they host the Illawarra Hawks at Spark Arena.
“The level of effort and intensity is not where it needs to be, and is not what it was. We’ve pulled back and we’re playing average, like everyone,” Maor said.
“This was never the plan for this team. Average doesn’t get us where we need to go, average doesn’t beat the Cairns Taipans and we need to be a lot better than average. We’re playing a little bit too casual and it’s not going to get the job done.”
For Maor, it’s not about getting angry or ranting and raving at his team. What it’s going to take is to get everyone back at the same motivation level they were at when they were firing.
Even though they continue to be missing leading scorer Barry Brown Jr, Maor has full faith this Breakers team will get back on track.
“It’s not about going to practice now and kicking people’s butts, that’s not what this is going to look like,” Maor said.
“We embarked together on a challenge of being a very good team and we have all signed up and committed to doing things in a certain way. We need to live up to the standards that we set to ourselves.
“Now we’ve slipped and I think this is a normal thing to happen in a season, but it’s been on-going for more than one game. Now we need to flip the switch in a different way and I do have trust a lot in all of the guys in the locker room. I believe we’ll see a better team in the next game.”
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BAYNES AND THE BULLETS
It’s fair to say the most exciting aspect of this NBL season prior to it starting was the potential of what Aron Baynes could bring to the Brisbane Bullets.
Well, with five games to go now and that smile he started with is almost gone and his relationship with the club, and his understandable desire to return to the NBA, has thrown up many more questions than answers.
After a career-threatening injury suffered at the Tokyo Olympics, Baynes couldn’t hide his enthusiasm after getting back on the basketball court to start this NBL season at the Bullets.
It was with an eye to eventually making what would be a heartwarming return to the NBA where he’s already played 576 games and is a championship winner, but it just has never quite got going.
It’s turned out a season from hell from the Bullets on so many fronts. Firstly, they have now had three separate coaches with the departure of James Duncan, then eventually Greg Vanderjagt taking over from general manager Sam Mackinnon.
Along the way, the Bullets have won just six games and that excitement Baynes had for being back playing has led to more frustration, and you can see it written all over his face.
Clearly Baynes has struggled with the officiating in the NBL this season and that has hampered his ability to enjoy actually being out there playing.
He has been on the receiving end of precious few foul calls up one end, gets called for plenty of others and the way he gets officiated on screens has seen his frustrations boil over on multiple occasions.
Last week, coming off the 49-point loss for Brisbane to Sydney, Baynes delivered his best performance of the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds in an improved team showing against Melbourne United on Saturday.
Then two days later, Baynes played just over 10 minutes in a breakthrough win against the South East Melbourne Phoenix. He had just four points and three rebounds with four turnovers, and didn’t return to the court after collecting a fourth foul midway through the third quarter.
His frustrations were obvious with the referees and his own coaching staff, but that’s all only part of the fascinating part of his season at the Bullets.
Baynes could have chosen to play just about anywhere in the world to make his comeback and to try and get back to the NBA. He chose the Bullets, put his faith in that organisation and you have to think he’s regretting that in some sense.
With the coaching changes and the way the off-court has been handled, it has been bizarre and that continued last week with the appointment of Stu Lash, to be virtually a liaison for the players to the club’s ownership group.
It was made clear in the appointment announcement that Lash would be able to help Baynes in his NBA quest. That caught the attention of his agent Daniel Moldovan who was quick to give a sarcastic response.
While it’s going to be fascinating to continue to follow Baynes, his coach Vanderjagt can’t fault his attitude.
“If you look Banger’s energy on the bench and his talk, it’s positive. He’s up and about with the group, he’s giving advice to guys and he remained connected with the group, and positive,” Vanderjagt said.
“He’s still coaching from the sidelines and he’s coming to me to give advice in terms of subs and what he’s seeing because he’s been around a long time so he knows what he’s talking about.
“It’s pleasing that if things didn’t go his way in this game, and that happens after he was good the other night, but other people stepped up.
“We found other guys to contribute to plug the hole that was left by Baynes so I’m happy with that, but also happy with how he responded to some adversity for himself in terms of how he stayed positive with the group.”
Baynes’ teammate Harry Froling is also saying all the right things.
“It’s just huge for us to play with Baynesy,” Froling said.
“He wants to play big minutes obviously and there’ll be games where he does that, but it’s pretty easy with the position we’re in and once you’ve lost a few and can’t make playoffs to turn on each other, and not be up and about for each other and play the wrong way.
“With Baynesy leading that from the bench, we are out here playing basketball and we all love it, and we’ve got a great group.
“You wouldn’t think this team would be in the position we’re in when you look at the characters of the guys in the group and it’s just good to have a guy like Baynesy leading it. He can just help make sure everyone plays the right way.”
SCRAPPING ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD BRINGS MIXED VIEWS
Just three weeks out from the end of the NBL season and there will no longer be a Rookie of the Year Award. That’s terrible news for Cairns Taipans big man Sam Waardenburg, but the introduction of a Next Generation Award in its place does make sense.
