The race for playoff spots in the NBL is seeing some tough calls made on veterans, Melbourne United in a must-win situation and the race for second spot behind the Sydney Kings potentially to be decided on Sunday between the New Zealand Breakers and Cairns Taipans.
The final month of the NBL season is underway and with the Kings looking to be runaway leaders in the race to the regular season championship, it’s the Breakers and Taipans who appear locked in a fight over that second position, and a guaranteed semi-final berth.
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That leaves the Tasmania JackJumpers, Perth Wildcats, Adelaide 36ers, South East Melbourne Phoenix and Melbourne United fighting over those three remaining playoff spots, and things are becoming fascinating.
Round 15 in NBL23 got underway with a double-header back on Tuesday night which saw the Tasmania JackJumpers get an important 92-89 win over the brave Illawarra Hawks before the Perth Wildcats shortened their rotation and beat the New Zealand Breakers 93-90.
Wednesday night saw the Sydney Kings record their biggest ever win in a 40-minute game by putting further pain upon the Brisbane Bullets with a 116-67 shellacking.
There’s no let up in the action with a crucial double-header on Thursday night.
It begins with the New Zealand Breakers battling Melbourne United in Christchurch before the Tasmania JackJumpers are at home to the Adelaide 36ers.
The Cairns Taipans will then be hoping to welcome back superstar Keanu Pinder to host the Illawarra Hawks on Friday night before on Saturday, the Brisbane Bullets host Melbourne United, and then the Perth Wildcats are at home to the Adelaide 36ers.
There’s two more matches on Sunday with the New Zealand Breakers taking on the Cairns Taipans before the Sydney Kings play host to the Illawarra Hawks.
The round wraps up on Monday night when the South East Melbourne Phoenix return to action against the Brisbane Bullets.
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TOUGH CALLS ON VETERANS IN PLAYOFF RACE
The Tasmania JackJumpers captain, Perth Wildcats vice-captain and two other veterans at the ‘Cats and New Zealand Breakers saw their playing time dramatically cut in their last hit outs as the battle for playoff spots heats up.
There’s no room for sentiment or worrying about players’ feelings now that the race for the positions in the top six is at fever pitch. Rotations are becoming shorter and minutes harder to come by for those teams in the middle of the fight.
In recent days, Clint Steindl at the Tasmania JackJumpers, Todd Blanchfield and Mitch Norton at the Perth Wildcats, and Cam Gliddon at New Zealand have seen their minutes almost disappear altogether.
The four players have a combined 1259 games of NBL experience behind them. The good news for each of them is that they have contracts for next season, but they don’t appear a big part of their teams immediate plans in the playoff push.
Wildcats coach John Rillie dramatically changed the approach to his rotation on his team’s return home after a five-game road trip against the Breakers on Tuesday night.
You can’t fault the execution or outcome either with the Wildcats scoring the crucial three-point win to improve them to an 11-10 record and back inside the top six, but really it was only six players that Rillie relied upon.
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Tai Webster played almost 23 minutes in his second game since signing for the ‘Cats joining his older brother Corey and Bryce Cotton in the back court. Luke Travers returned to play 26 minutes off the bench so those four shared the one, two and three positions.
Rillie then backed in his import frontcourt pair and it worked with TaShawn Thomas (23 points, 10 rebounds) and Brady Manek (15 points, nine boards) standing tall and playing at least 33 minutes each.
Captain Jesse Wagstaff offered some relief with eight minutes while vice-captain Norton played just the three and 367-game veteran Blanchfield didn’t hit the court at all.
Whether that rotation is sustainable or not moving forward remains to be seen and that starts on Saturday night for the Wildcats against the Adelaide 36ers. Clearly Rillie made a statement that he was going for longer with the players he felt would give them the best chance to win.
In the same game, Gliddon managed just 18 seconds for the Breakers.
It’s not because his coach Mody Maor has lost faith in him or doesn’t feel he has a role to play on the team.
The fact is with New Zealand now at full strength and with a back court featuring Izayah Le’afa, Will McDowell-White, Barry Brown Jr and Rayan Rupert, there might not be a lot of minutes unfortunately for Gliddon even though he’s had a good impact in his minutes this season.
