R18 Preview: Tasmania JackJumpers vs Sydney Kings

When: 1pm (AEDT), Sunday 3 April 2022

Where: MyState Bank Arena, Hobart

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; 10 Peach; 10 Play; Sky Sport NZ

 

Who won last time?

Tasmania 77 (Magette 18, McVeigh 17, Adams 16) d Sydney 70 (Adams 24, Cooks 18, Martin 16) - Round 10, MyState Bank Arena

Sydney started well with Jaylen Adams dominating the first quarter to be up nine after one. The JackJumpers, though, got rolling in the second period and shot a remarkable 7/9 from three-point range to go into half-time leading by six following a 14-0 run with Josh Magette, Will Magnay, Josh Adams and Jack McVeigh all scoring at least eight points.

Sydney shot just 6/17 for the quarter opposed to that and once Tasmania took that lead into half-time, they never surrendered the advantage throughout the second half. They secured the seven-point win to make it three straight victories for the first time in their history.

Magnay likely played his best game in JackJumpers colours and was the dominant big man in the game. He finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and four blocks – but his impact was much more significant than that suggests with his presence. Magette again top-scored hitting 4/10 from deep on his way to 18 points while McVeigh is in his best patch of form of the season too with another 17 points and eight rebounds. Adams added 16 points, rebounds and four assists to be another strong contributor for the winners.

Xavier Cooks was huge with 18 points and 13 rebounds with Jarell Martin adding 16 points and nine boards, and Jaylen Adams 24 points, four rebounds and four assists despite shooting 6/19 from the floor and 1/9 from deep.

 

What happened last start?

Both teams are entering this clash in outstanding form with the Kings having won nine straight to now be knocking on the door of top spot while the JackJumpers have won their last three to remain in touch of the top four.

The JackJumpers return home to MyState Bank Arena for what could well be their biggest game in the club's history on Sunday against the Kings fresh off an important win in Adelaide on Friday night.

They had to work hard for it too. They were down six early in the fourth quarter but found something spectacular to score the next 16 points in the game and to hold Adelaide scoreless for six minutes to end up recording the 80-72 victory on the back of 31 points from Josh Adams, 14 from Jack McVeigh and everyone else making solid contributions.

That win means that Tasmania has won three in-a-row and six of their past seven to improve to a 13-10 record on the season and to keep their playoff dream alive with five matches of their season to go. Another win on Sunday at home to the Kings and that hope of reaching the finals in their inaugural season is a distinct possibility.

Then there is the Kings. They will be fresh coming into this game having not played since beating the Perth Wildcats out west last Saturday night in dominant and emphatic fashion. They ended up winning 102-80 having led the 'Cats at one stage by as much as 31 points.

That means the Kings arrive in Hobart on Sunday on a remarkable nine-game winning streak and a victory over the JackJumpers will see them move back into second position on the table ahead of the Illawarra Hawks, and to be within striking distance of the league-leading Melbourne United.

 

Who’s in form?

Josh Adams – He has really figured things out in his first season in the NBL and the JackJumpers' shooting guard put all of that on show in Adelaide on Friday night. He put up his career-high of 31 points on the back of 11/17 shooting from the floor, 4/10 from three-point territory and 5/7 from the foul line. What's been most impressive about his offensive game is that he's now got the balance right between attacking with the ball looking to take it inside and settling for the outside shot. Given he is equally proficient on both fronts, that makes him quite the weapon to stop and coming off a career-best night on Friday, he'll be full of confidence back on his home floor now on Sunday against the Kings.

Jarell Martin – He has had to stand tall for the Kings and he has been more than up to the task. Firstly at the start of the season he lost his starting frontcourt partner Jordan Hunter and in recent times he was also without Xavier Cooks, but no matter what has been asked of him he has been up to the challenge. When needed to battle bigger bodies, he's done what he can and then he has just been one tough beast to try and stop on his own for the opposition. Just going back to his last two games, he put up 24 points and eight rebounds against South East Melbourne, and then 16 points and seven boards against the Perth Wildcats. He has an enormous offensive arsenal with good size and is nimble enough so he looms as a tough match up for the JackJumpers.

 

Who needs to be?

Jack McVeigh – He is the ultimate energy guy and the spark that can often kickstart things for the JackJumpers. He is also likely in his best patch of form during his 107-game NBL career and he will need to come up big again for the JackJumpers on Sunday. He started on fire in Adelaide on Friday night on his way to another 14 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals, but he has a big challenge again against the Kings. He'll likely be battling Xavier Cooks for a lot of the afternoon and whoever can do a better job of providing the spark for their team could go a long way to helping to secure a crucial victory.

DJ Vasiljevic – There are so many weapons on this Kings team. You have Jaylen Adams running the show, Jarell Martin delivering inside, Xavier Cooks is now back to do everything he does and Ian Clark has settled in tremendously. But there's no hiding from the fact that when DJ is aggressive and looking for his shot, and knocking them down that this Sydney team is just about unstoppable. If everyone else can do their thing while you have Vasiljevic's shooting threat to top everything off, then it's quite the array of weapons Sydney has and he is coming off 31 points in the last two games in big wins over finals contending teams in the Phoenix and Wildcats.

