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ROUND ABOUT: NBL22
TweetYOU have to ponder the merit of altering your game style, rotations and/or tactics on the eve of finals.
After Perth made its run to close Adelaide's 23-point lead to 8, then it began to again blow out, there was precious little intensity in the Wildcats after that.
Yes, they had/have #1 spot locked up so why take chances? I hear that case. You only have to look back last year at Damian Martin's injury and what that did to the club's championship hopes.
Then, as Sydney got on top of Adelaide on Sunday - again now a match of no consequence to the 36ers, having locked away the #2 spot on Friday - you can question the intensity of their finish.
So what happens this week if Wollongong beats Sydney on Friday? It means the Hawks are in the four and will play Perth in the best-of-three semis.
How much will Sunday's Perth-Wollongong match matter to either team then and what strategy do you take into it?
Similarly, Adelaide and Melbourne are scheduled for a best-of-three semi final. So what will they change/hide/experiment with when they play on Sunday in a now meaningless rubber?
What does the cash-paying fan want to see and deserve?
Well that's easy. A genuine contest.
But how can you guarantee that at this point?
There's much to be said for Trevor Gleeson running extra minutes into Drake U'u and Erik Burdon in Adelaide. Who knows when he might need them in the playoffs?
That said, if they haven't been integral to this point, why would you expect that to change in the season's most important games?
Then again, Phil Smyth rested Kevin Brooks and Mark Davis for the last two, and possibly even three rounds in 1998, dropping games but ensuring they would be fit for the finals. Adelaide swept its semi and Grand Final series that year.
So yes, it can pay. But Brooks did have a broken finger and Davis was perilously close to his use-by date so the rest was justifiable.
No David Stern jumping in to fine the club for not putting its best foot forward, as the former NBA Commissioner did last year to the San Antonio Spurs when they sat Duncan, Parker and Ginobili in a match against Miami.
It's a dangerous game to play, messing with the formula which brought you to where you are. But in instances such as Sunday's games, it becomes a classic case of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality clashing with the "let's be ready to roll for the finals" strategy.
Should make for a genuinely fascinating final round before the finals rounds.
YEAH, NO KIDDING
TALK about a language barrier. I am paraphrasing here but in the wake of the Kings' 100-90 win over Adelaide, Ten caller Brad Rosen asked Sydney NBA import Sam Young how he found the league.
"I've got a great agent," was the gist of Sam's reply.
No. No. No, Sam, that's not what he meant. The question was how do YOU find the league, as in, what do you think of the standard of the league. Not, how did you find this league in the back-of-beyond and way Down Under?
Don't know about you but that exchange gave me the best laugh of the afternoon.
Basketball On The Internet's Player of the Week
HE shaved his head and killed the Lone Ranga nickname in the process but NZ Breakers import Gary Wilkinson is this round's BOTI Player of the Week as the stand-out individual.
Wilko was a monster in the Breakers' 106-78 beating of the Kings with 30 points at 58 per cent and nine boards. His 16-point second quarter was a back-breaker.
In a round of several quality efforts, the artist formerly known as the Ginger Ninja was head and shoulders clear. Well, his head was clear.
PotW Winners
Rd 1 Daniel Johnson
Rd 2 Shawn Redhage
Rd 3 Chris Goulding
Rd 4 Charles Carmouche
Rd 5 Brian Conklin
Rd 6 Gary Ervin
Rd 7 Damian Martin
Rd 8 Mika Vukona
Rd 9 James Ennis
Rd 10 Mark Worthington
Rd 11 Rotnei Clarke
Rd 12 Adam Ballinger
Rd 13 AJ Ogilvy
Rd 14 Adam Gibson
Rd 15 Tom Garlepp
Rd 16 Steve Markovic
Rd 17 Steve Markovic
Rd 18 Rotnei Clarke
Rd 19 Sam Young
Rd 20 Jamar Wilson
Rd 21 Chris Goulding
Rd 22 Gary Wilkinson
Reviews
Breakers V Kings
SYDNEY needed this win badly but instead was made to play badly as Gary Wilkinson led the Breakers to a more-than-comfortable 106-78 win.
AJ Ogilvy and Sam Young led the Kings' scoring with 25 and 24 respectively but Wilkinson had another gem - he had a career-high last time against Sydney - with 30 points at 58 per cent. But NZ still in the finals race? Come on now. Seriously.
36ers V Wildcats
IT started off pretty fair dinkum but once Adelaide - in the first half through Luke Schenscher, then after the break through Daniel Johnson - seized control of the game, Perth's intensity appeared to slip away.
Down the stretch of this eventual 102-79 rout, Anthony Petrie stood up and Adam Gibson fell down (plantar fasciitis) as players such as Jesse Wagstaff and Shawn Redhage were unusually quiet and Damo only played 18 minutes. That said, the 36ers' starters played 122:04. Perth's starters played 124:41.
Crocodiles V Hawks
SENDING off Russell Hinder in his last home game in Townsville with a win was a big priority for the Crocs and for three quarters, the undermanned home team did all it could to cook up a match-winning lead.
But Rhys Martin and Rotnei Clarke steered Wollongong home with a withering 31-12 final quarter to set up a 94-85 win that kept the Hawks very much in the race for that final spot in the final four.
Taipans V Tigers
MELBOURNE got away with a 73-66 win over Cairns but Jamar Wilson was missing from the Taipans lineup with injury, making a seven-point win look a litle unconvincing.
Matt Burston had one of his best games as a Taipan, going after his former Tiger colleagues but Chris Goulding (29 points) showed why he is leading the league scorers and Adam Ballinger bobbed up again with timely buckets to sink Cairns, finally ending post-game "we're still a chance" talk from the league's most disappointing club.
Kings V 36ers
ADELAIDE was doing this easily until mid-second quarter when a Sydney time-out sparked an unprecedented 19-0 run to push the Kings into the driver's seat and there would be no fuel-related disqualifications in their 100-90 victory.
Sam Young had consecutive steal-dunks, the first of them an NBA cock-it-back-and-hammer special and Ben Madgen went off for 31 points as Sydney kept itself alive in the fight for fourth.
BEEF of the WEEK
HOW much genuine value is there in the in-game interview with players on the bench during NBL broadcast games?
I realise TV has been trying something new with that this season to continue to give the viewer greater insight into all that is unfolding.
But, realistically, of all the in-gamers I have watched, I cannot recall a single comment or remark which wasn't generic, rushed or bland, with the interview also rarely coming across as anything other than hasty and intrusive.
You have to especially like the ones where the coach subs the player in during the interview.
Toupees off to ONE-TEN for trying something different. Just not sure this one is paying off in the way the network hoped.
Online
BIGGEST WINNERS/LOSERS
MELBOURNE and Adelaide were the round's biggest winners, locking away their third and second positions on the ladder respectively with quality wins. Both are back in the finals for the first time since 2009.
CAIRNS was tipped almost universally to be a top-four team this season and to once again fold along the dotted lines has to raise questions about where that program is, where it has been and, certainly, where it is going. Losing at home to Melbourne, albeit without a Jamar Wilson who was brought of the bench for all bar two games, was a better effort but overall this has been a season of the blues, not orange.
PS
Sydney Kings coach Shane Heal is on the record saying of import Jesse Sanders: “I think Jesse rebounds and defends like Damian Martin.” Did he maybe mean Damien Keogh?
