The Sydney Kings, New Zealand Breakers and Tasmania JackJumpers are all one win away from the NBL Championship Series but the Cairns Taipans almost pulled off the stunner in Game 1 against the defending champions and can’t be ruled out.
The four teams in the NBL semi finals were confirmed on Sunday with the Taipans eliminating the Perth Wildcats and now both series’ are delicately poised with the Grand Final teams to be locked in by Sunday.
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The first team into the Grand Final could come as early as Friday night with the Cairns Taipans hosting the Sydney Kings in Game 2.
Sydney beat Cairns 95-87 but the Taipans did open up a double-figure lead at Qudos Bank Arena on Wednesday even without Keanu Pinder and Tahjere McCall, and will fancy their chances to force the series to a deciding Game 3.
Taipans and Breakers earn playoff wins | 01:25
The other semi-final series is already confirmed to be going to a Game 3 with the Tasmania JackJumpers beating the New Zealand Breakers 89-78 in Game 2 at MyState Bank Arena on Thursday night.
That Game 3 will be played at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Sunday with the Kings to also host the Taipans at Qudos Bank Arena should the Snakes prevail in Game 2 on Friday on their home court.
TAIPANS SHARPSHOOTER TAKES OFFENCE TO KINGS COMMENTS
Jonah Antonio had the best performance of his NBL career in Wednesday’s Game 1 for the Cairns Taipans but Sydney Kings coach Chase Buford talked about taking advantage of him up the other end creating another level of intrigue for Friday’s Game 2.
The story of the first half of Wednesday night’s Game 1 between the Kings and Taipans at Qudos Bank Arena very quickly became little used Cairns sharpshooter Antonio.
He is in his first NBL season and did arrive with the reputation of being a knockdown shooter, but he just hasn’t been able to find a regular spot in the Taipans rotation and had made just 14 three-pointers all season long in just a total of 184 minutes.
However, he was unleashed by coach Adam Forde on Wednesday night and started throwing rockets starting with a three-pointer on the quarter-time buzzer.
The 25-year-old originally from Perth before playing college at both Wake Forest and UNLV and then spending last season in the Czech Republic hit another four three-pointers in the second quarter to help the Snakes open up a 12-point lead.
He had 17 points to half-time on 5/6 three-point shooting and while he ended the night with a career-best 20 points on 6/9 shooting from beyond the arc, Kings coach Buford didn’t mince words afterwards.
When talking about Antonio post-match, Buford did credit Antonio’s shooting performance but actually felt that him playing more minutes than usual might have benefited the Kings as his team tried to take advantage of him defensively.
The Kings did do a good job of creating mismatches and caught Antonio undersized and out of position matched up with their bigs on several of occasions. Buford was quick to point out that despite Antonio’s shooting heroics, the Taipans were outscored by four with him on the court.
That felt a little harsh and Antonio was quick to respond cryptically on Twitter afterwards adding some extra spice to Game 2 in Cairns on Friday night.
As for what Buford said, he made his feelings clear about trying to take advantage of Antonio.
“We just let Antonio go nuts. He made shots, give credit to him, but we could have guarded him a whole lot better than we did,” Buford said.
“The fact that they had Antonio come in and flame torch us in that second quarter, and he’s still minus-four. He’s got to deliver that to make up for his deficiencies at the other end of play against us, and it will be hard to replicate that performance.
“I thought we did a really good job in the second half on Waardenburg as well, I think he was a key for us in the way we wanted to guard him.
“In the second half we did a much better job and on DJ Hogg, he takes seven attempts from three but only made one and I thought we had a lot of good contests on him.
“To not allow him to make a bunch of triples is important. We might have given up threes to them, but we dominated the rim and I think we can dominate anybody at the rim especially with this group’s outs.”
JACKJUMPERS LOOK TO REPEAT THE DOSE
The Tasmania JackJumpers find themselves in familiar territory. Last season they pulled off a shock on the road in the semi finals to knock out Melbourne United in Game 3 and now the chance presents against the New Zealand Breakers on Sunday.
What a story the JackJumpers were in their inaugural NBL season. With nobody giving them a chance of success and then being shocked they even reached the playoffs, even fewer gave them a sniff of knocking off the regular season champion Melbourne United in the semi finals.
That was even more so the case when Melbourne won Game 1 before Tasmania forced that series into a decider by winning Game 2 at MyState Bank Arena.
The rest is now history with the JackJumpers winning that Game 3 in Melbourne to reach last season’s Grand Final to become one of the best stories in Australian sport as the ultimate underdog story.
