DJ Vasiljevic spectacularly broke out of his shooting slump, Rayan Rupert made a dazzling return to show his NBA credentials, and that’s just a taste of what’s catching the eye in the NBL this week.
Round 14 of the NBL season already got underway with wins for the Sydney Kings and New Zealand Breakers, which included a record-setting shooting performance from Vasiljevic while Rupert — from the league’s Next Stars program — was superb in his first game in two months for the Breakers.
With the other talking points including former NBA star Johnson being hard on himself at the Brisbane Bullets, Clark looking to help the Adelaide 36ers rebound and start building to the playoffs, and more accusations aimed at Melbourne United, there’s no shortage of hot topics as we enter the remainder of the round.
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Vasiljevic SHINES with 10 long bombs | 01:16
The round began with a huge double-header on Wednesday night beginning with a high-quality affair across the Tasman with the New Zealand Breakers holding out the Perth Wildcats 97-94.
Second up and Vasiljevic drained 10 three-pointers as the Sydney Kings poured on the highest score of the NBL season to beat the South East Melbourne Phoenix 118-102.
Next up on Thursday night is a Sunshine Stoush with the Brisbane Bullets at home to a Cairns Taipans team still missing MVP candidate Keanu Pinder.
There’s just the one game on Friday night with the Adelaide 36ers needing a win to try and break back into the top six at home to the bottom placed Illawarra Hawks who have now lost import point guard Peyton Siva for the season.
That leads into a double-header on Saturday starting with the Tasmania JackJumpers hosting Melbourne United before the Sydney Kings and Perth Wildcats meet for the first time in NBL23.
There’s another two games then on Sunday with the Adelaide 36ers at home to the New Zealand Breakers before the Cairns Taipans take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix in a battle of top four teams.
EX-NBA STAR WANTS TO GIVE MORE TO BULLETS
Tyler Johnson isn’t doing this for the money, he’s doing it for his love of basketball and that’s why he is disappointed he hasn’t been more of a leader so far this season at the Brisbane Bullets, and he wants to change that over the last nine games.
Johnson had a strong and impressive NBA career, making big money along the way over the past eight years including averaging double-figures in scoring in four of his seasons including at the Brooklyn Nets in 2019/20.
To bring someone in who doesn’t need to do it for any reason except his passion to play, and still only 30, had the potential to pay off hugely.
The fact that it hasn’t with the Bullets struggling at 5-14 has a lot more to do with the fact they have had three coaches already, had other imports come and go, and never once had a full roster available on the court than anything Johnson has done.
Johnson is having a pretty good season. He is averaging 14.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists a game while shooting 49.4 per cent from the field and 36.5 per cent from deep.
Those are good numbers, but Johnson expected more from himself both in terms of production, but more so in being a leader and someone to show the way for a young group dealing with an enormous amount around them this season at the Bullets.
Johnson put up 17 points last up against Melbourne and is looking forward to stepping up further starting against Cairns on Thursday night. But for him it’s about more than just the numbers he puts up to do more than playing ‘pretty well’.
“I think that’s just been the story of the season, just playing pretty well,” Johnson said.
“I’m a little bit disappointed in myself just as far as the perspective of we’ve had a lot of changeover and a lot of things happen this season, and I think from being a guy who has some of the most experience in the locker room, I feel like I’ve let the team down.
“I feel like I could have been more of a stabiliser in some of those tough moments and I know a lot of this stuff is new to me. But at the same time I’ve been through a lot as a basketball player so from that perspective I feel like I could have been better during this stretch.”
HISTORIC WAY TO BREAK OUT OF SHOOTING SLUMP
Sydney Kings championship winning star DJ Vasiljevic might have taken a couple of games longer to break out of a self-diagnosed shooting slump, but he did it record setting style on Wednesday night against the South East Melbourne Phoenix.
A couple of weeks ago Vasiljevic came out and talked about the shooting struggles he had so far had this season. He knew he was putting the work in and that’s why he was so confident it wouldn’t last too much longer.
