It now appears a race in three between the Sydney Kings, New Zealand Breakers and Cairns Taipans for the top two NBL spots after the trio had impressive Round 14 wins.
That was only part of what stood out across the weekend in NBL23 with a Philippines sensation delivering for the Adelaide 36ers as he grabs his opportunities, the Illawarra Hawks suffering another blow and the Perth Wildcats’ latest brother pairing hitting the floor together.
Round 14 in the NBL got underway back on Wednesday with the New Zealand Breakers beating the Perth Wildcats 97-94 and the Sydney Kings turning it on with 10 threes from DJ Vasiljevic to beat the South East Melbourne Phoenix 118-102.
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Kings make it four straight in NBL | 01:12
Then on Thursday night, the Cairns Taipans kept winning minus Keanu Pinder to beat a lacklustre Brisbane Bullets 107-81 before the Adelaide 36ers stormed home to beat the brave yet horribly unlucky Illawarra Hawks 103-95.
That led into two double-headers across the weekend beginning on Saturday with Melbourne United staying alive beating the Tasmania JackJumpers 92-85 before the Sydney Kings hammered a tired and limp Perth Wildcats 108-87.
There were two more games on Sunday with the New Zealand Breakers holding off the Adelaide 36ers to win 85-83 in front of another record Adelaide Entertainment Centre crowd before the Cairns Taipans beat the South East Melbourne Phoenix 94-85.
There’s little time to catch your breath either with a double-header to come on Tuesday night with the Illawarra Hawks at home to the Tasmania JackJumpers before the Perth Wildcats host the New Zealand Breakers.
Then on Wednesday, the struggling Brisbane Bullets host the on-fire league-leading Sydney Kings.
HAWKS LOSE FOURTH IMPORT TO SEASON-ENDING INJURY
The horror blows just keep coming for the Illawarra Hawks with their season from hell continuing with the news that a fourth import has been ruled out for the season after Michael Frazier II broke his arm on Friday night.
Jacob Jackomas had the unenviable task of starting his head coaching career taking over from his mentor, Brian Goorjian, at the Hawks, but there’s nothing even the GOAT could have done with this Illawarra team with the incredible run of bad luck they’ve had.
When putting the roster together, the back court import combination of Tyler Harvey and Justin Robinson was what the Hawks were excited to unleash on the league in the hope they’d be an explosive combination.
Well that lasted one game before Robinson hurt a knee and his season was done.
It took another five games without a second import guard alongside Harvey before the Hawks brought in Peyton Siva. He was solid too with 9.3 points and 6.3 assists over his 11 games, but he then injured a shoulder to end his season.
Along the way, George King never quite worked out averaging just 10.7 points in his nine appearances before the combination of his form and a lower leg injury saw him depart.
Michael Frazier II was the man who then came in to provide that second scoring threat for the Hawks alongside Harvey and with a chip on his shoulder with how he was treated at the Perth Wildcats last season.
He delivered too putting up 17.3 points a game and he already had 11 in the first quarter on Friday night against the Adelaide 36ers. However, an innocuous incident under the rim saw him break his forearm and his season is now done too.
It’s incomprehensible to think one team has lost four imports in one season to injuries and now the Hawks will go the rest of the way with Harvey their lone import with a largely youthful team of locals surrounding him.
To Illawarra’s great credit, they continue to fight hard and Friday night was another case of a game they could, and perhaps should, have won. They were up eight on the road to Adelaide with four minutes to play before being outscored 22-6 the rest of the way.
That meant the Hawks still have just two wins for the season and have lost eight straight, but coach Jackomas is remaining philosophical looking ahead to hosting the Tasmania JackJumpers on Tuesday night.
“Tyler posts a bunch of stuff on his Instagram that’s all spiritual and I read that now, and think to myself there’s going to be a better day,” Jackomas said.
“It’s coming for us right now and we’ve got to have a positive mindset with it as much as I’m feeling it for myself, the team, the boys, the fans and the ownership, everyone I’m feeling for and I’m taking that burden.
“It starts with me but there’s some positives right now and we’re finding some growth in a lot of young men. As a leader of this group, I have to find the high road in that and nurture that, and make sure they keep coming out playing the way they are. Then good days will come from that.”
TIME FOR BULLETS TO SHOW FIGHT AGAINST LEAGUE-LEADERS
The Sydney Kings look just about unstoppable in the NBL right now and the Brisbane Bullets look ready for the season to end, but coach Greg Vanderjagt is imploring more of his team to show the fight that Tyler Johnson is right now.
There’s no bigger test for a struggling team to come up against the league-leading defending champions, but that’s exactly what is in front of the struggling Bullets this Wednesday night at Nissan Arena.
The Kings are on quite a tear. They are still clear on top the standings at 15-5 having won their last four where they’ve been averaging 106.0 points a game with an average winning margin of 19.5 against Melbourne, Tasmania, South East Melbourne and Perth.
