Studs and Duds | Round 6

At the conclusion of each round, NBL Media’s Liam Santamaria lets us know who made the grade and who deserves a little shade.

 

STUDS

Perth Wildcats

The champs are the headliners this week after wins over Melbourne and Sydney to open the NBL Cup.

Perth were the only team to go 2-0 in Round 6 thanks to some elite play from their guns as well as timely contributions from right across the roster. Jesse Wagstaff and Corey Shervill were important against United while Todd Blanchfield and Mitch Norton both stood tall against the Kings.

Of course, there were two Wildcats who stood head and shoulders above the rest. As usual, it started with…

 

Bryce Cotton (Perth Wildcats)

He’s the captain of the studs and he’s an absolute cheat code.

Cotton was massive in crunch-time in the win over Melbourne, scoring 22 of his 29 points in the second half, including 15 in the final quarter.

Then, as if that wasn’t enough, he took it to another level against Sydney.

The MVP was unwell – really unwell – and after suffering through ill-health for a couple of days, he somehow convinced the Perth medical staff that he was right to play in the Grand Final rematch. Once he got the green light to lace ‘em up… well, he delivered yet another spectacular performance.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">30 points on 9/16 shooting, 3 threes, 9 assists...<br><br>Not bloody bad for a game-time decision.<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/eQZQSUmptt">pic.twitter.com/eQZQSUmptt</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1364125344568025088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


“We didn’t even know he was going to play until an hour and a half before the game,” Perth coach Trevor Gleeson said.

“He wanted to play, he didn’t want to let his teammates down. He could’ve quite easily said ‘I’m not feeling very well coach, I’m out.’”

Yeah, nah… that’s not Cotton’s style. What IS his style, though, is giving the Sydney Kings the business. And on the day when he received his long-awaited ‘Distinguished Talent Visa’ – moving him one step closer to obtaining Aussie citizenship – the super-duper star did it again. This time while overcoming enormous physical challenges.

“It’s just a testament to what kind of a selfless person (he is),” Gleeson added.

“He’ll get out there and play. And to put on a performance like that when you’re not one hundred percent, you tip your hat to him.”

Of course, he wasn’t the only Wildcat putting on a show. Don’t forget about…

 

John Mooney (Perth Wildcats)

If Shawn Redhage was the ‘Scoring Machine’ then John Mooney is hereby titled the ‘Glass Eater’.

I mean, this dude just gobbles up the boards and last night against Sydney, he combined that with elite offensive production to help fire his squad to victory.

With the Kings sending extra bodies at Cotton, Mooney took advantage by scoring 30 points on 12-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-4 from long range.

The league’s leading rebounder also hauled in a massive 18 boards (with two boards having been added via the stat review) in an all-round dominant display.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Players to have 30 points at 90%FG including at least one 3 pointer made and 18 rebounds in NBL history:<br><br>1. John Mooney<br><br>End of list.<br><br>via <a href="https://twitter.com/nblfacts?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nblfacts</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/tt4NLux772">pic.twitter.com/tt4NLux772</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1364386215961665537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


“He’s fitting in like he’s played five years with us, not seven games,” Gleeson said.

“He’s doing everything a coach asks for; he’s working hard defensively, he’s stretching the court offensively and he’s just got a great nose for the rebound… he’s been a great asset to us and we’re so glad he’s here at the Wildcats.”

  

Casper Ware (Sydney Kings)

Watching that battle between Ware and Cotton last night was my favourite moment of NBL21 so far.

That right there is the very best match-up in this league. Sure, there are plenty of high-level guys across the league. But that one has history. It has feeling – real, genuine emotion that elevates the competition to places no other match-up can get to.

We saw that on display again last night.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">? This ? matchup ? though ?<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/bfwZhdeNYz">pic.twitter.com/bfwZhdeNYz</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1364127470220320769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Oh, and Casper, in his own right, is balling right now.

In his fifth straight game scoring 20 or more points, Ware posted a season-high 34 on over 50 percent shooting from the field.

That followed an incredibly efficient performance against Adelaide, where the Friendly Ghost scored 23 points on only 11 field goal attempts including three-straight triples to break the game apart.

The balance that exists in Casper’s game right now is what, in my opinion, is bringing it all together. After hoisting an historic number of three-point attempts last season there are four guys who are currently averaging more shots from long range than he is. Meanwhile, he’s mixing it up and, as a result, there are only two guys across the league averaging more free throw attempts.

This is the Casper Ware I’m here for.