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Earlier on Tuesday night, the JackJumpers scored an important win against the Illawarra Hawks but their captain Steindl didn’t hit the floor at all.
Steindl’s impact hasn’t quite been what he or the JackJumpers hoped working back from injury in the second half of this season. On Tuesday he couldn’t find any time with Jarrad Weeks, Sean Macdonald, Matt Kenyon and Sam McDaniel played ahead of him.
However, expect Steindl back out there for the JackJumpers on Thursday night in Adelaide and coach Scott Roth knows that egos won’t get in the way on his team.
“We’re going to give these guys a swing early on, a few of our guys, to see who’s doing what early and Clint will be ready to go against Adelaide,” Roth said.
“He’s a fresh body that we can throw out there who should be ready to go. We’ll continue to rely on Clint for his leadership and shooting. It’s just one of those things where he didn’t play in this game.
“It can be match up things but I just never have to worry about telling these guys to be ready because they are all ready to go. I don’t have to worry about Clint Steindl pouting and being upset, and being grumpy on the plane because he didn’t play.
“We have humble and hungry guys who are high character and that’s what I put this team together with. They will just be ready to go when their name is called and it’s the sacrifice of being a team, that’s what the JackJumpers are.”
NEW UNITED BIG MAN HAS TO STAND TALL
Marcus Lee has been a welcome addition to Melbourne United this NBL season but now if his team is to stay alive in the playoff hunt he has two massive tasks ahead of him this week in the absence of Isaac Humphries and David Barlow.
Lee has done a terrific job settling into Melbourne’s team for the second half of the season and has proven a valuable addition with the presence he provides at both ends of the floor.
With Jordan Caroline not working out to start off, Lee came in as his replacement to team up with fellow former NBA centre Humphries to deliver a potent force up front, and it’s worked.
Lee has provided United with a different look to give them a lob threat that the guards can throw the ball to him to finish, he’s a strong offensive rebounder and defensively he has given his team a rim protector.
While Lee has been playing well including 22 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks on 11/13 shooting in Saturday night’s win against the Tasmania JackJumpers, he is going to need to keep delivering.
Melbourne’s season is delicately poised with an 11-12 record right now. With just five games remaining, any loss in the run home could kill their playoff hopes and now all of a sudden, it’s Lee holding down their hopes down low.
Both Humphries (knee) and Barlow (concussion) will miss at least this week’s games against the New Zealand Breakers on Thursday and the Brisbane Bullets on Saturday meaning Lee is going to have to play big minutes, and deliver or United’s season could be done.
That presents big challenges for the energetic 6’11 big man. Against the Breakers on Thursday, he will have the deal with the physicality and impressive force that is Dererk Pardon and then on Saturday it’s Aron Baynes who’ll be his main match up.
Lee enjoys those sort of challenges and even doing some talking with them out on the floor, but more than anything he’s enjoying playing on this Melbourne team and will do what he can to help them keep winning.
“It’s great talking to the great players out here whether it’s a ball take out or if we’re just walking down the court or during a free-throw,” Lee said.
“Just to chat it up a little bit or to learn a little about the players you are going up against in that short amount of time, I enjoy that, and then it’s straight back to battling.
“Something I’ve learned throughout my basketball career is that I play better when I’m having fun and enjoying each moment on the court.
“Here with Melbourne, it’s just so easy to do that because we have coaches around us who just allow you to enjoy what you’re doing. They just lift your energy up and I try to pass that right back to them.
“It’s extremely enjoyable and we’re having fun each and every day, but we’re also demanding so much of each other.
“Coach is stressing what are you going to give to the team and there’s always going to be that one moment where you’re going to be exhausted, and you’ll have to give a little extra. Our team is doing that and we’re going to try and continue to do that.”
MARQUEE SIGNING COULD OPEN DOOR FOR HAWKS IMPORTS
The Illawarra Hawks have had a horror run with their imports this season and are only left with Tyler Harvey, but the potential of Michael Frazier II and Justin Robinson returning remains there if they can find a marquee local big man.