 

Who’s statting up?

 - Josh Adams is fresh off becoming the first JackJumpers player to reach 30 points on Friday night when he put up 31 against Adelaide, but he's only averaging 12.5 a game against Sydney. That's his lowest output against any rival this season
 
 - The JackJumpers are the only team this season to not have had a player score 20 points against the Kings. Josh Magette top-scored in the first meeting 18 points and captain Clint Steindl had 15 in their second clash

 - The point guard battle features the two league's leading dime dishers in the NBL. Jaylen Adams is leading the league for assists at 6.3 a game for the Kings while Josh Magette is going at 6.0 a game for the JackJumpers

 - The JackJumpers and Kings are leading the NBL for three-point attempts this season. Tasmania is putting up 31.4 attempts a match and Sydney 29.9. From those, the JackJumpers are shooting at 32.4 per cent from downtown and the Kings 33.3.

 

Who’s matching up?

Josh Magette v Jaylen Adams – What a point guard battle this will be. Both are doing an outstanding job running their teams and Magette has been pivotal in the JackJumpers' winning six of their past seven games while Adams has been instrumental in the Kings' nine-game winning streak. Magette has figured things out impressively and has the balance between setting up Tasmania's offence, creating for his teammates and setting them up, and then knowing when to step up to score himself. His defence has also been solid highlighted by that remarkable game clinching steal against Perth. Then there is Adams who has just been in spectacular and virtually unstoppable form for the Kings. He could very well be in MVP type form and this point guard match up is going to be a lot of fun to watch unfold.

 

Who’s talking the talk?

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth is becoming famous for keeping things grounded and not looking too far ahead. Coming into Round 18 all his focus was on Adelaide for Friday night, but now he's looking forward to the challenge of Sydney on Sunday.

"These guys have been through the process and for me it's every day saying the same thing about one game at a time," Roth said.

"I hadn’t watched any video or anything on Sydney until this game with Adelaide was done, but now we've flipped the page and got to work to get ready to play them now. Credit to these guys that the game will obviously be exciting to be playing in for our first year. 

"It's not life or death, but these guys are more than willing to go out there and showcase everything that they've been doing and we are excited to go out and play on Sunday."

The JackJumpers did a good job last week of winning twice on the road in Brisbane and Perth well inside of 48 hours so Roth sees no reason for concern about his team backing up on Sunday following Friday's game in Adelaide.

"I can't speak for the players, but I think they do like to play with some sort of rhythm and I think they'd rather play than practice at the end of the day," Roth said.

"It's their job to go play and I think the more they play the more they enjoy that more than yelling at them at practice about playing defence. It's a little bit of a shorter flight which is helpful and we'll get ready for Sunday."

Josh Adams is fresh off his NBL career night on Friday with 31 points against the 36ers with the JackJumpers still well and truly in the finals fight with five games to go. He puts that all down to culture.

"It just comes back down to the culture we've got. We got together here in Australia earlier than a lot of people did to start build something, and I think we worked on the right things early on," Adams said. 

"Now everything else that needed to come together as a team is coming to fruition later in the season like it needs to. 

"We put together a great team with the staff that has been working for the JackJumpers away from their family putting together that team and staff so we can build this incredible culture. From top to bottom, it's full credit to everybody that's involved in this program."

Adams takes a similar approach to his coach as well to not get too far ahead of himself but is looking forward to Sunday's home clash now with the Kings.

"We're looking forward to playing in the next game every time and the next one was Adelaide first, and I'm really proud of what myself and the team were able to do in this game," Adams said.

"So we're going to look at this film, get some rest and travel back to take away the good points, correct some of the bad points that were hurting us in the first half and we'll just focus on whatever game comes next. We'll get some recovery in and then get back to Hobart, and get back to work for Sunday."

Sydney coach Chase Buford is fully aware that the JackJumpers will be a significant test now on Sunday in Hobart.

"Tassie is playing as well as anybody in the league right now. We were disappointed with our performance the last time we went down there; we didn’t shoot the ball very well and could have played better defence," Buford said.

"But if we’re being honest with ourselves, six out of eight quarters we’ve played against Tassie they’ve beaten us. We have to be better executing versus their pressure. They’re the hardest playing team in the league. 

"I like to think we play hard, but Scott has those guys competing their butts off. If we think we’re going to come in there and it’s going to be anything other than a dogfight, we’re crazy."

Xavier Cooks made his return from an ankle injury earlier than expected last Saturday in Perth and will now be ready for more minutes on Sunday in Hobart, but he knows the threat the JackJumpers' pose too.

"I think they’re another team that’s bought into the system. They don’t have many superstars, their line-up on paper isn’t so exciting, but they play so hard," Cooks said.

"Teams like JackJumpers, any time you relax, they put their foot on your throat. It’s their intensity and they’ve all bought into their system. When we played them, we shot terrible but that’s a credit to them, they made us miss shots. The game plan to try and beat them is to match their intensity."