They might not quite have pulled off the championship losing in the Grand Final to the Sydney Kings, but the mountain was perhaps even steeper to climb this season.
Once again they were written off by all and sundry, but they found a way to reach the finals once more from fourth position and then earned a spot directly in the semi finals by beating the Cairns Taipans in Far North Queensland last Thursday.
However, the JackJumpers were missing their floor general Josh Magette, captain Clint Steindl and had no answers in Game 1 of the semi finals against the New Zealand Breakers on Sunday.
The Breakers won 88-68 with the JackJumpers unable to have much impact defensively and then not get anything going offensively shooting just 33 per cent as a team and star imports Milton Doyle and Rashard Kelly combining for just 22 points on 5/19 shooting.
That meant the JackJumpers were up against it even with Game 2 at home on Thursday night against the Breakers.
It was a tight contest for three quarters and just when the Breakers were threatening to take control up five late in the third, the JackJumpers went on an 11-0 scoring run to take charge and end up winning 89-78.
It was a stirring performance in front of their raucous home crowd and now the chance presents back in Auckland on Sunday in Game 3 for the JackJumpers to repeat what they did last season and shock a team at home to reach the Grand Final.
Coach Scott Roth has no doubt his team is up for the challenge.
“You know that these opportunities don’t come along very often and to be in a Game 3 to get to the Grand Finals in our second year is just an incredible effort by my players, and really by staff to put us in this position again,” Roth said.
“I just think in this game we were just trying to make sure we took a swing at them and making sure we’re not going to walk out of this game, win or lose, second guessing what we do in general and how we continue to try to play throughout most of the season.
“I thought we had moments where we were really good and smart in some areas, and some areas we need to clean up but I just thought our aggression in a win or go home situation, I just thought let’s swing. And these guys swung.”
MVP MAKES A STATEMENT IN KINGS’ GAME 1 WIN
Anyone unsure of the credentials of Xavier Cooks as the league’s MVP this NBL season only needed to watch the way he dominated Game 1 of the semi-final series on Wednesday night against the Cairns Taipans.
If anybody still questions if Cooks deserved to be MVP this NBL season they didn’t watch Wednesday’s semi-final Game 1 against the Cairns Taipans where he was the major difference in Sydney’s eventual 95-87 victory.
Unfortunately we won’t get to see that marquee power forward match up Keanu Pinder sidelined with a fractured orbital socket for the Taipans and who knows what impact he could have had, but Cooks was able to show all of his all-round abilities.
Whether it was being a primary ball handler, throwing down dunks or finishing around the rim or crashing the boards or creating for his teammates, Cooks was at the peak of his powers.
He finished the night with 27 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block on the back of shooting 11/19 from the field.
It’s a dazzling stat-line but his actual performance was even more significant than the numbers suggest with the Kings outscoring the Taipans by nine points in the 33 minutes that he was on the floor.
Whether the Snakes tried to guard him with the size of Sam Waardenburg, the smooth moving DJ Hogg or with Lat Mayen or Majok Deng, they couldn’t quell his influence and the league’s MVP put his team on his back.
It’s far from the first time. After all, Cooks is already a championship winning captain and Grand Final MVP. But for him it wasn’t about proving anything personally or any grudges with the Taipans, he simply wanted to do what he could to get close to winning back-to-back titles.
After a slow start with the Taipans leading by 12 during the first half, Cooks was delighted with his team’s response.
“It was very frustrating and to give up 60 points in a half is unacceptable for any team, that’s unbelievable,” Cooks said.
“Antonio came out and hit some crazy shots, but he’s a good shooter and we’ve got to be locked in there. That really slowed our pace down, but we brought the energy and figured it out in the second half.
“My intent was to just bring the energy. I don’t really ever come out and say I’m going to get 20, that’s not my game style. I can control my effort levels and I try to go out and play as hard as I can, and get on the boys for not playing hard. It worked out.
“It’s nothing personal in this match up, I’m just fired up to bring the energy because it’s playoff time. I’ve got a lot of respect for those boys on the other side of the court and it’s nothing personal.”
BREAKERS VOW NOT TO LET OPPORTUNITY SLIP
The New Zealand Breakers have overcome everything thrown at them this season with nothing coming easy and they are determined to not let the chance slip to take advantage of hosting Sunday’s semi-final Game 3 against the Tasmania JackJumpers.
On the back of a horror last two years through COVID, the Breakers deserved things to be a little easier in NBL23 but it’s been anything but that throughout the season.
