NBL Legend's "Nightmare" About Kings' Game 2 Comeback

“The gutsiest win ever”. That’s how NBL analyst and host of 'The Huddle' Liam Santamaria has been describing the Sydney Kings’ Game 2 victory over New Zealand. Nobody has been able to come up with a strong rebuttal to those claims – and rightly so. Winning without your two best players, down 1-0 in a Championship Series and on the road was an incredible effort by the reigning champs – until now.

Chris Anstey is one of the all-time greats of the NBL. After returning to the competition post-stints with the Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls in the NBA, and later Ural Great and UNICS Kazan in Europe, he led the Melbourne Tigers to NBL titles in 2006 and 2008, and he was named both regular season MVP and Grand Final MVP on both occasions.

Chris Anstey shoots over Sydney's Mark Worthington in Game 5 of the 2008 NBL Championship Series.

Anstey and the Tigers defeated the Sydney Kings in both of their championship triumphs. In 2006 they ended the Kings’ historic attempt at four straight titles, but Sydney came back for revenge in 2008 – and the miraculous circumstances in which they forced a decisive Game 5 almost saw them earn it.

“I still almost have nightmares about how it could have ended up,” Anstey reflected on The Huddle. “We were up at the Melbourne Tigers in 2008 by 20-odd against the Sydney Kings just before three-quarter time.

“I had a little flashback – I wondered if Derrick Walton Jr was going to do what Dontaye Draper did. He had a leg injury and was hobbled, but they thought if they were going to lose, that they might as well lose with Draper on the floor, and he had one of the more impressive fourth quarters an opponent had against us in the time I was with the Tigers.

“The came back from so far down and send it to Game 5, we lost the opportunity to win the series at home, but fortunately we were still able to get it done.

“’Goorj’ (former Sydney coach Brian Goorjian) did his circle around the court pumping his fist, and we walked into the locker room and it was like we walked into a morgue. It was a horrible 24 hours.”

Anstey dominated the game in question with 33 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and three steals, but he was powerless to stop Draper and the Kings outscoring the Tigers by 16 points in the final quarter to emerge as three-point winners.

Draper played just 13 minutes for the game and added eight points, four assists and two steals in his time on court.

The Tigers eventually walked over the Kings by 12 points in the decisive Game 5 to lift the trophy for the second time in three years.

Sydney's Dontaye Draper put in an all-time fourth quarter performance to keep Sydney's 2008 championship hopes alive against Chris Anstey and the Melbourne Tigers.

Anstey says the fact that Walton was not required to put in a Draper-type performance is a credit to the current Kings squad's depth.

“I had a feeling the Sydney Kings may have required that type of performance from Derrick Walton Jr if he had anything in the tank down the stretch – they didn’t need it which was a credit to the Kings,” he said.

“One thing that a lot of us learn going through Championship Series’ is you don’t necessarily always perform at your best from a skill level, but you want to be at your best physically.

“You are never going to get handed a championship on a platter like [the Breakers] were in Game 2. You win that game with Sydney’s two best players out of the game, it’s almost time to get the engraver in to work on the trophy, but they couldn’t get it done against a really, really undermanned Sydney.

“It’s been inconsistent, it’s been fascinating, but it’s been very different to what I imagine most of us thought might happen.”

Given the way Game 2 turned out, Anstey is staying with his initial tip from before the series started.

“Before this series I tipped [Sydney] 3-1, and I was surprised at how Game 1 went. It’s getting pretty close, if [New Zealand] couldn’t put them away there it’s hard to see them turn it around.”

Game 3 of the NBL23 Championship Series is live and free tonight – Friday, March 10 – on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.

New Zealand viewers can catch the game via SkySport and Prime.