The Adelaide 36ers and Perth Wildcats could hardly have looked more impressive in claiming Game 1 of their respective NBL semi-final series’ and it’s going to take something remarkable from the Illawarra Hawks and Cairns Taipans to force their way into the grand final.
The NBL semi finals got underway on Thursday night with the minor premier 36ers hosting the Hawks.
Illawarra got off to a good start and still led by three at quarter-time, but the Sixers soon got going and on the back of the league’s MVP Jerome Randle, dominated the rest of the way running out 93-78 winners.
The Hawks must win at home on Sunday to force a deciding Game 3 in Adelaide on Thursday.
Illawarra coach Rob Beveridge felt the Sixers dominating the rebound count set the tone and combined with a lopsided foul count meant the Hawks had little hope.
“You cannot win games unless you can rebound, it’s as simple as that. They are a great offensive rebounding team, they get on the glass every single time and they get after that and did that to get the momentum,” Beveridge said.
“It’s really hard to compete against a team that gets on the glass and attacks the rim as much as they do. They played their style of game which was fantastic for them and we have to turn that around.”
Adelaide coach Joey Wright was happy with his team’s start to the playoffs especially given they had lost four straight entering the finals after securing the minor premiership.
He still saw areas the Sixers can improve on and believes they will have to if they want to win in Wollongong on Sunday.
“They are always a threat. They’ve got 11 guys who can put the ball in the hole so we want to try to win the series on Sunday. We know it will be a tough game and if we happen to be back here on Thursday, that’s going to be tough too,” Wright said.
“We wanted to come out and play well in that first game, but we still think there’s some upside there and some things that they did really well that we need to take away. We need to put a bit more focus on attacking their zone and hopefully if we do that we get the win.”
Much of the focus coming into the series surrounded comments made my Randle calling the Hawks a dirty team. Beveridge doesn’t think that impacted the result, but did lose respect for the league’s MVP because of it.
“I was actually disappointed for him. When he said it, I just thought why would you say that when you are the best player in the league,” Beveridge said.
“This guy is a special player and I’ve never seen a better pull up jumper in my career. His ability to get people open, his competitiveness and the way he leads his team by example is so good, then he comes out with that. I’m going to remember Jerome for that and I don’t know why you would do that.
“I would prefer to say Jerome is one of the best players I’ve coached against, rather than shooting your damn mouth off. Maybe it worked for him and maybe he needed that little bit of drive to get him going, and if that’s what it took. Personally I thought he was better than that.”
Friday night then saw Game 1 in Cairns in the other semi-final series between the Taipans and Wildcats.
Despite having home-court advantage, the Snakes fell behind early and never seriously threatened to catch up particularly with imposing big man Nate Jawai limited to four points on 14 minutes because of foul trouble.
Wildcats import pair Bryce Cotton and Casey Prather were unstoppable and playing at another level to the rest of the players in the game. Cotton finished with 34 points and five assists, and Prather 22 points as the ‘Cats romped to the 91-69 win.
Game 2 will be at Perth Arena on Monday night with the Taipans facing the unenviable task of needing to win in the hostile environment to force a Game 3 in Cairns on Friday.
As mentioned in an article on The Roar last week, I felt which duo out of Cotton and Prather, and Cairns’ Tony Mitchell and Travis Trice could have the biggest impact would lead their team to the grand final.
Well it was no contest in Game 1. The Perth pair combined for 56 points, nine boards and five assists shooting 19-of-36 from the floor. The Cairns duo had just 19 points, seven rebounds and three assists on 7-of-17 shooting.
Taipans coach Aaron Fearne feels his team will be a chance of winning at Perth Arena where they did wrap up the semi-final win two years ago and lost in overtime twice this season by moving the ball more on offence, and defending with more intelligence.
“We got taught a lesson and we just didn’t do some fundamental things very well. Offensively we didn’t move the ball well enough and it’s not a one-man show when you play playoff basketball,” Fearne said.
“We had way too many short possessions and that makes it tough to get a flow into your offence and get good shots. They did. They came down and moved the ball well, and got the ball to those guys who are going to make plays for them. That’s what they did.
“We’ll have to make a couple of adjustments defensively obviously. I thought the physicality that we brought was really good, our smarts at times wasn’t.
“We fouled five shooters and usually one in a game is too many. That has to stop and we need to make adjustments on the on-ball screens. If we can do that, we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson had little to worry about after Game 1 as he saw his very best hopes come to reality of what Cotton could deliver when he arrived late in the season.
He isn’t taking Cairns lightly heading into Game 2 though.
“We know we’ll play a different team next week when we play Cairns. They’ll come out with a bit more venom to try to get revenge. We got this first game and we played well, and made some shots but we have to get ready for the next one,” Gleeson said.
“We know that Cairns are going to come out breathing fire on Monday and they will have a different game plan. This is really just half-time. We always knew we had to win at least once in Cairns and we’ll go back and rest, and get our minds ready to be ready to go for the next game.”
NBL SEMI-FINAL FIXTURES (AEDT)
THURSDAY
GAME 1: Adelaide 36ers 93 beat Illawarra Hawks 78 – Titanium Security Arena
FRIDAY
GAME 1: Cairns Taipans 69 lost to Perth Wildcats 91 – Cairns Convention Centre
SUNDAY
GAME 2: Illawarra Hawks v Adelaide 36ers – WIN Entertainment Centre 3pm
MONDAY
GAME 2: Perth Wildcats v Cairns Taipans – Perth Arena 9.30pm
THURSDAY
GAME 3 (if required): Adelaide 36ers v Illawarra Hawks – Titanium Security Arena 4.30pm
FRIDAY
GAME 3 (if required): Cairns Taipans v Perth Wildcats – Cairns Convention Centre 4.30pm
https://twitter.com/KatieMox/status/1780695947481174464 https://twitter.com/CWilliamson44/status/1780696642917994703
LeBron James is going back to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years. Steph Curry is headed to the games for the…
The only realistic threat to Boston’s chances of strolling through the Eastern Conference is a team that could still end up in the play-in…
Australian guards Dante Exum and Josh Giddey have both come up big for their NBA clubs in crucial wins in the lead-in to the…
Minnesota Timberwolves fans have endured plenty of pain in their 35 years of being a laughing stock in the NBA. In all that time,…
It’s a pretty good time to be a Tasmanian sports fan right now. After years in the sporting wilderness with not much to celebrate,…
