R1 Preview: Cairns Taipans v The Hawks

Monday, January 18, 2021

Cairns and the Hawks were first-up winners, and now Scott Machado and Emmett Naar and looking to steer their teams to 2-0 starts.

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Monday 18 January

Where: Cairns Pop-up Arena

Broadcast: ESPN; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
Cairns 90 (Newbill 20, Oliver 17, Deng 12, Machado 12) d Illawarra 75 (Boone 19, Froling 13, Blanchfield 12), Round 18, 2019/20, Cairns Convention Centre

This contest was over early, the Hawks scored the opening basket but didn't lead again as Cairns’ lead reached double figures in the first term and passed 30 early in the final stanza. The Taipans dominated points from turnovers 25-8 and fast break points 17-6 as Scott Machado dished 11 dimes and 10 Snakes hit the scoreboard.

The now
Both clubs bounce into the back-end of their opening-round double feeling good after hard-fought, high-quality wins. The basketball gods shone on the Hawks, with Matt Hodgson sidelined and Orlando Johnson injured early in the game for Brisbane, but coach Brian Goorjian would have loved his team’s high workrate, which helped them win second chance points, points from turnovers, fast break points and bench scoring.

While Brisbane’s inside dominance would be of concern, the Hawks must change their focus to a different opponent, with Cairns losing the paint battle to Sydney, but doing some serious damage from the arc. While replacing DJ Newbill’s output is expected to be a challenge, Mirko Djeric, Kouat Noi and Mojave King made a promising start in that regard, nailing a combined 8-of-13 from the arc.

The key men
Cam Oliver – Space Cam didn’t have a dream offensive start to his sophomore season in orange, lodging just 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting, but after seeing the Bullets rack up 52 points in the paint at 63 per cent against the Hawks, he’ll be hungry to bounce back.

He still provided 10 defensive boards and 5 blocks to play a pivotal role in a memorable win, and that inside coverage will be crucial to allow Cairns perimeter crew to run sharpshooters like Tyler Harvey and Justinian Jessup off the three-point line.

Emmett Naar – Quietly but effectively, Naar continued his rise towards being a legit NBL point guard in the season opener, racking up 17 points, 4 assists and a game-high plus-minus of 14, while shooting 60 per cent from outside and committing just one turnover.

The task gets significantly harder though, with Scott Machado the NBL’s number one point guard, and a man who has dished 23 dimes in his past two games against the Hawks. When Machado has dished seven or more dimes Cairns are 14-7, when he hasn’t they are 4-7.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Emmett Naar dropping sweet, sweet dimes to <a href="https://twitter.com/sfrol13?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sfrol13</a> on a career night for the big man!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IllawarraProud?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IllawarraProud</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlyAsOne?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlyAsOne</a> <a href="https://t.co/BfytBPMkHz">pic.twitter.com/BfytBPMkHz</a></p>— Hawks Basketball (@thehawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehawks/status/1350354072340103170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The stats
- Against Brisbane, Emmett Naar and Justin Simon hit 5-of-7 from long range at 71 per cent. Last season, in 68 games combined, they hit 53-of-172 at 31 per cent

- The Hawks scored more points in transition on Saturday against Brisbane than in any game last season, according to statistician Jordan McCallum

- Djeric, Noi and King combined for 34 points at 46 per cent from the floor against Sydney. Last season, Newbill, Djeric and Noi averaged a combined 35.3ppg at 46 per cent

- The Taipans made 13 triples at 40 per cent against the Kings, compared to 14 two-pointers at 37 per cent. They were 8-3 last season when hitting 12 or more trifectas at 40 per cent or better

The quotes
If you’re a Hawks fan, it would be pretty hard not to be excited about Saturday’s opening-night W in Brisbane, which suggested last season’s wooden spoon is a distant memory.

“The thing that excited me was the guys that we play off, Cam (Bairstow) and Justinian (Jessup) were really were struggling offensively, and (Deng) Adel came out with a little injury problem,” coach Brian Goorjian said.

“It was great to see those young guys who have been Hawks for the early part of their career step up and have big games and win a close game on the road.”

It was Justin Simon, Emmett Naar and Sam Froling who stepped up, highlighting just how many quality players this incarnation of the foundation franchise has this season.

“I have been saying the strength of this team is the depth of the team,” Goorjian said.

“There’s not one guy in my group that can’t play, but we do have guys that we play off, and tonight they were struggling, and getting that young group to take (on) the game offensively.”

The Hawks looked like a completely different team in the open floor than last season, and that ability to generate easy baskets will give them hope on Monday night, given the Kings found a number of holes in the Taipans’ d-trans on Saturday.

“Basketball is fast, 24 seconds in a possessions but tonight it felt like they were all 10 seconds long,” coach Mike Kelly said post-game.

“We need to be better on defence, we need to stop transition, we need to do those things that we didn’t do well tonight and hopefully that will stand us in good stead on Monday.”

That was one of the few down points for the Taipans though, as they executed with mid-season precision down the stretch to retrieve a six-point final-quarter deficit.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="pt" dir="ltr">Trademark Machado! ? <a href="https://t.co/mmgJQxnMI7">pic.twitter.com/mmgJQxnMI7</a></p>— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans/status/1350395922224611328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“We do have some continuity and I think that helps our group,” Kelly said, his roster featuring nine returnees.

“We didn’t play great basketball the whole game but we stayed together and the guys finished strong down the stretch, so I think (the continuity) definitely helps.”

Most impressive was their ability to play through physicality and still get the shots they wanted, with a significant amount of off-the-ball contact going unwhistled.

“There was a lot of physical play, but I was happy that we fought through,” Kelly said.

“I think it goes back to the team kind of clutching up, the bench guys got us back (into the game) and then the starters came back on and finished the job.

“It was a close game the whole way, and I thought it was always one or two plays from us getting our rhythm, and we really didn’t get that until we came down the stretch.”

The Hawks had to step up their own physicality to top Brisbane, after the Bullets scored at will inside for much of the game.

Goorjian knows while the defence led by Justin Simon was promising first up, it will need to be better in Cairns, especially if the injured Deng Adel isn’t cleared to play.

“Defensively they had a couple of areas where they just hurt us and we've got a period of time here to make adjustments here, and I think that will help us for the second game,” he said.

“Last year, this was the worst team in the league defensively, so to have an 88-84 game on the road is good for us, that’s a better win than 124-120 on how we’re trying to build this thing – defend, get some cheap baskets, keep them off the foul line.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SIMON SAYS NO! <a href="https://twitter.com/simon_Says_so?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@simon_Says_so</a> from the clouds ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IllawarraProud?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IllawarraProud</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlyAsOne?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlyAsOne</a> <a href="https://t.co/rz5Ht8QVF6">pic.twitter.com/rz5Ht8QVF6</a></p>— Hawks Basketball (@thehawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehawks/status/1350356568626192385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>