R3 Preview: Brisbane Bullets vs Sydney Kings

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

The Brisbane Bullets are winless, while Sydney are fresh off claiming their first scalp in Cairns. It's Nathan Sobey vs Casper Ware in another instalment of this Australia Day rivalry.

When: 3pm (AEDT), Tuesday 26 January

Where: Nissan Arena, Brisbane

Broadcast: SBS Viceland; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
Brisbane 87 (Magnay 23, Patterson 15, Gliddon 13) d Sydney 80 (Ware 26, Tate 13, Kickert 12), Round 12, 2019/20, Nissan Arena

When the Kings jumped out to a 12-point lead early in the second term it appeared they would continue their long-running dominance over Brisbane, but Andrej Lemanis’ men produced arguably their best basketball of the season with a 43-16 burst in 16 minutes across half-time to set up the W. The star was Will Magnay with 23 points, 14 boards, 2 blocks and a huge rim presence that helped shut down Sydney’s offence.

The now
While Brisbane would have loved Magnay and the injured Matt Hodgson in uniform for the opening two games, defensively they have done a solid job of stopping opponents from exploiting the middle. While it’s too early to make a quality assessment of the Bullets, given they’ve only faced the Hawks, for a team with only two rotation players from NBL20 in uniform, their offensive and defensive numbers look sound, and should only get better.

While Will Weaver, Andrew Bogut and Jae’Sean Tate are no longer around, the Kings are a very similar beast this season with their attack-mode mindset, Casper Ware, Shaun Bruce and Brad Newley leading a style that very much suits newcomers Jarell Martin and DJ Vasiljevic. Yet while the Kings are sure to attack Brisbane’s interior, they are still figuring out how to defend both the perimeter and the paint themselves.

The stats
- Sydney scored an impressive 102 points in the paint in their two meetings with Cairns, but in Round 2 they leaked 56 PiPs as the Snakes shot 60 per cent from two-point range

- Last season the Kings had a league-best defensive rating of 108.6, but so far this season they sit sixth with a rating on 111.8

- Brisbane are conceding 25 two-point field goals per game – second most in the league – at 45 per cent, third lowest in the NBL

- The Bullets rank first in assists and third in field-goal percentage, but are connecting at just 22 per cent from the three-point line with no players shooting above 30 per cent

The key men
Nathan Sobey – It’s been an impressive start from Sobey, who sits fifth on the NBL’s scoring charts with 21ppg at an ultra-efficient 81 per cent from two-point range, as he enjoys more minutes in tandem with Jason Cadee. He has made just 5-of-20 from long range though, and while the Bullets would love to see him bust out of that slump, most important is that he challenges Sydney’s keyway at every opportunity to create for himself and teammates.

Jarell Martin – Which Bullet is going to defend Martin? Cairns have perhaps one of the league’s best match-ups in Cam Oliver, and still the former NBA first rounder went for 22 points in 24 minutes while also dishing 3 dimes. Martin has shown he’s particularly dangerous in transition, meaning Brisbane need to do their work early to shut down supply and avoid rotations that allow Jarell’s offensive rebounding game to come into play.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Early days for this guy but we think you're all going to really like <a href="https://twitter.com/MartinJarell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MartinJarell</a>, Kings fans. <br><br>He was a beast last night adding 22 points and 11 rebounds to help the team secure their first win of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> season. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/bzyRpLfI4c">pic.twitter.com/bzyRpLfI4c</a></p>— Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1353190790789521409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The quotes
Adam Forde really liked what he saw last Saturday night in Cairns, and not just because it was his first win as a head coach.

Perhaps what had him most excited was the sync of his new-look team – minus Didi Louzada and Daniel Kickert, and then losing Angus Glover – as they embrace the “road warrior” tag they have made their goal while waiting to get home to Sydney.

“It’s tough, being away from your family, and having the boys be together 24/7 can either go really, really bad or really, really good, it just depends on how the group manages it,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what I do, we can set up games of laser tag, we can do team dinners, but if the guys don’t like each other it doesn’t matter what you do.”

That gelling as a group manifested itself in an improved defensive display, their ability to take away the Taipans’ three-point game the key in reversing their Round 1 loss.

“Of their 33 attempts last week, 24 of them were uncontested. When you add to that offensive rebounding, where they had 17 and 21 second chance points, you add in the slippage from transition defence,” he said.

“The message was going into tonight’s game was I don’t care what happens at the offensive end – obviously we want to move the ball and we got some areas we want to target – but the things we can control are the effort on the defensive end.”

Casper Ware took care of the offensive end, and he will have taken notice of how Tyler Harvey had his way with the Bullets ahead of his side’s Australia Day clash in Brisbane.

“Ultimate professional. We had a focus in the first half, I think he only had two field-goal (attempts). Then to take over the way he did, to step up the way he did, it’s just a testament to how he is as a professional,” Forde said of his point guard.

“He doesn’t ride that emotional roller-coaster, he is going to be consistent, he is going to be Casper Ware, and he’s going to deliver another Casper Ware performance against Brisbane.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Back-to-back triples from Casper Ware! <br><br>Kings push the lead to 12 points in late in the third. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/MW6hphDewy">pic.twitter.com/MW6hphDewy</a></p>— Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1352923867698720769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Where Forde has a tough choice is deciding how to best defend the Bullets.

Their three-point shooting has been woeful so far this season, so do the Kings repeat the successful effort in Cairns, or pack the paint and gamble that good shooters will continue to miss open looks?

“That’s the thing, we have Drmic who is a high-30s, early-40s, shoot at 28 per cent. Vic Law, who’s a 40 per cent shooter last year in the G-League, go 0-for-4. Jason Cadee is a 40 per cent three-point shooter, he went 16 per cent, and Sobes is a 40 per cent three-point shooter and he went 27 per cent,” coach Andrej Lemanis said.

“I would say a good 80 per cent of those shots were good looks, open threes, ball movement before it, so sometimes you’ve got to knock them down.”

While the Bullets’ best is undoubtedly ahead of them, they need to fast track that process as a third-straight home loss will leave them behind the eight-ball.

“We've got to get healthy, is the first thing, get everybody on court which will enable us to find our rhythm and our rotations,” Lemanis said.

“The way we started was great but with the limited rotations we had tonight it meant it was tough to sustain that level of intensity and we got a little bit tired, and maybe that contributes to some of the three-point shooting.”

Lemanis certainly isn’t hitting the panic button though, and the message to his team is one of calm.

“I thought there were lots positives tonight, and I think there is a lot to take from that where we can be confident we’re going to be a decent basketball team,” he said.

“I’m hoping we don’t get stressed as a group, there is a lot to like, we’re going to get improvement.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jason Cadee threads the needle to Vic Law as the <a href="https://twitter.com/BrisbaneBullets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrisbaneBullets</a> are out and running early in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HWKatBNE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HWKatBNE</a> ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/nGiswTS7od">pic.twitter.com/nGiswTS7od</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1352176937796395008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>