Preview: Adelaide v Tasmania (Round 11)

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Monday 19 December

Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre

Broadcast: ESPN; Foxtel; Kayo; Sky NZ

Who won the last time?

Tasmania 97 (Magette 23, Kelly 19, Doyle 16) d Adelaide 72 (Randall 18, Franks 14, Cleveland 10) – Round 3 at Adelaide Entertainment Centre

It might have been Round 3 but it was the first game of the season for the 36ers after their NBLxNBA sojourn and the JackJumpers gave them a rude awakening to NBL23 with a thumping 25-point win in Adelaide.

Josh Magette nailed four triples for 14 points in the first quarter in the best individual opening period from a Tasmania player in the NBL as their lead grew to 22 by quarter-time. While the Sixers did threaten a fightback from there and had their moments, Tasmania had all the answers to make it consecutive wins with the 25-point victory while hitting 15/38 from beyond the arc.

Magette had a spectacular all-round performance for Tasmania with 23 points, seven assists, four rebounds and four steals on 8/13 shooting and 5/8 from the land of plenty. He got plenty of support too with Rashard Kelly delivering 19 points and six rebounds, Milton Doyle 16 points, Jack McVeigh 12 points and five boards, and Jarrad Weeks 11 points with 3/5 shooting from long-range.

It was a rough start for the 36ers with Craig Randall top-scoring with 18 points but he did go 6/15 from the field and 2/10 from three-point range. Robert Franks finished with 14 points and four rebounds, and Antonius Cleveland 10 points and five boards.

What happened last game?

Both teams played on Saturday with differing results with the 36ers winning at home over the Brisbane Bullets and the JackJumpers being overrun in Hobart by the Cairns Taipans.

The Sixers have talked about beginning their playoff push upon starting their second half of the season and that got off to the perfect start on Saturday night with the 108-77 victory against the hapless Brisbane Bullets. The 36ers might have been without an unwell Daniel Johnson and are still awaiting their new import, but there was plenty to like in the performance.

Adelaide finished up shooting 53 per cent from the field, had 50 points in the paint and 24 points off the 18 turnovers they helped force Brisbane into. The import combination of Robert Franks (25 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals) and Antonius Cleveland (20 points, nine boards, three assists, three steals) was superb while shooting 19/29 from the field.

There were plenty more standout 36ers performers with Anthony Drmic putting up 16 points, Kai Sotto 13 points and eight rebounds, Sunday Dech 10 points, four rebounds and four assists, and Nick Marshall 10 points.

The JackJumpers were playing their first home game at MyState Bank Arena since November 5 and still haven’t won in the building since October 22 on the back of Saturday night's 91-82 defeat at the hands of the Cairns Taipans.

Despite the JackJumpers attempting 12 extra field goals than the Taipans, they couldn’t take advantage shooting 43 per cent from the floor to 54 while conceding 22 free-throws to 10. Jack McVeigh finished with 17 points, Milton Doyle 15, Josh Magette 13 and Will Magnay 12 to go with four rebounds and three blocks.

What’s working?

Remaining Sixers imports delivering – There was great hype over the Adelaide 36ers signing Antonius Cleveland and Robert Franks for NBL23 after what they did previously with the Illawarra Hawks and Brisbane Bullets respectively. While the team still has work to do to stay in the playoff race at 7-8 with 13 games to go, the duo have settled in nicely and are producing. Franks is providing everything you could hope for a big man, and more, while Cleveland's energy, production and intensity is now fully on show with his terrific defence, quick hands in the lanes and then dynamic ability to finishing on the break. The pair combined for 45 points, 15 rebounds, six assists and three steals on 19/29 shooting in Saturday night's win against the Brisbane Bullets.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Running out of things to say, really...<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/YvvGgbOvjL">pic.twitter.com/YvvGgbOvjL</a></p>&mdash; Adelaide 36ers (@Adelaide36ers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers/status/1604059538315177985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

JackJumpers giving themselves a chance – If the JackJumpers know how to do anything, it's how to continue to give themselves a chance to win the game. They might not have beaten Cairns on Saturday night, but they still put themselves in a chance down the stretch and it took some Taipans dynamic brilliance to overcome them. Tasmania were leading 80-75 with four minutes to go, it's a position they don't usually lose from. Even though they did, they at least gave themselves the chance to win. That was on the back of coming from 14 points down at the start of the fourth to beat the Sydney Kings and having overpowered Melbourne United down the stretch in recent weeks as part of a three-game winning streak.

What needs stopping?

Lack of consistency – The 36ers did play a good game on Saturday night to beat the Bullets. It was hard to find too many faults in it, even their start was considerably better on their way to their best first quarter of the season with 28 points. They ended up with six players scoring in double-figures and that doesn't include Mitch McCarron and Kyrin Galloway who made significant contributions, and they did it without Daniel Johnson. However, Adelaide has shown several instances of their potential this season or even before it started in Phoenix. What they haven’t been able to do is string strong performances together and they have to do that again against Tasmania or they saw what happened when they met earlier in NBL23.

