The Sydney Kings hit a walk off three once more, there were two more wins for the New Zealand Breakers, the Cairns Taipans kept winning, the Perth Wildcats finally won at home and there’s more concern at Melbourne United after Round 7 in the NBL.
The NBL season resumed after the FIBA break and by the end of the weekend, the Kings, Breakers and Taipans confirmed themselves as the three standout teams while the Illawarra Hawks took another cruel blow and Melbourne had suffered two more tough losses.
NBL23 resumed back on Thursday night with a double-header beginning with the Craig Randall-less Adelaide 36ers beating Melbourne United 91-86 before the Perth Wildcats snapped their home losing run, beating the South East Melbourne Phoenix 103-96.
There was the lone match on Friday and it was an eventful night in Launceston with the New Zealand Breakers again beating the Tasmania JackJumpers 84-76.
Next up on Saturday the South East Melbourne Phoenix won the Throwdown 84-69 in front of 10,175 fans at John Cain Arena. The Cairns Taipans then improved to 5-1 on the road beating the Brisbane Bullets 90-82.
There were two more games on Sunday firstly with the New Zealand Breakers beating the Adelaide 36ers 89-83.
The Sydney Kings then broke the hearts of the Illawarra Hawks thanks to a Shaun Bruce three on the buzzer to win 83-82 in front of a crowd of 11,032 at Qudos Bank Arena.
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BEST TRASH TALKER PUTS HAWKS TO BED
Having annually being voted by his peers as the NBL’s best trash talker, Sydney Kings veteran guard Shaun Bruce made sure he made the most of hitting Sunday’s game-winning three-pointer against the Illawarra Hawks.
If you talk to Bruce off the court and he’s quite the affable, soft-spoken and likeable young man, but that old white line fever takes over. In a 265-game NBL career in Brisbane, Cairns, Adelaide and now Sydney, he’s earnt his reputation as the league’s best trash talker.
Already Bruce helped play matchwinner this season for the Kings when he delivered a massive fourth quarter against the Cairns Taipans before throwing a dagger inbounds pass to Kouat Noi to hit the winning shot.
It was his turn to reverse the roles on Sunday against the Hawks. This time it was Angus Glover throwing the inbounds to Bruce in the corner, he rose up to shoot over championship teammate Wani Swaka Lo Buluk.
It never looked like missing and delivered the Kings the dramatic one-point win as the buzzer sounded, and after a review by the officials to confirm it was a three and not a two which would have meant overtime.
Bruce didn’t have to say much afterwards with the Hawks hearts shattered all over Qudos Bank Arena. He lets his actions do the talking with a celebration motioning putting the game to bed with a sleep motion.
As always, Bruce left his talking to on the court for the most part as he discussed the shot and the celebration afterwards.
“To put the shot on its own, it’s right up there but the rest of the game was pretty rough. It was a great feeling, we’ve had a lot of great wins here at Qudos since I’ve played here, and it feels good to contribute to one tonight,” Bruce said.
“The celebration spoke for itself a little bit and those things just come out in the moment, but no disrespect to them. They had a great game and played us really hard, and they should have won that game so credit to them.”
His coach Chase Buford was quick to point out the celebration matched up well with his trash talking reputation.
“You don’t get voted almost the unanimous the best trash talker in the league by accident,” Buford added.
Breakers surge to down 36ers | 00:58
HAWKS NOT ABOUT TO LIE DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT
Things were looking dire for the Illawarra Hawks coming into Sunday’s clash with the reigning champs on every front imaginable. Despite being beaten on the buzzer the performance full of heart gives them hope for the rest of NBL23 though.
Not only had the Hawks lost their last seven games by an average of 16.4 points leading into the FIBA break before travelling to Sydney to play the Kings on Sunday, but the issues were mounting.
Former coach Brian Goorjian had talked his frustration of the direction the Hawks have headed since his departure at the end of last season. Former players led by Melbourne guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes have vented their spleen over the way they were treated to drive them out.
