Preview: Brisbane v Sydney (Round 15)

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Wednesday 11 January, 2023
Where: Nissan Arena, Brisbane
Broadcast: ESPN; Foxtel; Kayo; Sky NZ
LIVE SCORES AND STATS

Who won last time?

Sydney 102 (Simon 23, Vasiljevic 16, Soares 13, Walton 13) d Brisbane 85 (Mitchell 20, Baynes 15, Cadee 13) – Round 3, Nissan Arena, Brisbane

A sell-out crowd welcomed Aron Baynes to Brisbane and the Bullets responded with energy at both ends, opening with a Baynes dunk and leaping to a 15-4 lead after seven minutes. That was the last serious yelp they gave however, and they were outscored 67-41 between that point and three-quarter-time before failing to get within single-figures of the Kings in the final 17 minutes of the game.

What happened last game?

Brisbane were lacklustre against Cairns last round and gave another huge and enthusiastic Nissan Arena crowd little to cheer about as the Taipans outscored them 52-25 in 14 minutes surrounding half-time, and the home side offered little resistance. Sydney applied some serious bite early on the Wildcats on Saturday, racing to a 21-point lead in the second quarter behind the brilliance of Xavier Cooks and the energy of their reserve crew.

What’s working?

Buford’s bench – Only Scott Roth of the Tasmania JackJumpers plays his second unit more than Buford who boasted this week the Kings are the world’s fastest-paced team outside the NBA. They can only achieve that with a quality bench who can execute at high speed. The Kings’ reserves scored 44 points against Perth on 59 per cent shooting and are +68 on bench points in the past five games, with Kouat Noi, Jordan Hunter and Angus Glover averaging 25.2ppg between them.

Tyler Johnson – The Bullets’ vet called out his teammates and himself after their loss to Melbourne and then did something about it, racking up an NBL career-high 32 points – equal with his NBA best – in the loss to Cairns. He also added four assists and four steals as Brisbane registerd a +/- of -4 in his 27:30 on-court, far higher than the -22 in the other 12:30. While Johnson has selflessly played within the team system all season he played like a man desperate for success last week.

What needs stopping?

Throwing in the towel – Sadly, Johnson didn’t have many mates that night, Brisbane appeared to quit on defence once they fell behind. They leaked 52 points in the paint at 68 per cent while also gifting 35 free-throw attempts. Things could get really messy with a similar ‘effort’ against Sydney who have already run up scores of 100 and 102 on the Bullets in their meetings this season.

Nathan Sobey – Brisbane’s usually-passionate leader was not his usual self against the Taipans with just two points on five attempts, one rebound, one assist, one foul drawn, no free throws and two turnovers to be a game-worst -30 in 21 minutes. A man with as much pride as Sobey is sure to bounce back hard, and he’ll love Sydney’s high-speed style. The Kings need to be ready to wall up and not gift the free throws that get Sobes going.

Who’s missing key men?

Both teams are expected to have their major pieces in place, although Jackson Makoi will come into Sydney’s main roster in place of an ill Biwali Bayles.

Who’s matching up?

Gorjok Gak v Xavier Cooks – Does Greg Vanderjagt dare throw his first-year sensation to the wolves and place him head-to-head with Cooks? We could see Brisbane invoke South East Melbourne’s “six-foot rule” with the MVP candidate by using Gak’s extraordinary length to contest his deadly floater game in close. Given Cooks has produced 21.8ppg at 69 per cent, 9.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.5 o-boards in his past four games, whoever guards him will need plenty of help.

Tanner Krebs v DJ Vasiljevic – Last time these teams met, DJ had 16 points on 4/8 from deep and whad a game high +/- of +29 in his 25 minutes. By comparison, Derrick Walton was +2 in 26 minutes. Tapping Vasiljevic’s passing and scoring potential without impacting Walton is one of Sydney’s most important puzzles en route to back-to-back titles, especially given the all-around offensive game of Ian Clark won’t be around this time. Expect them to be working on that in Brisbane, and don’t be surprised if Brisbane’s best defender gets this job.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Leaving us all ?????????? ?<br><br>Live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WetheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WetheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/xFSO3i9O57">pic.twitter.com/xFSO3i9O57</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1611658654612164609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who’s saying what?

