By Jasper Bruce
Australia’s Xavier Cooks finished his NBA rookie season on a high, recording a maiden double-double in his first start for the Washington Wizards.
Cooks helped the Sydney Kings successfully defend their NBL title last month. Hours later, he boarded a flight to Washington, where he was immediately parachuted into the Wizards’ bench rotation.
Xavier Cooks takes on Boban Marjanovic of the Houston Rockets.Credit: Getty Images
The 27-year-old was restricted to cameos in his first weeks in the NBA but when hopes of a play-in berth began to fade and injuries hit, coach Wes Unseld jnr increased the Australian’s minutes.
Cooks started for the first time in the Wizards’ final game of the season on Sunday (Monday AEST), filling in at centre against the Houston Rockets as big men Daniel Gafford and Kristaps Porzingis missed out through injury and illness, respectively.
Cooks played mostly as a forward during the Kings’ championship seasons and, at 203-centimetres tall, is smaller than the average centre.
Xavier Cooks shoots against Frank Kaminsky.Credit: AP
But his trademark work-rate under the basket helped Cooks compete in the role and he finished with a game-high 14 rebounds.
When he spun in the key and sent a hook shot up midway through the last quarter, Cooks had 10 points and his first double-double as an NBA player.
His efforts weren’t enough to secure victory for the undermanned Wizards, the lowly Rockets winning 114-109.
“We’ve learnt a lot of lessons and now we have to figure out how to take some steps forward,” Unseld said of next season. “But I’m proud that we were able to go through some things this year and show a ton of resilience.”
Cooks will return to the NBA for the Wizards’ 2023-24 campaign.
With the regular season finishing imminently, Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels are set to meet in the play-in tournament, where four teams from each conference compete for a total of four play-off spots.
Giddey’s Oklahoma City Thunder will face Daniels’ New Orleans Pelicans in the Western Conference tournament on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).
Both sides had already qualified for the play-in, so Giddey was one of a number of Thunder stars rested for the 115-100 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
“We stepped up when they called us to just give our guys a rest going into the post-season,” the Thunder’s Tre Mann said.
“We went out there, played hard and had fun.”
Daniels sat out the Pelicans’ 113-108 loss to Minnesota, whom they could face if they beat the Thunder this week.
The campaign is officially over for Australians Cooks, Josh Green and Matisse Thybulle, with Green’s Dallas Mavericks and Thybulle’s Portland Trail Blazers failing to qualify for the post-season.
Aussies Joe Ingles, Jock Landale, Patty Mills, Jack White and Matthew Dellavedova are all chances to play in the post-season along with Giddey and Daniels.
Ingles and his Milwaukee Bucks have the best shot of going deep into the play-offs after clinching the No.1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
AAP
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