You can’t really fault the efforts of Hawks general manager Mat Campbell in the import signings he’s made for his team this season.
Having already had locked away Harvey, they opted to create what they expected to be quite the dynamic backcourt pairing with Justin Robinson. However, in the very first game of the season he injured a knee and was done.
George King might have been a nice third option alongside that pair, but he never quite got going and only lasted nine games too, averaging just 10.7 points and 4.1 rebounds.
The replacements weren’t bad either. Finding Peyton Siva to take over as point guard was a good effort from the Hawks to give them that floor general. He played well enough too with 9.3 points and 6.3 assists a game, but then his season was done with a shoulder injury.
Perhaps the best signing made was that of Frazier. With a point to prove after his treatment by the Perth Wildcats last season, he showed he could be a genuine star and prolific scorer in the NBL putting up 17.3 points in his eight games.
The horror run of luck continued when he broke his arm last Friday night ending his season as well.
That means for the rest of this season the Hawks will be going with just Harvey as their lone import meaning young guards Davo Hickey and Lachie Dent will be given plenty of opportunities in particular.
Plans are already in place for next season at the Hawks and there’s every chance that two of those imports who had their seasons over early could be back.
Illawarra was excited by what Robinson could have done alongside Harvey and were impressed with his character and professionalism even after his injury, so there’s a genuine chance he comes back.
They then fell immediately in love with everything Frazier brought to the table and would be more than wiling to look to bring him back.
There is every chance that Harvey, Robinson and Frazier will be Illawarra’s imports next season but that’s putting a lot of faith in your backcourt.
For that to happen, the Hawks would need to find more help up front for Sam Froling. That’s where they are hoping to find a marquee signing – someone like Duop Reath who was so important for them last season or former Breakers forward Finn Delany.
If they can sign either Reath or Delany, a starting five of him with Froling, Frazier, Robinson and Harvey looks impressive, and that’s what Campbell is hoping to pull off.
“Someone like Duop Reath who played with us last season was outstanding. Someone like him or Finn Delany, there’s a number of guys out there who would suit our style of basketball. Hopefully we can secure one of them in the off-season and that will give us a better season,” Campbell said.
“Justin was outstanding and we put a lot of effort into finding him in the pre-season, and obviously he showed so much talent. To lose him in the first game really hurt us so we’re talking to Justin now.
“We’re hoping to bring him back and if we can find a marquee player that would really cement our squad.”
BREAKERS COACH FED UP WITH BEING LABELLED ‘BULLIES’
New Zealand Breakers coach Mody Maor has kept quiet about rival coaches making public their thoughts on his team’s physical play, but he could keep quiet no longer after a narrow loss in Perth on Tuesday night.
For a lot of this season, Maor has bit his tongue while rival coaches have come into post-match press conferences talking about how physical the Breakers are, how they feel as though they get away with a lot and would like the referees to do more about it.
Maor made a decision he didn’t want to talk about the referees or respond to the comments from the opposition teams. He had kept to his word too but on Tuesday night following a narrow loss in Perth to the Wildcats, he decided it was time to hit back.
It was out of understandable frustration too. Dererk Pardon had a monster game for the Breakers with 28 points and 12 rebounds on 13/15 shooting.
All of his work was done under and around the basket, and the Wildcats got physical with him the longer the game went and even double-teamed him in the second half. Still, the Breakers centre only took four free-throws.
Frontcourt partner Jarrell Brantley does a lot of work around the basket too and gets physical, but he didn’t take a single free-throw.
As a team, New Zealand only took 14 free-throws the entire game while up the other end, the Wildcats took 24 foul shots including seven to their own centre TaShawn Thomas.
Maor made it clear after the game that he wasn’t blaming the officiating for the loss, he pointed more to the 15 offensive rebounds and 23 second chance points for the Wildcats that his team allowed as the major factor.
However, he had to let his feelings be known that he felt his team didn’t get the same calls that the Wildcats were getting, and it’s built up frustration that led to him speaking out.
Maor has become fed up with opposition teams talking about the Breakers’ physicality in press conferences so he hit back on Tuesday night.
