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Sydney coach Chase Buford can see his team is in a mid-season funk so he’s rolled the dice and called them out in a bid to get the champions back to their best.
There’s not too much to worry about for the Kings given that they’re still on top of the ladder with a 10-4 record as they head down the freeway later this week to face last-placed Illawarra.
But after getting out of jail in an unconvincing last-gasp win over the Hawks a month ago, they have gone 2-2 after losing 84-76 at home to Tasmania JackJumpers on Sunday.
Buford let his team have it after the game, using the post-match media conference to say “Defensively we were trash all night”, they made “some obnoxiously dumb turnovers”, they “just suck in the fourth quarter” and the line when you know a coach has had enough: “we’re soft”. Ouch.
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He also slipped a little dig into the ribs of their grand final opponents from last season by adding “I’m way more disappointed with us than I am impressed with them”.
It’s clear opposition teams are targeting star guard Derrick Walton jnr, and with good reason. He’s one of the most, if not the most, talented ball-handlers in the NBL. After a hot start to the season, he’s been kept in check in recent weeks but is still filling up the box score with 15.9 points, six assists and four rebounds for the season.
After the win earlier in the round over the Breakers in Auckland, Buford fumed that it felt like they were playing the All Blacks such was the physicality of the home team’s defence.
There may be a slight bit of leeway given from the refs over the next week or two but copping hard-nosed defence is what you should expect when you’re the defending champs.
Buford lauded his team in their run to the title last year for the “dog” spirit they play with so it’s kinda hard for anyone to give them too much sympathy when other teams come at them with similar aggression.
Sydney’s big test this week will come on Sunday when they head to Gippsland to face the surging South-East Melbourne Phoenix.
Mitch Creek is well and truly in the MVP discussion with 21.9 points per game (second only to Perth star Bryce Cotton’s 23.3), Alan Williams is dominating in the frontcourt while point guard Gary Browne’s pass-first style suits them to a tee.
The Phoenix (10-6) are 8-2 at home and have won five of their past six to rise into third spot after injuries stymied their start to the season.
Derrick Walton jnr.
(Photo by Nathan Hopkins/Getty Images)
After all sorts of dramas over the first couple of months of the season, Perth are showing signs of life and Monday’s nail-biting win over Melbourne United as their third straight and fifth in their past seven outings.
Rookie coach John Rillie was under the pump when they got off to a 3-5 start and it looked like the Wildcats’ playoff “drought” could stretch into a second straight year.
After beating the Bullets in Melbourne on Saturday they looked like they were going to leave Perth victorious when they led by five points with just nine seconds left but everything that could go wrong, did just that.
Wildcats veteran Todd Blanchfield was fouled while draining a three. United caught a slight break when he missed the ensuing free throw but Blanchfield latched onto the rebound, skipper a pass out to Corey Webster, who swished the shot from beyond the arc to ice the win in his 250th NBL appearance.
Webster, amid the euphoria in the post-game interview, admitted he had lost track of the score and thought he’d only levelled the scores when it dropped to the bottom of the net.
Shea Ili tried to snatch it with a mid-range jumper to beat the buzzer but it rimmed out.
It was just the kind of win that can be the catalyst for a late-season Wildcats surge while the reverse is true for Dean Vickerman’s team.
United’s playoff hopes are all but gone now that they’ve slumped to 6-11 in eighth spot, losing six of their past seven matches.