Those are all teams in the playoff race the Kings have hammered, that’s anything but where the Bullets are with just five wins for the season including losing the last three by an average of 14 points.
Vasiljevic SHINES with 10 long bombs | 01:16
The Bullets are fresh off a poor showing back on Thursday night where they had a full roster available for the first time since the arrival of new import Andrew White III, but it mattered little even against a Cairns Taipans team missing Keanu Pinder.
The Snakes led by as much as 32 before winning by 26 with the Brisbane starters combining for a paltry 23 points on 9/31 shooting to go with 13 rebounds and 10 turnovers.
That included just a combined four points on 2/9 shooting from Olympians Nathan Sobey and Aron Baynes with the strongest fight from a Bullet coming from former NBA star Tyler Johnson.
Johnson talked about how much he wanted to lead the way for the Bullets the rest of the season after the loss to Melbourne and he put those words into action with a season-best 32 points, four assists and four steals.
He now needs more of his teammates along for the ride including veterans Sobey, Baynes and Jason Cadee to show the way for the emerging Tyrell Harrison, Tanner Krebs, DJ Mitchell, Gorjok Gak and Kody Stattmann.
There’s now no bigger test for the Bullets than taking on the Kings this Wednesday night.
The Brisbane public have been doing a commendable job filling Nissan Arena despite the 5-15 season and now it’s time for Vanderjagt to see his Bullets team show more heart and fight.
“I think we need to see the competitiveness, that’s the first thing,” Vanderjagt said.
“We need everybody on the floor at practice leading into the game bringing that competitive energy. We need an intent about us that’s representative of a professional basketball team, and representative of this organisation.
“We’ve got a choice right now as professionals and as men, we can either shut up shop and mail it in for the next eight games, and it could be a really long and miserable four weeks.
“Or we can compete and play for each other, and bring the right intent as pros and concentrate on the things that impact winning, and not getting caught up in what’s going wrong for me.
“In terms of that, we’re going to keep practicing, we’re going to keep coaching and trying to get better. We’re not going to shift away from doing the work, we’re going to try to keep getting better and preparing to play a basketball game that’s representative of professional basketballers.”
CHAMPIONSHIP DREAM FOR WEBSTER BROTHERS
It wasn’t quite the first appearance in red together the Webster brothers hoped against the Sydney Kings, but they will now face their former team the New Zealand Breakers on Tuesday night as they chase that NBL championship dream.
Tai and Corey Webster are no strangers to playing together having done so in the NBL at the New Zealand Breakers and internationally with the Tall Blacks.
They even celebrated a championship together at the Breakers back in 2013 with Corey a star scorer on that team while Tai was still a development player prior to attending the University of Nebraska.
The supremely talented brothers then came together at the Breakers again as professionals for the first time in the ill-fated 2019/20 season. They would end up playing 21 games together combining for 30 points, but playing in just seven wins.
Since then, both Webster brothers parted ways with the Breakers and now they have both come together once more in the NBL at their old rivals the Wildcats.
Breakers edge 36ers in tight contest | 01:09
Teaming up in the back court with Bryce Cotton might not appear an ideal fit for the brothers on some fronts, but it does have the potential to be an unstoppable offensive combination.
The signs of that were there on Saturday night against Sydney despite the Wildcats suffering a disappointing 21-point loss.
It was Tai’s debut with the Wildcats on the back of being released by Turkish club Petkim Spor. He came out and hit nine points in the opening quarter after joining his brother and Cotton in the starting line-up.
He didn’t add to that and finished with six rebounds and three assists while Corey delivered 22 points and Cotton 22 points and five assists.
If that trio could average more than 50 points a game like that the rest of the season, the ‘Cats are going to be a tough offensive team to stop.
Whether or not they can stop their opponents scoring up the other end is another issue altogether, but the Webster brothers are now getting to live that dream together of playing professionally.
Corey is now 257 games into an NBL career that’s already seen him win three championships with the Breakers.
While one of those was with Tai as a development player, if they can come together and lead the Wildcats to the playoffs again this season and then into championship contender, that’d be every dream come true for any siblings.
“Obviously I’m really excited and Tai will bring a lot to this team,” Corey Webster said.
“He’s an offensive weapon and he’s also tough at the defensive end, and he’ll get out on the fast break and push the ball.
“Obviously it’s a dream for any family and any brothers to play sports, and I don’t think it’s too common for brothers to play at top level in any sport around the world together.
“That’s obviously a dream come true and hopefully we can make this push for a title together.”
It’s only fitting that the first home game for the Webster brothers for the Wildcats will be against the Breakers on Tuesday night.
FULL STRENGTH BREAKERS READY TO MAKE STATEMENT
They are already in second position in the NBL standings but the New Zealand Breakers played their first game of the season at full strength on Sunday and are now ready to show what they are capable of with a hectic schedule ahead.