Now we wait to see what, if anything, changes Thursday night in Christchurch against Melbourne and on Sunday in Auckland against Cairns.
“I was planning on not saying anything about this in the press conference, but apparently this is the way it goes in the NBL,” Maor said.
“An opponent coach goes into the press conference to complain about the refereeing and then the whistle changes. I don’t like it and I’ve made it a habit the whole season to not complain about anything, no matter what the circumstances the Breakers have met.
“To me it doesn’t make sense that in a game like this a player like Dererk Pardon shoots four free-throws. It doesn’t make sense to me that a player like Jarrell Brantley shoots zero free-throws. It doesn’t make sense to me that the disparity in the free-throw rate is 24 to 14.
“I have no problem with the fouls that were call against us. We play aggressive and physical, and it’s part of my job as a coach to get us to defend without fouling.
“I have a big problem with us being perceived as a bully and from this result, not receiving the foul calls that we deserve. It just makes no sense to me and I hope that the referees do a better job of this in the future.”
SIXERS FORTUNES RIDING WITH ‘SUPERMAN’ CLEVELAND
When Antonius Cleveland puts on his Superman cape, the Adelaide 36ers become quite the imposing force and if he can do it for longer in games they could be a championship threat, but the question is how long can he play at that intensity.
Cleveland’s numbers this season for Adelaide of 14.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists a game might not jump off the page at you, but that doesn’t come close to explaining the impact he has.
He deserves to be in the running for a spot on the All-First NBL team simply because he is a pure match-winner. He might not put up the huge numbers, but when a game is on the line there’s nobody more likely to win it for his team than Cleveland.
That’s exactly why the 36ers were so keen to sign him after his efforts last season with the Illawarra Hawks and he’s more than lived up to the billing.
Even now, a lot of the focus in Adelaide might be on Robert Franks, Ian Clark, Mitch McCarron, Daniel Johnson and even Kai Sotto, but it’s going to be Cleveland who has the biggest say in how far they can go.
Go back a couple of weeks and he was the man who turned the home game with the Brisbane Bullets to lead to a big finish and important win.
Then last Friday night, what he did in the last four minutes against the Illawarra Hawks had to be seen to be believed. Once he turned up the heat defensively, he forced turnover after turnover, and the Hawks couldn’t cope.
He then got out in the open floor to score, to throw down dunks and when he is playing with that energy and intensity, not only is he unstoppable but so are the 36ers.
That then raises the question over just how long can he play at that level for.
If he can play like that for longer, the Sixers might be genuine championship threats with them currently sitting sixth at 11-10 coming into Thursday night at home to Tasmania and then Saturday on the road to Perth.
Quite simply, with everything he provides, Cleveland becomes a force unlike any other player in the league when he switches to that mode, but according to 36ers Hall of Famer Scott Ninnis, it’s unrealistic to expect him to play like that for a whole game.
“Cleveland has the ability to take this team a long way,” Ninnis said on Hoops Heaven’s Basketball Hustle podcast.
“That energy is infectious and Jamie Pearlman spoke after the game and we talked about that four minutes, and he said all we need to do is bottle that for 40 minutes and I disagree. You can’t possibly play at that level for 40 minutes or he’d be in a wheelchair, but I understand what he’s saying.
“To lift that energy and play like that, we need other people coming along for the ride and you see it in spurts, but we just need to be able to bottle that for longer periods of the game and good things will happen.”
Former Illawarra Hawks and Sydney Kings forward Cody Ellis doesn’t necessarily disagree, but would like to see Cleveland flick that switch earlier in games and not wait until the situation is dire.
“He has been so good in the fourth quarters, especially those last five minutes for a few rounds now,” Ellis said.
“He dives on the floor, gets the ball off the rim to push it and go coast to coast and dunking on people, and his defensive intensity has been unbelievable. It’s been something Adelaide has needed and he’s just been a spark for them.
“I think that moving forward he needs to do that more often, I mean to leave it to the last five minutes and single-handedly win games for your team is fairly impressive. He has just been so good for them and you almost just wait for Cleveland time to see what he’s got next.”
