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Tension, drama ahead of NBL grand final Game 3

There's been a big build up off the court to game 3 (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Expert
22nd March, 2018
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It might have only been five days since the Adelaide 36ers levelled the NBL grand final series with Melbourne United ahead of Friday night’s Game 3, but the drama has now reached fever-pitch and it’s hard to keep track of everything going on either side of the border.

Melbourne United won Game 1 last Friday night at Hisense Arena 107-96. The Adelaide 36ers bounced back and won Game 2 on Sunday at Titanium Security Arena 110-95.

So on the surface everything went to the script with the home teams winning the first two games of the grand final series.

But the drama has certainly built up to another level this week heading into Friday’s Game 3 at Hisense Arena and then Sunday’s Game 4 back in Adelaide.

It started during Sunday’s game when Adelaide superstar Josh Childress went down with a shoulder injury.

That has since been revealed as him having a fracture and he will miss the rest of the series, not without taking a parting shot at Melbourne and David Barlow for targeting him physically.

Fox Sports commentator and former league MVP Corey Williams then lit the fuse between the two import point guards when revealing apparently what Adelaide’s Shannon Shorter had said to him in regards to Casper Ware, who was only too happy to fire back.

In between all that, 36ers coach Joey Wright was fined $5000 by the NBL over comments he made about the officiating following the Game 1 in Melbourne.

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That all sets the stage for a fascinating weekend where if one of the teams can get on a roll and win on the road, the NBL championship could very well be decided by Sunday afternoon. Or indeed head to the ultimate decider next Saturday night.

Without question, the thing to first keep your eyes on come Friday night’s Game 3 is the point guard battle now between Shorter and Ware.

Thanks to Williams, Ware was made aware of comments Shorter apparently made and the Melbourne star was quick to shoot back and make his point.

He will look to continue to make that point on the court now too.

“I heard those comments. It’s easy for a guy like that to say something when he’s not really a big spark, he didn’t really do anything. He’s no worries for me, he can keep talking. If that’s what he’s got to do to stay relevant, let him do it,” Ware said.

“It’s very dangerous waters for him. He’s not even guarding me most of the time, now it’s Sobey. I don’t even know why he’s speaking on me when he’s not even guarding me. I’ll guard him but for somebody to talk to me, come guard me first and then we’ll see what happens.”

As for Childress, the former NBA star of 398 games has been in some unstoppable form of late for the 36ers. When he makes his move to the hoop and uses his ‘Eurostep’ nobody can guard him. But it’s his all-round contributions, leadership and calmness that have been equally important.

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He is going to be mightily tough to replace but the positive is Adelaide has had the most depth of any team in the league and now the likes of Majok Deng, Matt Hodgson, Anthony Drmic and Brendan Teys will have to pick up the slack in his absence.

Childress is obviously disappointed to be out injured and with the way it happened, but he still has faith that Adelaide can win the championship.

“It’s a fractured bone in my shoulder. I’m not sure if it happened on the fall or the contact, it’s incredible that I didn’t get a foul call there anyway. There was just a lot of contact that created the injury,” Childress said.

“I thought I might have dislocated my shoulder at the time, but I didn’t think it would be a fracture. It’s just unfortunate timing but the game was pretty physical and Barlow had made some questionable plays prior to that.

“I don’t know if this was or not, but I know he came up under me on a lob play a couple of plays before so I don’t know if that was something he was told to do by his coaching staff to be extra physical with me. It’s just unfortunate.

“I still have the utmost belief. We have a collectively very, very talented team but also the skill set and the intensity level we are playing with now is unbelievable. I think we are in a great position.”

Josh Childress

(Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

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One man who did already step up huge in the Game 2 win for the Sixers was Majok Deng. He nailed a team-high 18 points in the 15-point victory and he’s willing to take on more of a role in the team now too minus Childress.

“I’m pretty excited. I think getting the first win in the Grand Final got us a lot of confidence going into the next game. We are working hard on trying to do the same in Game 3,” Deng said.

“Josh’s role in the team is pretty big and I don’t think we can replace it, but the only thing we can do is try and step up as a whole team and try to contribute more. I’m happy to do whatever the team needs to help us win another game.”

For Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman, he was disappointed in aspects of Sunday’s loss but overall things are tied and it’s now a three-game series and he’s confident his team can make the necessary adjustments.

“You can’t panic right now, the series has gone how it is supposed with us both winning at home,” Vickerman said.

“Their ability to really step up and make it a physical contest the whole way up the floor, that pushed us out of our offence and we didn’t get organised well enough. The drop off from us as well, as they stepped up, I thought we took a bit of a backwards step.

“For us it’s about bouncing back. That’s what we’ve been pleased with during the season, when we’ve had a performance that we don’t think is up to our standard, we’ve owned it.”

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NBL Grand Final fixtures (AEDT)
Melbourne United vs Adelaide 36ers

Game 1 – Melbourne United 107 defeated Adelaide 36ers 96
Game 2 – Adelaide 36ers 110 defeated Melbourne United 95
Game 3 – Friday March 23 – Hisense Arena 7:30pm
Game 4 – Sunday March 25 – Titanium Security Arena
Game 5 (if required) – Saturday March 31 – Hisense Arena

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