Whether it’s a tough injury run, some rough travel schedules, an enforced break thanks to COVID or even floods and cyclones at home in Auckland, the Breakers have had plenty thrown in their path this season.
Xavier Cooks wins NBL MVP | 00:45
However, they have answered every challenge, never wanted to make any excuses and that’s why they ended the regular season in second position and are still one win away from reaching a first Grand Final appearance since 2016.
New Zealand dominated the opening game of their semi-final series at home to the Tasmania JackJumpers on Sunday.
The Breakers won the game 88-68 on the back of having eight players scoring at least seven points in a tremendous team performance where they shot 53 per cent from the field, hit 9/21 from downtown and put in a commanding defensive showing.
That had them in the box seat to be the first team to win their way into the Championship Series, but playing in Hobart hasn’t been fruitful for the Breakers now the last two years and that continued on Thursday night.
Tasmania prevailed 89-78 with New Zealand unable to get the same bite at the defensive end while offensively, they shot just 44 per cent overall and 6/23 from beyond the arc.
The positive is that they now get to host Game 3 on Sunday back at Spark Arena with the winner to advance to the Grand Final.
Coach Mody Maor continues to have full faith in what his group can produce and this is the time where all that work during the season to earn home court advantage needs to pay off.
“I honestly don’t think it’s going to be very hard to refocus for the next game,” Maor said.
“We never expected it to be easy, these are the playoffs of the NBL and every team that comes here is great. This is supposed to be high level competition and you’re supposed to be challenged and tested, and this is exactly what we’re looking forward to.
“We went through a really tough season and played well through it in order to earn home court advantage. It’s a huge thing in playoffs, I’m happy to bring Game 3 to Spark Arena and I’m really looking forward to it.”
NZ Breakers lock in second spot in NBL | 00:57
INTRIGUING VETERAN POWER FORWARD DILEMMA
Perth Wildcats captain Jesse Wagstaff has earned the right to make his own decision on his playing future, but there’s every chance his retirement could open the door for a long-awaited homecoming for seven-time Adelaide 36ers MVP Daniel Johnson.
Now that the Wildcats season is over after their loss in the Play-In Game to the Cairns Taipans, captain Wagstaff has a decision to make whether or not to continue a career that has seen him play 446 games and win six championships.
He deserves to be able to make that decision himself and there’d be nothing wrong with him deciding to play a 15th season, but what he chooses to do could have a significant impact on the immediate future of one of his great rivals, Johnson.
This time last year it would have been almost unfathomable to imagine Johnson ending his career anywhere but in Adelaide. While he grew up in Perth, he’s now settled in Adelaide where he’s played 366 of his career 414 NBL games and with seven club MVP’s to his credit, he’s a 36ers all-time great.
There has constantly been intrigue over whether he might get to play for his hometown team one day, but with the Wildcats being well stocked for power forwards during his career including Shawn Redhage and Wagstaff, it’s just never been a good fit.
That’s not to say overtures haven’t been made. It did almost happen a decade ago when Rob Beveridge was Wildcats coach, but ultimately Johnson went to Adelaide and has put together a standout career.
So much so that no other current player has scored more points or collected more rebounds. He has been quite the reliable force whether coached by Marty Clarke, Joey Wright, Conner Henry or for the last two seasons, CJ Bruton.
However, Johnson’s minutes and overall production were at the lowest in a decade in his Adelaide time this season as he and coach Bruton clearly weren’t seeing eye to eye.
That appears to mean that Johnson’s NBL career would likely continue outside of Adelaide in NBL24 despite the fact he has built a life and family in the City of Churches.
Should Wagstaff decide to retire, it feels a natural fit for Johnson to get that long-awaited opportunity to play in Perth. One of the Wildcats’ all-time greats, Damian Martin, feels it makes sense should it all come together.
“I don’t think they go after Daniel and then say that DJ’s in and then say that unfortunately we’re pushing Jesse out,” Martin said on SEN.
“I think they wait to see what Jesse wants to do and will be respectful. Knowing that DJ probably wants out of Adelaide and he’s from Perth, they have probably made an initial call at least just to gauge that if Jesse steps aside and says this is it for me, then they can quickly pull the trigger on Daniel.
“But they would also make it very clear I would assume to DJ that it’s only available if Jesse makes the decision to retire. They might even fast track Jesse’s decision because two weeks after the final game of the Grand Final Series is played, that’s when free agency begins.
“You’re kidding yourself if you don’t think that agents aren’t talking to other GM’s right now, but you can’t any sign any deals or announce them until the two-week period is over.”