He was certainly right and what he did on Wednesday night in front of 11,321 fans at Qudos Bank Arena was simply phenomenal.
It took him only a matter of seconds to open the game with a three ball, he hit another before quarter-time and then really lit it up to start the second term.
In just over five minutes, Vasiljevic hit four triples to help Sydney open a double-figure lead and by half-time he had 22 points while going 6/7 from beyond the arc.
Kings thrash Jackjumpers by 20 points | 01:16
Vasiljevic knocked down a seventh three-point bomb just before three quarter-time and then had two more early in the fourth to be shooting 9/11.
He missed his next couple but then came back late to hit a 10th and put himself in the record books and end up shooting 10/14 to finish with a career-best 42 points in his team’s 118-102 victory to retain top spot.
Coming into the game, Vasiljevic was shooting just 29.1 per cent from three-point range this season and had taken the eighth most attempts, but only made the 14th most triples.
But by the end of Wednesday night, he had become the first Kings player to hit 10 three-pointers in a 40-minute game and just the third player in franchise history to do it behind Aaron Trahair and Shane Heal.
Vasiljevic was also just the third man in NBL history since going to 10-minute quarters to hit 10 triples alongside Perth Wildcats pair Bryce Cotton and Jermaine Beal.
All of that meant it was quite the night for Vasiljevic but he was humble about the 42-point outburst afterwards.
“Obviously I give credit to my teammates and coaching staff for finding me, and keeping me hot for the game,” Vasiljevic said.
“I think I’m out of that slump now but I just have to continue to keep doing the work I’ve been doing pretty much my whole life and keep going from there.”
SPECTACULAR RETURN FOR NBA STAR IN WAITING
Forget Xavier Cooks, Keanu Pinder or anyone else you can think of who has a potential NBA future, the next player from the NBL to be in the big time will be Rayan Rupert and the New Zealand Breakers Next Star showed why in his return from a broken wrist.
The Breakers have proven themselves tremendous at already preparing players to get drafted to the NBA in recent years including RJ Hampton, Ousmane Dieng and Hugo Besson. They are proving the perfect destination for Rupert ahead of the 2023 NBA Draft.
The French 18-year-old had an impressive start to the season with the 6’7 athlete proving a strong defender who had quick hands on defence, and could then get out and run in transition and knock down the three ball.
However, disaster struck and he fell awkwardly to break his wrist against the Sydney Kings on November 6.
It might have been easy for his management to put him on ice for the rest of the NBL season and just prepare for his NBA future. Instead both Rupert and the Breakers staff worked hard over the last two months to see him continue to improve and grow despite the injury.
Watch every game live of the 2022/23 NBL Season on ESPN on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
The end result was his return to the NBL floor on Wednesday night and he was nothing short of spectacular. Showing no signs of his two-month absence, Rupert came out and gave the Breakers a quick spark with eight points in the second quarter including another trademark steal with his fast hands.
Rupert had another purple patch with a three-pointer and then a three-point play late in the third quarter. He ended the night with 14 points, three rebounds, two steals and a block on 5/7 shooting in 18 minutes.
It was quite the spectacular return that only further highlighted why he could end up being a top 10 draft pick later this year.
Both Rupert and the Breakers deserve enormous credit for the work they’ve put in over the last two months to ensure the injury didn’t halt his development.
He couldn’t be happier to be back playing, to have joined the Breakers and to now finish the season strongly.
“I’m very happy to get back to the court and just play basketball. I love basketball, I love my teammates and I’m just happy to play basketball again and that’s what makes me happy,” Rupert said.
“Honestly I’m not surprised because I’ve been working very hard the last two months. I’m just focused on helping the team to win, to be with my teammates and that’s all.
“I’m very happy to be playing for the Breakers. It’s a very good decision for me, I have a very great coach, good teammates who help me a lot every day and I’m very happy to be here in this organisation.
“We have a lot of games coming up this month before the playoffs and we just have to stay focused, this was a good win but it’s only one game. We have a lot more games coming soon and I’m looking forward to those.”
