Preview: Illawarra v SE Melbourne

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Thursday October 6, 2022
Where: WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong
Broadcast: ESPN; Foxtel; Kayo; Sky Sports NZ
LIVE SCORES & STATS

Who won last time?

Illawarra 103 (Harvey 22, Reath 22, Cleveland 16) d SE Melbourne 97 (Qi 25, Creek 15, Munford 13) – Round 16, NBL22 at WIN Entertainment Centre
Behind a red-hot Duop Reath the Hawks controlled this home game for much of the night, leading by 19 with seven minutes to play before the Mitch and Zhou show came to life. The frontcourt tandem combined for 20 fourth-quarter points as the visitors pulled within a bucket in the last minute, only for Xavier Rathan-Mayes to shut the gate from long range.

What happened last game?

The Phoenix talked the talk about improving defensively – after their inability to contain cost them an NBL22 playoff berth – and they walked the walk holding Tasmania to 79 points en route to an opening-night win. In contrast Illawarra, the fourth-ranked defence last season, leaked like a sieve at that end as they conceded a century to Sydney to open with an L.

What’s working?

The bench crew – There was plenty to like about the Hawks’ offence on opening night, running up 97 points on Sydney with 15 made triples. Almost half those points came from their reserve crew, who landed 12 trifectas. Lachie Dent, Tim Coenraad and George King drained 11/14 between them to give Illawarra a 48-9 advantage in bench scoring.

High ball-screens – Kyle Adnam powered the Phoenix offence from high ball-screens and dribble hand-offs, with 32 of South East Melbourne’s 38 points from those plays with him as ball-handler. In the first and fourth quarters they scored 29 from that action and 55 overall. In the second and third, when the O became aimless, they managed just nine from high picks and 29 in total.

What needs to be stopped?

Anything at all? – While the Hawks’ O was good, their D certainly was not. Sydney took whatever they wanted, scoring 106 points, shooting 56 per cent from inside, getting to the foul line 27 times and making 12 triples at 44 per cent. The Kings made a mockery of Illawarra’s d-trans, scoring 50 points in the first 12 seconds of their possession, including 31 after half-time as they ran up a total of 62 points in the final 20 minutes.

Gifting possession – SE Melbourne were also generous to their opponents in the opening round, coughing the ball up 17 times and allowing the JackJumpers to grab 17 o-boards. Remarkably, rookie Grant Anticevich led them in d-boards with six in 6:47, while Alan Williams and Mitch Creek managed just eight combined in 57 minutes. The big-name Phoenix big men need to commit to the defensive glass for their team to be a force.

Who’s matching up?

Lachie Dent v Kyle Adnam – Hands up if you had Dent v Adnam pegged as a marquee match-up in Round 2? Dent had previously scored 22 points in 20 NBL games, then dropped a cool 19 on seven-of-seven shooting on the Kings! Wild Kyle has shown plenty of flashes in the past, but after a disappointing end to NBL22 he made a statement of intent against Tassie, dropping a career-high 30 points, including nine points and three dimes in the final term to seal the deal.

Sam Froling v Alan Williams – While Samson shot three of 12 in Round 1, he also contributed 10 rebounds, six o-boards, three assists and two steals, along with his high-level help defence. That will need to be spot on against the hulk-like Williams, who was tough to stop on opening night when given room to dive to the basket or rebounding lanes to crash the glass. South East Melbourne’s new big man finished with four o-boards and an equal game-high eight free-throw attempts.

George King v Mitch Creek – Deng Deng started at power forward last week but struggled to make an impact at either end, so look out for King to spend more time at the four this week. A repeat of his four-of-six three-point shooting will spread the floor, but more importantly his athleticism and strength seems the best match-up for Creek, who shook off the rust to run up 23 points, six rebounds and two assists as he teamed superbly with Adnam.  

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">MANG?K defence leads to a splash of <a href="https://twitter.com/2bkings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@2bkings</a> offence ? <br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/74Z2r5uPaH">pic.twitter.com/74Z2r5uPaH</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1576166254989090816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who’s saying what?

