The Struggles of the Closeout Game

“The closeout game is the hardest game in any series”. True words spoken by a man who’s been there, experienced it himself and come out on top.

Peter Hooley was a member of the 2018 championship winning Melbourne United side, and much like the Kings had the opportunity to take home the title on their opposition’s home floor in Game 4 last night, so did United against Adelaide half a decade ago.

The parallels continue past the results though. In both games the home side shot out to a strong first half lead, before a third quarter comeback allowed the away team to give themselves a chance of taking the trophy then and there.

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While the Kings lost by 10 points last night, Hooley’s United ended up suffering a nine-point defeat on that occasion.

“The closeout game is the hardest game in any series,” Hooley said on NBL Today. “It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to win a championship, it doesn’t matter if you’re trying to get to a Championship Series, that closeout game is always hard – especially when it’s on an opponent’s home floor.

“I remember back in 2018 with that Grand Final Series we had went to five games, we went to Adelaide, and we were so amped. We had great preparation, we had a hype video, we went out there thinking ‘we’re going to win this game, we’re going to knock them off in front of their own fans’.

“We were down double-digits – nearly 20 – at half time because you just get caught up in the moment. You start thinking ‘we’re 40 minutes away from winning a championship ring’. That game is hard.”

Pete Hooley was a member of the 2018 Melbourne United side that defeated the Adelaide 36ers in five games in the Championship Series.

It would be easy to start feeling the pressure at 2-1 down in a Championship Series, but the Breakers entered the game calm and collected to get the jump on the Kings.

In front of a record-breaking, sell-out Spark Arena crowd, the dangerous trio of Jarrell Brantley, Barry Brown Jr and Will McDowell-White got the job done on the offensive end of the floor and combined for 62 of New Zealand’s 80 points, while Tom Abercrombie rolled back the years and put on a defensive masterclass.

“Jarrell Brantley said it best pre-game,” Hooley said. “I think he said it to Casey Frank on the flight over from New Zealand – he said they were going back to New Zealand for Game 4 down 2-1 and that’s exactly where you’re supposed to be.

“You’re supposed to be down when you don’t have home court advantage, and they did what they had to do.

“It was impressive when you think about how aggressive they were, they were on the front foot in attack mode. They’ve been one of the slowest teams offensively all season long – they like to grind it out, we know that – but they really looked to have a pep in their step.”

The Breakers and Kings travel to Sydney for the decisive fifth game of the NBL23 Championship Series for a winner-takes-all clash.

Tickets are available here, and you can catch the game live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies | Sky Sport and Prime in New Zealand on Wednesday, March 15 at 7:30pm AEDT.