Parker Jackson-Cartwright pulled together one of the most dominant individual performances of NBL24 in Wednesday night’s do-or-die Play-In Qualifier against the Sydney Kings, and the star guard has admitted “external factors” helped motivate him ahead of the clash.
Jackson-Cartwright scored an NBL career-high 34 points in the victory, in which the Breakers bounced back from a nine-point half-time deficit to run out as seven-point winners.
The win has locked in a date with the Illawarra Hawks in Monday’s Play-In Game, the winner of which will progress to a Playoff Series against Melbourne United.
“I’d be lying if I said some external factors didn’t motivate me this week going into the game. You hear different things from different people and you don’t take light of it. It lights a fuel in you and I’m no different. I’m a competitor and I hear the talk and I let it motivate me,” Jackson-Cartwright said.
“I let it motivate me in practice with the work I put in and heading into the game, I guess it worked out for us.
“I would say it was one of my most aggressive games. I thought I had the right intention getting into the paint and creating for my teammates and myself.
“When you do that and you really have a clear intent and a clear focus of what you need to do, good things happen. I was just out there playing hard, I know what Playoff basketball is like, I know what it feels like, I’ve been around for some years so I know how to play going into these games and what the mindset needs to be playing in these games.
“I definitely felt different but it was around the circumstances of Playoff basketball, I think it brings a different level out.”
Jackson-Cartwright bee-lined for Derek Rucker at the commentary desk immediately after the final buzzer, which prompted discussions that the diminutive guard took umbrage with his position in the former MVP's recently released top-15 player rankings.
Rucker ranked him at number seven across the league.
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Jackson-Cartwright said he didn’t mean any disrespect and got caught up in the emotion of the victory.
“The emotions of the game definitely caught up at the end, when you get a big win like that and you’re celebrating with your teammates, and you’ve had a long, good week of practice the emotions of the game come out,” he siad.
“This is Playoff basketball, and this is what it’s all about. Speaking to the Rucker situation and the interview after, it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme, I think people love to grow things out of proportion, in no way was it my intention to disrespect anybody.
“It was a build-up of this is a big win, on the road, and we rallied together and I just felt that raw emotion, that’s all.”
Rucker praised Jackson-Cartwright’s fire on the Coca-Cola Cooldown in the immediate aftermath of the Breakers’ victory over Sydney, and believes the performance against the Kings would elevate him in his top 15, if he were to re-rank it today.
“If I had to go back right now and re-rank it with recency bias, I would probably have him at five, slightly ahead of Jaylen Adams at number six,” Rucker said.
“I would also have to re-rank Mitch Creek, so there would be some shuffling in that, and that’s the beauty of doing things like this, because you kind of have to measure present talent versus future projections and how that talent is going to manifest, and the guys that have been in the league get the benefit of having an established track record.
“I really respect the fact Parker may have taken affront to being ranked number seven, which in my opinion was a very good place for him to be in his first year in the league, but I totally get from his perspective how he’d be annoyed with being number seven in the league.
“I love how he plays with a chip on his shoulder, his aggression, and his mindset of ‘I’m the best player out here, I’m the reason why we’re good’. I get all of that.”
Jackson-Cartwright, meanwhile, says the number seven is still sticking firmly in his mind.
“I’m still thinking about seven. Seven is good for me now and that’s going to motivate me for the rest of the way.”
New Zealand’s Play-In Game against the Illawarra Hawks will tip off at 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo, and Sky Sport in New Zealand, on Monday night.