You can’t quite put into words what an effort it has been for the Breakers to be sitting in second position on the NBL table with a 13-6 record given everything they’ve had thrown at them.
On the back of a horror two years through COVID where they were largely based in Australia, things haven’t got a whole lot easier for the Breakers this season. That’s included having key players in and out the whole way through, and then an 18-day enforced layoff through December.
At no point have the Breakers made excuses though. Instead, they’ve just gone about their business on the floor and made themselves incredibly physical and difficult to play against, and then have a well-balanced group at the offensive end who efficiently get the job done.
The Breakers opened the season having lost captain Tom Abercrombie to a freak eye injury at the pre-season Blitz that saw him miss the opening eight games.
United down Tasmania & push for playoffs | 01:11
Prolific scorer Barry Brown Jr then missed three games before exciting Next Star Rayan Rupert broke his wrist back on November 6 just as Abercrombie returned.
Experienced centre Rob Loe had a bright start to the season too but has now missed six games and struggled in others since while starting point guard Will McDowell-White only just returned from a finger injury.
Only Dererk Pardon, Jarrell Brantley, Izayah Le’afa and Tom Vodanovich have been able to play all 19 games so far. What that meant was that on Sunday in Adelaide, for the very first time the Breakers had their full squad available.
They would go on to deliver a strong performance as well with a win that was more commanding over the Adelaide 36ers than the final 85-83 scoreline suggests in front of a record Adelaide Entertainment Centre crowd.
In some ways, the Breakers season really starts now with everyone on the court together. It just happens they are beginning with a richly earned 13-6 start as they look to further consolidate a top two finish to guarantee a semi-final position over the final nine games.
Those nine matches are going to be crammed into the final month of the season including this week against the Perth Wildcats in Perth on Tuesday, playing Melbourne United in Christchurch on Thursday and then hosting the Cairns Taipans at Spark Arena on Sunday.
However, for coach Mody Maor he is just thrilled to have everyone available and is praying it stays that way.
“It was true joy to see everyone out there and to have everyone available,” Maor said.
“We were fortunate today to play our first game with a full roster, (knock on wood). So now it’s about everyone finding their role and their spot within this and getting comfortable with the rotations, and finding the rotations that work.
“The most important thing for me is that you don’t need to manage your minutes anymore as a player. You can go all out every second you’re on the floor. I think we felt that for significant periods of this game but not for 40 minutes and that will be our goal for the next one.”
SOTTO’S GROWING IMPACT AS 36ERS MAKE THEIR CHARGE
Kai Sotto might have been in the Adelaide 36ers starting line-up through necessity, but he now looks there to stay and he produced a significant performance at both ends against the league’s most physical opposition on Sunday.
It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride again for Sotto at the 36ers in his second NBL season and certainly the entire nation of the basketball mad Philippines has been imploring coach CJ Bruton to give him a bigger role on the team.
Well they are now getting their wish. Sotto was only inserted into the starting line-up originally with seven-time club MVP and 407-game veteran Daniel Johnson out sick against the Brisbane Bullets.
However, it worked that night for the Sixers and ever since Sotto has remained in the starting group with Johnson providing that scoring punch off the bench, and it’s continued to be paying dividends.
While the 36ers couldn’t quite overcome the New Zealand Breakers in front of a record 9368 crowd at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, the Sixers have won five of seven matches with Sotto joining Robert Franks in the starting front court.
He then produced his best performance perhaps in all of his 43-game NBL career, and even more impressively it was against the physicality and toughness of Dererk Pardon, Jarrell Brantley and the Breakers.
There was a period in the fourth quarter where Sotto showed a true glimpse into his potential, but also the work he still needs to do if he hopes to realise his dream of getting to the NBA.
Sotto started off throwing down a dunk on the alley-oop pass from NBL and NBA champion Ian Clark before hitting another bucket, then another slam after a baseline drive.
He then delivered a huge block on New Zealand’s Barry Brown Jr up the other end showing his defensive presence potential too. However, he was perhaps feeling too good and put up a three-point attempt up top that was a wild air ball.
Coach Bruton then elected not to play Sotto on the final few possessions and opted for Kyrin Galloway, but by the end of the night Sotto finished with 16 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots.
It was an impressive performance showing why the 7’2 20-year-old still has such potential.
Sotto himself has just stayed ready waiting for more minutes with the 36ers and is looking to make the most of every opportunity to make an impact at both ends of the floor.
“I think that’s my primary role in this team with my size and the first thing I always think of when I step onto the court is to have that impact defensively. Then everything else will follow,” Sotto said.
“I always just stay ready for all the opportunities my coaches give me. Every practice and every game, I just have to have that confidence that my teammate can rely on me on the offensive end and the defensive end. I’m just always staying ready.”