Then to top it off, having already had to replace one import, Justin Robinson, George King’s season is over and Robinson’s replacement, Peyton Siva, is now already sidelined with a calf complaint.
Despite all that, the Hawks put in a performance full of heart on Sunday against the league-leading, defending champion Sydney Kings in front of a massive crowd of 11,032 at Qudos Bank Arena.
Despite not having import pair King and Siva, and with co-captain Sam Froling fighting through a back injury to play, the Hawks put themselves in a winning position leading by four with 12 seconds to play.
Superstar guard Tyler Harvey turned it on with 16 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter to put them in that position.
While their hearts were broken from there with the Shaun Bruce three-pointer on the buzzer to mean the Hawks have lost eight straight to sit at 1-9, there was so much for coach Jacob Jackomas to be proud of.
That included development player Davo Hickey having the best game of his NBL career, Mangok Mathiang doing the same up front and the leadership from Harvey and Froling to combine for 49 points.
With so many people taking pot shots at the Hawks from former players and coaches to the media, Jackomas was proud of his group.
“I don’t think it’s criticism, I think it’s bull***t. You know what I mean. I think it’s unfair and bull***t,” Jackomas said.
“I think right now what it is, it’s these guys are professionals and they are dealing with kicks in regard to injury after injury and myself as a coach, and management, are trying to get it right for them.
“We need to do a better job to help them perform, but we have a young group and I’m pretty proud of the way the guys that we’re investing in went today.
“I’m really proud of them and I don’t want to give those things credit for motivating them because it’s ill-information and it’s people that don’t know what they’re talking about. I just think that’s who we are and eventually we’ll crack one open.”
UNITED BAROMETER TO BE PUT IN COTTON WOOL?
Melbourne United had been biding time for Shea Ili to return, but now the point guard who sets the tone for them in so many way is in jeopardy of not playing again this season with ongoing concussion symptoms.
While he might not deliver the spectacular highlights or put up the eye-catching numbers, there’s no more important player to Melbourne than Ili both for setting up their offence and for everything he then provides and sets the tone for at the defensive end.
That’s why they missed him so dearly in the opening seven games of the season and why when he returned against the Perth Wildcats, they immediately looked better.
United won two of the three games with Ili in the line-up but then over the FIBA break following the big win over the South East Melbourne Phoenix, some of his concussion symptoms resumed and he was forced back on the shelf.
Following a couple of concussions and now the ongoing symptoms the 30-year-old two-time championship winning 196-game Kiwi guard has no timetable for a return.
United coach Dean Vickerman can’t guarantee if Ili will return at all this season because it’s hard to envision what happens to his career moving forward if he suffers another concussion.
While Ili is critical to United’s prospects on court this season and it’s hard to see them making a genuine playoff run without an impact from him with them now 5-7 after two rough Round 7 losses, it’s about the bigger picture.
Melbourne will be putting Ili’s health first and won’t be letting him back on the court until he’s symptom free no matter how long that takes.
“There’s some symptoms there and we just need to work to get rid of them however long that takes,” Vickerman said.
“There’s been a couple of concussions so we have to be super cautious with him and we’d hate to see him shutdown for the season, but we’ll do our best to go slowly and make sure he’s 100 per cent to come back and be ready to play.
“He’s definitely frustrated and we sat down with him and his wife to talk about everything to do with the plan, and where we want to go and how we want to support him as a club.
“He’s a guy who doesn’t even like warm ups, he just wants to play so for him to have to sit out and not get to play, he’s a little flat about it obviously. We’ll just keep him involved with what he can do in practice for now to keep him continuing to feel part of the group through this period.”
NO SHORTAGE OF PASSION IN THE APPLE ISLE
The Tasmania JackJumpers crowds, whether in Launceston or Hobart, could very well be the most passionate in the league and by no means should that be brought down, but for a second time already in their existence it boiled over on Friday.
After JackJumpers fans took their feelings too far during last season’s grand final series by taking to abusing Sydney Kings star DJ Vasiljevic on social media, things got too heated late in the piece of a dramatic night against the New Zealand Breakers on Friday.