 

Keifer Sykes (South East Melbourne Phoenix)

The opening week of the NBL Cup was so fire it’s taken me seven hundred words to get to a freakin’ TRIPLE-DOUBLE!

SEM’s star PG was well-contained by Adelaide last night but against Brisbane, he was a stat-sheet stuffer supreme.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">First <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBL</a> triple-double since <a href="https://twitter.com/MELOD1P?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MELOD1P</a> ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/ksykesyb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ksykesyb</a> <a href="https://t.co/SvimN8mspe">pic.twitter.com/SvimN8mspe</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1363390426124718082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The review process may have docked him a dime but the triple-double stands, serving as another example of just how talented this guy is.

 

Mitch Creek (South East Melbourne Phoenix)

Shout-out also to the other Phoenix star who put in work this week.

Yeah, I know… they lost to the Sixers but man, Mitch Creek was huge right across the round.

Against Brisbane, Creek poured in a game-high 29 points to go with 9 boards and then, against his former team, he fell just two dimes off a triple-double of his own, putting up 23, 13 and 8.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Creek Freak went BIG in the opening round of the <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> by the numbers powered by <a href="https://twitter.com/LaTrobeFin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LaTrobeFin</a> <a href="https://t.co/d0yPJ6BMPq">pic.twitter.com/d0yPJ6BMPq</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1364398009929240579?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The outlier for Creek thus far this season has been his red hot perimeter shooting. A career 34 percent three-point shooter heading into the season, the 28-year-old has hit 13 triples so far at a fiery 45 percent.

“We had a pretty long off-season (with) plenty of gym time,” Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell explained.

“There wasn’t much else we were allowed to do during the off-season in Melbourne. We were restricted to just individual skills… we had a lot of shooting time.

“Creeky’s put the work in.”

 

Tyler Harvey (Illawarra Hawks)

Someone talking about shooting?

Tyler Harvey continued to pile on the points in Round 6 as the Hawks split their double against Cairns and the Breakers.

Against the Snakes, Harvey had a team-high 24 points to go with 6 assists before dropping 22 and 4 in the win over NZ.

Illawarra’s star guard is now third in the league in scoring at 22 a game and has put that number or more on the board in each of his past four.

  

Scott Machado (Cairns Taipans)

The Taipans also split their double this week but their point god deserves a shout-out for his stellar play.

Machado put up 14 and 9 in his team’s loss to Melbourne but it was his masterful performance on Saturday, when he willed his team past Harvey and the Hawks that lands him in the studs.

The league-leader in assists did it all in that one as he came up with all the big plays, finishing with an equal career-high 31 points to go with 8 boards and 7 assists.

 

Jock Landale (Melbourne United)

Let’s start with the obvious: MU were never going undefeated.

That being said, kudos to Landale for having the right kind of competitive mindset and for fearlessly sharing it in the public domain.

Credit, also, to the big fella for putting his hand up to attend the post-game press conference after his side suffered its first L of the season.

In fact, as an aside, I’d like to see more of that in postgame media appearances. If a guy misses a potential game-winner, for example, let’s hear from that guy after the game. Not some other dude. Let’s hear from the guy involved in the biggest moments of the game! What did he see on the final play? How was he feeling? Was he happy with the look that he got? These are the types of questions reporters are keen to ask after a game that goes right to the wire.

In this instance, however, the circumstances were a little different. Hopson missed the potential game-winning looks but Landale was the right player to speak to the media, given his much-scrutinized comments, and he handled himself brilliantly.

Jockdale also played very well across the round, recording 20 and 10 with 4 assists in the loss to Perth before backing that up with 18, 11 and 3 against the Snakes.

He’s rolling.

 

Josh Giddey (Adelaide 36ers)

Adelaide’s big three were all terrific last night but it’s Giddey who gets the love after turning in his best performance as a pro.

The teenage Next Star put his entire skillset on display in his side’s win over the Phoenix, notching up 15 points, 7 boards, 10 assists and 2 steals while shooting an impressive 3-of-5 from long range.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Youngest Australians to record 10 assists in a game<br><br>18 years 4 months - Josh Giddey vs Phoenix R6<br><br>18y 9m Andrew Gaze 1984<br>19y 0m Shane Heal 1989<br>19y 6m Aaron Trahair 1995<br>19y 9m Ray Gordon 1985<br>20y 0m Joe Ingles 2007<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/O0slyF5FJL">pic.twitter.com/O0slyF5FJL</a></p>&mdash; NBLfacts (@nblfacts) <a href="https://twitter.com/nblfacts/status/1364379283955671041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Yes, he made an error with the offensive foul in crunch time and yes, he still needs to increase his defensive effort but the poise the 18-year-old showed to set up Humphries for the most import bucket of the game was elite.