Getting more from the captain – There's not much the JackJumpers don't do right with their strong defence, efficient offence and then an ability to hang around in games and finish strongly. They weren’t quite able to complete the job against Cairns on Saturday, but still gave them a chance and again captain Clint Steindl didn’t have a great impact. He hasn’t quite got going since coming back from injury a month ago. Again on Saturday night he had just five points in 14 minutes with his best performance in his five games back being 11 points against Brisbane. A lot of his minutes continue to go to Sean Macdonald and you can understand why with how well he's playing, but Steindl remains a bit of untapped resource this season for the JackJumpers with his deadly shooting ability and 276 games of NBL experience. 

Who’s matching up?

Robert Franks v Jack McVeigh – This is the true marquee match up of the evening with both in impressive form in what they are doing in the frontcourt for their respective teams. Going back to the first meeting of the season and McVeigh had 12 points and five rebounds for Tasmania, and Franks 14 points and four boards for Adelaide. Expect a bigger output from both on Monday night with both teams needing to come away with the win. Whoever has the biggest say in how their team plays will go a long way to determining the victor.

Kai Sotto v Will Magnay – Even if Daniel Johnson is healthy enough to suit up, he's unlikely to be 100 per cent coming off a bout of gastro so that would leave 'King Kai' as more of a natural match up for JackJumpers centre Will Magnay than Robert Franks would be. Sotto had a good night on Saturday against the Bullets with 13 points, eight rebounds and 6/12 shooting but it's going to be a different prospect against Magnay and the JackJumpers. Magnay himself will be out for a strong performance after feeling much of the brunt of Keanu Pinder's career-best night in Hobart on Saturday.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Magnay magic at both ends of the floor!<br><br>Watch NBL23 Live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel<br><br>GAME DAY PARTNER: GAP Tasmania, Greyhounds make great pets. Foster or adopt a greyhound today. Visit <a href="https://t.co/qR9OyL1b8B">https://t.co/qR9OyL1b8B</a> <a href="https://t.co/rkXkhu0uY6">pic.twitter.com/rkXkhu0uY6</a></p>&mdash; Tasmania JackJumpers ? (@JackJumpers) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers/status/1604013952589246465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Antonius Cleveland/Sunday Dech v Milton Doyle – The JackJumpers' 'Silent Assassin' has been doing some special things of late to put him in both discussions for MVP and All-First Team honours this season, but the Sixers have two standout defenders who they will throw at him throughout Monday night. Both Cleveland and Dech are outstanding perimeter defenders in their own right and it's a luxury for CJ Bruton to have against a player like Doyle to be able to use both on him defensively at certain points. Just how much they are able to limit Doyle's effectiveness and efficiency will go a long way to determining the result because at his best as a shooter, creator and passer Doyle is a pure match-winner for Tasmania.

Who’s saying what?

Adelaide coach CJ Bruton reset the season for the Sixers after 14 games at the halfway point. Things started well with the win against Brisbane on Saturday night, but he knows they need to continue on with that.

"It's game one for our chance to go and make finals," Bruton said.

"Every day your mindset coming into understanding what we're doing and what we've talked about and can you back it up. It's about understanding what we're talking about and doing all the right things, and your effort needs to be 100 per cent locked in. 

"We've drifted in and out of games so far and while I state the obvious truths, I'm not here to hold their hands, it's about having that pride and love and passion for this game, and how you go about it. 

"If you don’t give it everything, you will end up where you are and this league will dictate where you end up. We can't get the games back that we've played already, we can look forward and how we look forward is if you did your best and if you are giving your best."

While the Sixers are yet to confirm the signing of a new import for the rest of NBL23, speculation is rife that it will be NBA and NBL championship winner Ian Clark. Bruton did nothing to dispel that talk.

"Who? I don’t know any more than you guys but I see it on Twitter," Bruton said.

"My wife showed it to me and I got a few text messages congratulating me on the signing, but I haven’t seen his signature come across our club's desk. 

"But look, I know that Ian's great and I hope he comes I really do. If that's the name that you've got and that's what's available then I'm excited the same way that our league and our club is."

Tasmania coach Scott Roth knows his team is in the middle of a challenging stretch now starting on Saturday at home to Cairns and coming into this game.

"We're just trying to navigate what's in front of us," Roth said. 

"The teams that are able to navigate tough times or to go through struggles or bouncing around with travel, and it's Christmas time with a lot of games coming will have a chance to be in the playoffs. If you can't then you are going to look from the outside in and it is what it is. 

"The games will come fast and furious, there's no easy games on the schedule and playing away or home it seems so far for the most part nothing is very sacred. You just go into every game trying to play as hard as you can and see what happens."

JackJumpers' 237-game veteran guard Jarrad Weeks is looking forward to the chance for his team to bounce back in Adelaide after the loss at home to Cairns.

"We got out-executed on both ends. They switched it up a little bit down the stretch and the ball got very stagnant for us," Weeks said.

"I guess you could say we had some looks that didn’t go in, and they came down the other end and ran the ball. They scored out of their on-balls, out of their kickouts and made more plays than we did. 

"They're obviously a very talented team and they've got some athletes so have similarities with Cairns. We're going to go in and do some work, watch the tape and come up with a game plan that we can try and execute."

Adelaide big man Robert Franks is fresh off a strong performance against Brisbane as he looks to help the Sixers now build some momentum.

"To emphasise coach was hard on us this week and we just wanted to respond for him and for this fan group to start this home stretch," Franks said.

"We under achieved in the first half of the season and our desire is to play in the post-season. We just have to change our mentality and this was a good start, but we have to continue this to continue getting better."