You have to give the JackJumpers enormous credit for so many things, but one of them is the way they have done such a terrific job in establishing themselves as Tasmania’s team.
The whole state has got right behind them, feels like the team and club is genuinely theirs, and the passion of their support played a big role in them reaching a grand final in their inaugural season.
And while they don’t have a stadium that can host the 10,000-plus people like in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, whether in Launceston or Hobart, their game night atmosphere is phenomenal and tickets are mighty hard to come by.
However, with such passionate support sometimes it can spill over and that happened late in the game in Launceston on Friday night against the New Zealand Breakers.
With the game on the line, things got heated on the court with a brief scuffle after a fight over a loose ball. Breakers coach Mody Maor probably got a little over enthusiastic running on the floor to separate the players, and that’s when the crowd got involved.
New Zealand players Izayah Le’afa and Barry Brown Jr had been in the centre of the fracas, then responded to a rowdy section of the crowd when returning to the bench and that only set things off further.
Things threatened to get out of control for a moment and a hand clapper even landed on the court by the Breakers huddle from the stands.
There was a point even JackJumpers coach Scott Roth had to yell at the group of fans to sit down and not to throw anything onto the floor.
In a lot of ways, it’s just another example of how the JackJumpers have won the hearts and minds of their fans.
But at the same time, those same supporters can’t cross a line in directing vitriol to opposition players like what happened against Sydney in the grand final, and threatened to on Friday night.
Roth was matter-of-fact when asked of the incident post-match and about what he said to the fans.
“I just told them, don’t throw any crap on the floor,” Roth said.
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EX-STAR LABELS TAIPANS AS MOST TALENTED TEAM
You can’t deny his pedigree as an all-time NBL great so when Derek Rucker labels the Cairns Taipans the most talented roster in the league, you have to listen and the team is backing up his claim strongly on the court right now.
The Taipans are likely once again spending the least money on their players in the NBL this season so that makes it even more remarkable for them to potentially have the most talented roster.
That credit needs to go to coach Adam Forde who knew the type of players he wanted to play to the style he wanted to put in place, and that he didn’t really get for his first season with Cairns having been saddled with a squad largely already locked in when he took on the job.
It’s not by accident that Forde knew what he wanted. He had done something similar when coaching back in Perth at the East Perth Eagles and winning a championship in 2014.
He then honed his craft at the NBL level being a key part of the Perth Wildcats championship success as assistant to Trevor Gleeson and then stepping out of his comfort zone to move across the country to join the Sydney Kings.
Again, he was instrumental in what the Kings did including getting to the grand final in 2020 before a season as head coach, and arriving in Cairns where he’s now in his second season.
He knew how he wanted his Taipans to play, but last season didn’t necessarily have a playing group who could pull off that vision.
This off-season he was able to build the squad he wanted and now nine games in and you can see his vision in practice and it’s quite the impressive sight.
The Snakes are 6-3 having won five of six games on the road and the frontcourt of Keanu Pinder, Sam Waardenburg, DJ Hogg and Majok Deng deserves to be considered the best across the league.
He then wanted a cool headed experienced guard and Shannon Scott has fit that bill highlighted with him having 10 assists and zero turnovers in Saturday night’s win against the Brisbane Bullets.
There’s then the all-round talents Tahjere McCall brings, the shooting threats provided by Bul Kuol, Mirko Djeric and Jonah Antonio, and this is the team that Forde pictured putting together.
As a result, 411-game former NBL star and 1990 MVP Rucker has taken notice and trumpeted the talent that Forde has put together to best suit his Taipans style.
“I think the Taipans, one through eight, have the best basketball players and athletes in the league,” Rucker said.
“I’m adding in the athleticism, the ability to play all positions on the court and defensively they can switch almost all five positions. They stretch you out offensively and they are really, really strong and cohesive.
“I just think they are going to be really tough as they get these guys back and figure out how to play with each other, and get some rhythm and continuity. They are going to be a dangerous team.”