CLARK’S COOL HEAD COULD STILL BE SIXERS’ SAVIOUR
It was the most dramatic of epic collapses you are ever likely to see but amid the Adelaide 36ers chaotic New Year’s Eve loss in Cairns was encouraging signs from Ian Clark in just his second appearance.
Things were all looking rosy for the 36ers to end 2022 when leading the Taipans in Cairns by 18 points when Clark drained a three-pointer with six and-a-half minutes remaining.
Clark scored again with five minutes to play and Adelaide were leading 80-64. Having won their previous four matches, that five-game winning streak to end the year seemed inevitable as would consolidating a place inside the top six.
However, what happened was the most epic of capitulations over the past five minutes and it was against a Cairns team without their best player, Keanu Pinder, just to add to the pain.
The Taipans scored the next 18 points and then after a steadying Adelaide three-pointer from Clark, Shannon Scott replied in kind and the Snakes ended up outscoring the 36ers 22-3 to close the game and claim the stunning comeback win.
It turned out a disastrous way to end 2022 for the Sixers and it cost them their place in the top six with their current 10-9 record with nine matches over the last five rounds of the season to go.
Cairns comeback stuns 36ers in NYE win | 01:36
What happened to the 36ers almost defied belief. For 35 minutes, they had played so well in that New Year’s Eve game. But with the game seemingly secure, suddenly they went into their shell, stopped looking to score and were just tentative in everything they did.
The Taipans took full advantage and the only calming influence in that period for the 36ers was their newest signing. Clark scored Adelaide’s last seven points of the game, was a cool head in a panicked situation and it was only his second game.
The NBL and NBA championship winner will be sure to see his role grow within the Adelade team now that he settles in starting on Friday night at home to the Illawarra Hawks.
Looking back on New Year’s Eve and he was frustrated the 36ers couldn’t close the deal, but he’s excited for what the rest of the season holds.
“We were getting what we wanted but then we started playing not to lose and not to win, and it showed,” Clark said.
“We got a couple of turnovers down the stretch, but some of it was just breakdowns and we stopped doing things we were doing in the first 35 minutes and didn’t in the last five. It hurt us.
“I know the guys we have in the locker room and the coaching staff working their butts off to put us in great positions.
“It’s about us getting on the floor and executing, and game by game, and practice by practice we’ll start inching away to get rid of the silly mistakes. Then everything else will fall into our hands and we can let it be.”
UNITED HAVE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAIN
First Melbourne United had to defend themselves against Cairns Taipans coach Adam Forde and now it’s the owner of the South East Melbourne Phoenix who has come out and called one of their players ‘dirty’.
Following their game just before Christmas, Forde came out hard in his thoughts on the way United’s players targeted his superstar Keanu Pinder which saw him injure an ankle in that game and he hasn’t played since as a result.
Forde made it clear how unhappy he was with the approach from United but he put his thoughts out there, United responded in defence of themselves and the matter appeared over.
Then it wasn’t. Phoenix managing owner Romie Chaudhari then reignited the rivalry with United for the Victorian combatants when he unleashed on social media particularly focusing his attention on Melbourne forward Mason Peatling.
United beat Bullets in finals push | 01:15
Peatling ignited tensions last season when he took exception to Mitch Creek’s celebrating of a dunk over Matthew Dellavedova, shoved him over and that ignited quite the all-in scuffle.
Clearly nobody at the Phoenix have forgotten that and Chaudhari jumped on social media to add his thoughts to what Forde was saying about how United go about things, and in particular Peatling.
“Peatling @MelbUnited made a similarly dirty play to Creek @SEMelbPhoenix at last year‘s Throwdown,” Chaudhari wrote.
“Stuff like this is totally uncalled for. I know the guy runs around the court like he‘s uncoordinated, but it’s obvious to me what his intentions were and it’s just plain dirt SMH.”
For the second time in a week, Melbourne was forced to issue a statement in response.
“We’re pretty disappointed in another club accusing one of our players,” a United spokesperson said.
“It’s a claim we completely refute and it’s inappropriate and incorrect.”
The only disappointing part is now that all four Throwdowns between United and the Phoenix have been played this season.