In basketball you have to pick your poison, and often last Saturday the Tasmania JackJumpers chose Kyle Adnam as the lesser of two evils.

It didn’t out to be a wise selection as he masterfully manipulated the high ball-screen to go six-of-nine from long range and eight-of-eight from the foul line.

“To have the boys out there supporting me – the way Alan, ‘Creeky’ and Dane (Pineau) screen, roll, create space – yes I was able to put the ball in the basket but those guys clear so much space and they’re so good at reading what my defender’s doing,” Adnam said.

“Having that chemistry in a pick and roll is so important and credit to them … those one-percenters don’t show up, there’s no screen assists on the stat sheet.”

Early in the game the powerful Williams proved a nightmare, setting one-man double-screens the JJs didn’t know how to handle, and Adnam capitalised by draining multiple triples with the space created.

Then late in the game, with Tassie threatening to overrun the undermanned Phoenix, it was Adnam and Creek who proved a lethal combination.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The man is UNSTOPPABLE!!<br><br>The crowd are going NUTS!<br><br>? Tune in on <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/Foxtel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Foxtel</a> <a href="https://t.co/Thlm6nON1z">pic.twitter.com/Thlm6nON1z</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1576145833329762304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was a relief for Phoenix fans, who watched their team blow lead after lead at the death last season as they struggled to identify areas where they had an advantage.

“Looking up at the scoreboard with the clock winding down, we’ve often had conversations about closing games and how important it is," Adnam said.

“I grabbed ‘Creeky’ in a huddle and said ‘we’ve got to get into some action, we have to try and get us home’, just going to the well and what’s working for us.

“We were capitalising, Creek and I, on that pick and roll in different times and we just wanted to get back to something that was solid for us.”

Defending those combinations shapes as a huge challenge for the Hawks, who will have done plenty of work on their D this week.

After holding Blitz opponents to just 76.7ppg at 39 per cent, the Kings schooled them to the tune of 106 points at 52 per cent when the bright lights came on.

“We pride ourselves on the defensive end and obviously 106 points is a little bit too much, especially what we’d been doing in the pre-season games,” coach Jacob Jackomas said.

“There's a lot to work on and the good thing is we get to play again Thursday … we’re not using any excuses, we've got to look at ourselves, but it’s early days, this isn’t anything to get carried away with but we just didn’t play our brand.”

Thursday’s job will be made harder by the absence of new point guard Justin Robinson, but with Tyler Harvey able to slide across to the one-spot and Lachie Dent a revelation on opening night, there is ample coverage.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LACHIE 2 HOTTY.<a href="https://twitter.com/lachlandent_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@lachlandent_</a> is having himself a night ? <br><br>A career-high 19 and counting <br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/P2WQVxJkmw">pic.twitter.com/P2WQVxJkmw</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1576176921695514625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Lachie did a great job tonight, he obviously kept us in that patch and in the fourth he was pretty damn good,” Jackomas said.

Alex Mudronja was also solid in limited minutes off the pine, George King and Tim Coenraad gave significant spark at the forward spots and Mangok Mathiang showed he has the potential to be a beast on the boards, while Akoldah Gak wasn’t able to squeeze any minutes.

That depth and versatility leaves coach Jackomas confident his team can cover for absent or struggling stars.  

“It is a good problem to have, people are worried about our depth and I believe in the back-end of our bench,” he said.

“We’re not going to be afraid to play someone.”

They’re not afraid to attack the basket and fire from range, having launched 40 three-point attempts in Round 1 and hit an impressive 37 per cent.

Given star scorers Robinson and Harvey shot an uncharacteristic 1/16 from range, the 14/24 from the supporting cast is an ominous warning for the Phoenix., who know they face a very different style of opponent to the JackJumpers.

“They’ve got some really, really great scorers, they’ve got some great guards and great bigs and they're a really fast-paced team,” Adnam said.

“So our defence is going to be really important – defensive trans, defending the ball-screen and defending the three-point line is going to be very important for us.”