R9 Preview: Brisbane Bullets vs Sydney Kings

When: 5.30pm (AEDT), Saturday 13 March

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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

The last time
Brisbane 90 (Law 27, Sobey 26, Cadee 11, Harrison 11) d Sydney 87 (Martin 26, Ware 15, Vasiljevic 13), Round 3, Nissan Arena

Coming into this game with an 0-2 record it was crunchtime for the Bullets, and cometh the hour, cometh the main men as Vic Law and Nathan Sobey poured in 53 points at 62 per cent to propel the hosts to a double-digit lead in the third term. Brisbane had no answer for Jarell Martin, whose dominance in the keyway kept the Kings close, but seven straight Sobey points down the stretch ensured Andrej Lemanis’ men got on the board in NBL21.


The now
It was The Deviants who sung ‘You’ve got to hold on’ and that’s very handy advice for the Kings right now. After hanging tough through injuries and a long road stretch, Sydney have dropped three of their past four and copped a mighty hammering from the Hawks, despite Martin’s return. With Melbourne and Perth two of their next three opponents, things could get dicey if they fall on Saturday, and fixing their interior defence is priority number one.

Brisbane might well be spinning the Living End at the moment, rolling on with their heads held high after winning five of their past six by scoring a ridiculous 100.7ppg. They’d be best to keep the volume down, however, as their sloppy defensive performance against Adelaide wouldn’t get them a W against the NBL’s better line-ups. The Bullets have plenty of offensive contributors, so if their defence can click they become genuine title contenders.


The stats

 - The Bullets shot an absurd 77 per cent from two-point range against Adelaide, however they took 31 of their 66 attempts from outside the arc

 - Brisbane have conceded 47 offensive rebounds in the past three games, with second chance points accounting for 18 per cent of their opponents’ score

 - In their past two losses, Sydney have leaked 104 points in the paint and conceded 62 per cent shooting from two-point range

 - In their past two games the Kings have been outscored on points from turnovers 35-17


The key men

Didi Louzada – The Brazilian piled on 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting from long range in the shootout with Perth, but in his other eight games he’s managed just 5.5ppg on 5-of-34 from outside. With the Kings hadn’t lacked offensive punch until last round, they simply need more from a player of Louzada’s quality who is averaging 22 minutes on court each night, and that starts with contributing more than 1.6 two-point baskets per game.

Matt Hodgson – Big Hodgy mozzed himself by mentioning he was playing the most minutes of his career since shifting to the bench. Nek minute he’s subbing off with five fouls, and don’t think Adam Forde won’t have noticed his early fouls came on driving guards from on-balls and trying to defend Daniel Johnson. The Bullets are now 7-3 with their big fella playing, but he better be ready for a steady diet of Martin and Casper Ware coming his way.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SUNDAAAAYYYM! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreSixers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreSixers</a> <a href="https://t.co/Ienf30sMpf">pic.twitter.com/Ienf30sMpf</a></p>&mdash; Adelaide 36ers (@Adelaide36ers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers/status/1369896316046696449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The quotes

The Kings’ horror second-half performance against Illawarra had coach Forde sounding like a discombobulated DJ.

“That was just a real bad beat,” he said despondently.

“Nothing was as crisp. Our rotations weren’t great in the first half, we addressed it, we spoke about it and we just didn’t get any better.

“We were flat footed, we looked fatigued, we just looked out of sorts, and everybody was guilty of it … they just opened up the floodgates in that third quarter.”

The reality for Sydney is after having excellent success for a number of games with their aggressive on-ball defence and proactive rotations, which generated plenty of points from their D, opponents have adjusted and the not-yet-locked in schemes have been shaky.

It perhaps started with Perth nailing 15-of-37 triples on Forde’s men, and wasn’t helped by Melbourne and Cairns making key plays from deep, and the result has been a parting of the purple seas.

“It was where they stretched it in the pick-and-roll, they had five guys outside the three-point line and guys were hugging their man, so we’re trying to be aggressive on the on-ball, to balance that out you need that support off the ball,” Forde said after the loss to the Hawks.

“Virtually you’ve got to have your numbers showing to the ball, strongside corner if he’s not a shooter can take another two steps in, if he is a shooter you're still off knowing you can close that out.

“The weakside corner has to be right in, knowing that if that’s a crosscourt pass, even if you’ve got one foot in the keyway you can still get out and close that (out) and we didn’t, and it was frustrating.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WITH AUTHORITY ? <a href="https://twitter.com/sfrol13?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sfrol13</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IllawarraProud?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IllawarraProud</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlyAsOne?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlyAsOne</a> <a href="https://t.co/i6fYy5rMfz">pic.twitter.com/i6fYy5rMfz</a></p>&mdash; Illawarra Hawks Basketball (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1369936591121121280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was always going to be a challenge defending the paint without Andrew Bogut and then Xavier Cooks and Jarell Martin, leaving a virtual rookie in Jordan Hunter to man the middle.

“We hinge a lot on Jordy, he’s been great, when he’s rolling we’re rolling, and something I have to remind myself of is he’s a guy who only played two minutes a game last season,” Forde said.

“So to have such a huge burden on his shoulders, especially with Jarell out or limited and X (out), he’s been thrown in the deep end.

“The unfortunate thing is we rely on him and it’s a heavy burden for someone in their sophomore year. It’s unfair on him so we rely on contributions from everyone else, and tonight we didn’t have that contribution from anyone really.”

Brisbane had some similar issues despite their win over Adelaide, something coach Andrej Lemanis knows they can’t repeat.

“We shot the ball at 75 per cent from inside the arc and 43 per cent from outside the arc and yet still only won by five,” he mused.

“We gave up 19 offensive rebounds, so there are a lot of things tonight that reared their heads that if you're not prepared to give the effort good things don’t happen for you.

“But the most pleasing thing was we were able to make the change, and in a game you could describe as relatively ugly for us we found a way to get that win."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sobey. Clutch. ??????<a href="https://twitter.com/sobes2zero?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sobes2zero</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLCup</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/6drgtWZmYn">pic.twitter.com/6drgtWZmYn</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1369918075458387971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

They are winning with offence at the moment though, and things could get ugly for Sydney if they don’t rediscover their defensive energy and attack Sobey and Law, arguably the league’s number one dynamic duo.

“You have to put them up there as one of the best, right?” Jason Cadee said.

“I thought Sobes did a great job tonight of letting it come to him a little bit, a lot of his points would have come in the last quarter-and-a-half and I think we've got a good little thing going where we can factor them in, but it’s not just them all the time.

“I think that’s when we’re at our best, when we can find them on the back of stuff and they can get some cheapies as a group.

“We’re doing a great job of not just throwing it to them and going here you go make it happen, we’re actually just playing basketball and it ends up in their hands at the right time ... we’re finding them in the flow of stuff.

“Especially with Vic playing the four-spot, we've got a genuine threat that when you’re coming off an on-ball with Vic they have to worry about is he popping, is he rolling, where is he? So I think that’s making life easier for guards with Vic setting screens for guards.”