Cleveland Earns NBA Champion's Praise

If anyone has told the Adelaide 36ers they only have a sliver of a chance to make the NBL23 finals, it looks like they forgot to tell Antonius Cleveland.

After being named as one of three nominees for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year on Monday morning he put the Cairns Taipans to the sword with his offence on Monday night, where he scored 27 points en route to a three-point win that keeps the 36ers’ post-season hopes alive.

Fellow import Robert Franks joined Cleveland – who also picked up two steals – in passing the 20-point mark for Adelaide on the night, while Kai Sotto, Ian Clark and Daniel Johnson each also scored in double-figures.

Having grown up with Cleveland in Memphis, Ian Clark’s history with Cleveland stems back a long way.

He says after a career matching up against the former Dallas Maverick, he’s proud to now be playing alongside him.

“Playing against him last year and being from the same city, I’ve known him for a long time,” Clark said post-game.

“He’s one of those guys you hate playing against but you love having on your team.

“In the timeout he was saying he was a little bit hesitant and I told him to keep shooting the ball to make [the defence] accountable. He kept shooting and we needed all of them.

“It’s not just the offensive end, but what he gives on defence as well.

“His athleticism, his anticipation, and being able to guard one through five at any time – he’s definitely big for us.”

The victory leaves Adelaide in eighth, three wins adrift of the current sixth placed South East Melbourne – however their play-in hopes aren’t over yet.

Luck will have to be on the 36ers’ side during Round 18 for them to scrape in to the post-season. They’ll require both Melbourne and Perth to lose their remaining games while they win both of their own.

Head coach CJ Bruton has praised the mentality of his group in what has been a tough period of the season for them.

“The resilience to keep fighting from where we’ve been at – we’ve got a very slim chance [to make finals] and the mood in the group from what we did in pre-season to now has been up and down,” Bruton said.

“The group showed when we flew up here yesterday and we hit the practice court that the energy way good, whereas earlier in the week you would have thought there was a funeral somewhere.

“We moved the ball well and defensively we were good. They (Cairns) have some great players and they’re in the playoffs for a reason … we were able to combat all that and come away with a win.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">?? ????TONIUS CLEVELAND! ??<br><br>? - <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> + <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> <a href="https://t.co/B5mcgeNc9M">pic.twitter.com/B5mcgeNc9M</a></p>&mdash; Adelaide 36ers (@Adelaide36ers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers/status/1619996998580719618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Bruton went all the way to the end of his bench in the win. The only 36er not to hit the floor in the win was development player Nick Marshall.

Deng Acuoth took to the floor for just the 13^th time this season, and despite playing just three minutes he ended the game with four points and two rebounds.

Bruton says the impact Acuoth had on the game summarised the way the whole side played.

“To see ‘DA’ step in – even though he only played three minutes I thought his minutes were game-changing,” he said.

“He challenged shots, he ran the floor, got a couple of rebounds and got to the free throw line.

“(Kyrin) Galloway got in there, blocked a few shots and set the tone [too].

“Everyone played amazingly.”