Giddey has now dropped 7 or more dimes in four straight games and it’s a joy to watch him blossom on the NBL hardwood.

 

Matt Hodgson (Brisbane Bullets) & Colton Iverson (New Zealand Breakers)

Big men with big numbers… 20 & 9 for Hodgson and 13 & 17 for Iverson but, unfortunately, their teams both took Ls.

 

DUDS

New Zealand Breakers

The Breakers showed some good signs early in their match-up with Illawarra but some sloppy play and a sky-high turnover count cost them yet another loss.

“We came with the right mentality and attitude but we broke very easily in that second quarter. Another tough day,” remarked head coach Dan Shamir.

What was likely on his mind were the 30 points his guys gave up from the 22 turnovers they coughed up over the course of the game. That’s the highest turnover count from any team this season.

“We were not really in the game,” Shamir added.

“Very early in the game we were down a big number. We really have to figure it out.”

 

Deng Adel (Illawarra Hawks)

Adel bounced back on Monday but, unfortunately, that historically bad shooting night he had against Cairns had to land him in the duds.

The former NBA wing just couldn’t buy a basket on Saturday, shooting an outrageous 0-for-15 from the field as the Hawks swallowed their third L of the season.

According to @nblfacts, it was the highest number of field goal attempts without a make by any player in NBL history, surpassing previous 0-for-14 efforts from Aaron Trahair (1999), Lanard Copeland (2004) and Anthony Stewart (2004). Ouch!

 “He’s putting a lot of pressure on himself and now they’re really laying off him,” Hawks coach Brian Goorjian said.

“He can shoot the ball (but) one of the things we’ve talked about is he needs to get involved in the game on the glass, get to the foul line, get a steal – get something to loosen the game up.”

As I said, Adel did bounce back on Monday when he scored in double-digits against the Breakers, including this breakaway dunk that he threw down with some ferocity.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="in" dir="ltr">DENG goes BANG ?<a href="https://twitter.com/Foreverdeng?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Foreverdeng</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/X9OzB3dV2r">pic.twitter.com/X9OzB3dV2r</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1363734395312508936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Don’t get it twisted: Deng Adel can ball. The breakout’s coming.

 

Brisbane Bullets

The shooting struggles continue for the Brisbane Blanks.

After wildly inconsistent shooting against the 36ers last week, Brisbane rolled into the NBL Cup and went 6-for-22 (27%) from long range in a loss to South East Melbourne.

“At some stage you’ve got to make a shot,” head coach Andrej Lemanis said, as if rinsing and repeating from the Round 5 loss to Adelaide and the Ls to Illawarra to begin the season.

“We had some wide open looks… at the end of the day you’ve got to make some.”

That’s very true. The Bullets are now ranked last in the league for three-point shooting percentage having connected on just 28.8 percent of their long range looks thus far.

That being said, there was more to Brisbane’s third double-digit loss from their past four games than just missing shots. Losing Jason Cadee to injury certainly didn’t help, but neither did the short-cuts they took defensively once they’d established a lead. They also failed to match SEM’s physicality once the Phoenix lifted their intensity following a slow start.

There was also one other key issue that held them back: a quiet game from…

 

Vic Law (Brisbane Bullets)

That’s now two single-digit scoring nights from Law across Brisbane’s past three games and I guarantee you this: the Bullets aren’t winning any game this season in which Law scores less than 10 points.

In fact, the only games Brisbane have won this year so far have been when their best player has scored 27 or more!

Like Cotton and Mooney in Perth, Sobey and Law are the stars of this team and the Bullets need both of them up and about.

 

Scotty Hopson (Melbourne United)

Melbourne’s star import looked terrific last week in Wollongong but that momentum was stalled in Round 6 with a return to his previous shaky form.

Hopson shot a combined 9-of-28 from the field this week, including 0-for-7 from three, and missed all three of his shots from the stripe.

In fact, his lack of production came to a head in the first half on Monday when Dean Vickerman bench him following a sequence where he didn’t crash the boards and then jogged back in transition, gifting Kouat Noi a breakaway lay-up.

Let’s be honest: this is a key issue for Melbourne to solve. And it’s not all on Hopson, either. After a season in which United struggled to integrate their imports into their squad – on and off the floor – their ability to get Hopson going will be crucial for their championship aspirations.

Watch this space!

 

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