The Rookie of the Year has an interesting history in the NBL. It is littered with some huge names to have won over the years from Andrew Gaze (1984), Shane Heal (1988), Andrew Vlahov (1991), Sam Mackinnon (1994), John Rillie (1995), Matt Nielsen (1997), Brad Newley (2005), Mark Worthington (2006), Joe Ingles (2007), Nate Jawai (2008), Nick Kay (2016), LaMelo Ball (2020) and Josh Giddey (2021).
That’s quite the spectacular list, but there’s also been seasons where the candidates for the award have been slim pickings. That’s just because of the fact there’s so few players who met the criteria with imports not included.
To win the award, you had to be a local playing your first professional season with the only exception being for Next Star players which is what allowed Ball to win back in his season at the Illawarra Hawks.
Watch every game live of the 2022/23 NBL Season on ESPN on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Melbourne Utd take down Bullets | 01:03
This season the pickings were going to be slim. There is only one Next Star player in the league and Rayan Rupert has missed too many games at the New Zealand Breakers to be a true candidate.
That left Taipans first-year big man Waardenburg as the clear winner of the Rookie of the Year. He has had a significant impact as a start on a team sitting second with 10.1 points and 4.7 rebounds a game.
What the NBL announced this week was the scrapping of the Rookie of the Year in favour of a Next Generation Award which will see any player aged 25 and under throughout the season being eligible for it.
That makes the world of sense and all of a sudden Waardenburg has stiff opposition.
There’s Sam Froling at the Illawarra Hawks now looking the favourite to win while Perth Wildcats pair Luke Travers and Brady Manek, Sydney’s Jaylin Galloway and Tasmania’s Sean Macdonald are others who deserve to be considered along with Waardenburg.
The change in the award makes the world of sense, but doing it just three weeks out from when the actual award will be handed out and taking Rookie of the Year away so suddenly seems baffling.
That’s exactly how former Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks forward Cody Ellis sees it.
“It’s a great move and I think it’s what it should be, but don’t do it with three rounds to go. That’s just ridiculous,” Ellis said on Hoops Heaven’s Basketball Hustle podcast.
“It’s gone from being Sam Waardenburg’s award, 1000 per cent Sam Waardenburg’s award, to probably Sam Froling’s award. It’s the perfect award now because it opens the field a lot more so it makes sense.
“I just think it should have stayed Rookie of the Year at this point of the season and then next year, rename the award, announce the changes before the season and that would have been the way to do it. You don’t do it with three rounds to go, it’s not ideal.”
WILDCATS WITH A CHANCE TO ANNOUNCE THEMSELVES
The Perth Wildcats look to be building some ominous form, but proving themselves against the Sydney Kings is one thing they are yet to do and the chance presents on Friday night on a special night for the ‘Cats.
There’s a nice rivalry right now building between the Kings and Wildcats. It really caught fire going back to the COVID ruined Grand Final series of 2020 where Perth was leading 2-1 in the best-of-five contests before the Kings decided against travelling with the pandemic fears growing.
The back and forth between the clubs, and their fan bases has continued since then even extending to ownership groups with Sydney headed up by Paul Smith and Perth by Craig Hutchison.
Not only did the Kings win the championship last season, but they have been on a high pointing to the Wildcats being the biggest spending team even if those numbers were significantly skewed and not exactly painting a clear picture.
The Wildcats now haven’t beaten the Kings since the departure of Trevor Gleeson as coach either losing all three meetings last season, and then by 21 points just two weeks ago in Sydney in the only meeting of NBL23.
Wildcats shine at home in push for top 4 | 01:01
However, coming into Friday night’s clash at RAC Arena and both teams are in good form.
The Wildcats haven’t lost since that game in Sydney playing well to beat the New Zealand Breakers and Adelaide 36ers with Tai Webster settling into the line-up nicely with coach John Rillie largely just going with six players – the Webster brothers, Bryce Cotton, Luke Travers, TaShawn Thomas and Brady Manek.
The big test, though, is being able to do it against the Kings. Sydney remains clear on top of the standings having won six straight with a 17-5 record as they arrive in Perth for Friday night’s contest.
The Wildcats just need to keep winning to ensure their return to playoff action and will be celebrating the retirement of Shawn Redhage’s No. 42 on Friday night. But for Thomas, all the motivation he needs is their opponents and his battle with MVP fancy Xavier Cooks.
“He (Cooks) was a focus last time and I didn’t like what I did last time against him so coming in this time I’m trying to critique myself to see what I need to do to slow him down,” Thomas said.
“Everybody definitely remembers what happened last time. We were a little bit too backward and this time we want to address the game a lot more aggressively to force the refs to make some calls. We will be looking to be a bit more aggressive on defence.
“When you see the whole Sydney team on film they look fast, but when you actually get out there, you see just how fast they really are so getting that little bit of a taste last time was good.
“We’ll definitely benefit from that coming into Friday. They are playing the best basketball right now, but that don’t mean they’re not beatable.”
As for Kings coach Chase Buford, he has no concerns over how his players will handle 13,000 Red Army fans against them.
“I don’t know, a lot of our group was there when we went and kicked their arse last year so I think we’ll be ready. We’ll be alright,” Buford said.