Following one of the most timid performances in Brisbane Bullets history interim coach Greg Vanderjagt kept most of what he said post-game private, but he did share his final message to his players.

“We need to be better when we play the best team in the league next Wednesday,” he said.

Better is a word that covers a lot of areas when talking about Brisbane’s performance against the Taipans, and what they need to do to compete with Sydney.

You can start with effort.

“We just got outworked, they just played harder than us … the most disappointing thing is the lack of energy we brought to the game for the most part,” Vanderjagt said after the Cairns game.

You can move onto resilience.

“Our foul discipline is poor, our reactiveness to calls right now is poor, and that’s something we need to fix,” he added said.

“I think we worry and got caught up too much in things we can’t control, one of those is the officiating... right now we get too caught up in it.”

Then there are smarts, knowing how to take away your opposition’s strengths.

“The lack of attention to scout detail, the lack of attention to how we wanted to try and control the game,” Vanderjagt said.

“We just played right into their hands, played at their tempo, played at their pace and allowed them to dictate terms.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Taipans are, quite literally, ?????? ?? the buckets keep getting better!<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/I7zbOgj2rm">pic.twitter.com/I7zbOgj2rm</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1610937571009507328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Bullets played unintelligent basketball when the momentum swung against them, quick-shooting the ball and committing sloppy turnovers that allowed Cairns to turn the game into a track meet.

If they make the same mistake against the relentlessly-running Kings, the contest could blow out very quickly.

Then there is rewarding your fans who turn up every week full of passion and voice.

“Our membership and our fanbase has been fantastic this year, despite us being 5-15,” Vanderjagt said.

“Another really good crowd tonight, over 4000, it was loud, they keep turning up and supporting this team and we didn’t give them a performance that was worthy of how they turned out.”

Finally, if the Bullets are serious about breaking their three-game losing streak by beating the champs high training standards could be utilised to expel the current malaise.

“The competitiveness is the first thing, we need everybody on the floor at practice on Saturday. We need to compete, we need to have an energy and intent about us that’s representative of a professional basketball team,” Vanderjagt said.

“We've got a choice right now as professionals and as men, we can either shut up shop and mail it in for the next eight games, and it can be a really long and miserable four weeks, or we can compete and play for each other and bring the right intent as pros and concentrate on the things that impact winning, not get caught up on what’s going wrong for me.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dogs on the ball ??<br><br>Live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WetheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WetheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/J8mWBXoSV6">pic.twitter.com/J8mWBXoSV6</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1611675514875379712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

In contrast, Sydney have now won four games in a row by double-figures, the first time they have achieved that since their 27-3 season in 2007/08.

The Kings have averaged a staggering 106ppg in that streak, running opposition teams off their feet for 40 minutes, but coach Buford is preaching all about the other end.

“It makes it tough to play fast when you’re taking it out of the net, so I think we recognised early that we had to run when we could, and X in the time-outs was just screaming, ‘Run, run, run’,” Buford said after the win over Perth.

“I think our defence has been really good the last four or five games … You talk about pace, you can’t run until you get stops, the more stops you get the more you can run and that makes the offence look better.”

That approach has harvested a culture where player one-through-11 are loving putting on the defensive clamps and then getting the rewards going the other way.

“We’re just running down people’s throats at the moment,” Angus Glover said.

“It’s really fun to play (that way) for starters, everyone’s just so unselfish in this team that no one cares who scores.

“We’re so invested in each other, everyone enjoys playing with each other, everyone enjoys each other’s success, it’s a really fun group to play with.

“Everyone wants to pass the ball and that’s a recipe for success.”