Studs and Duds: Round 19

Thursday, April 14, 2022

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

Illawarra Hawks

The Hawks are our headliners this week after they made light work of their only Round 19 game.

Brian Goorjian’s squad got their Survivor on in Brisbane, as they outworked, outplayed and outlasted the Bullets to post their biggest win of the season.

That’s now six wins in a row for Illawarra – and nine salutes from their past 10 games – as they continue to soar towards the postseason.

It’s flown a little under the radar, but they really have been spectacular over the past couple of months. They’ve been moving the ball more, shooting less threes and working their way to the free throw line with much more regularity.

The biggest changes, however, have been on D. Remember when Goorj was talking about the Hawks as the worst defensive squad in the league? Well, across the first half of the season they weren’t far off it. In fact, per spatialjam.com, only Adelaide and New Zealand leaked more points per 100 possessions across NBL22’s first ten rounds.

That’s all in the past now, though. Some changes to their coverages, coupled with a huge lift in their activity, have seen Illawarra become much more effective at that end of the floor. In fact, get this: across the two months since the start of Round 11, the Hawks sit alongside Melbourne as the equal-most efficient defensive team in the comp.

We already knew it, but Goorj really is a master at his craft. Antonius Cleveland also deserves major props for leading this late-season surge.

Another guy deserving of some love is…

Duop Reath (Illawarra Hawks)

Illawarra’s versatile big man notched up just two double-doubles across Illawarra’s first nineteen games, but he’s suddenly become a force on the glass, racking up three across his past six.

“I just had to learn some more things about myself and how I can effect the game,” Reath said.

“One thing is just playing with more activity; crashing the glass and just playing a little harder. Once I started doing that, everything started coming a little easier for me.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just typed 'efficiency' into Google and found this.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL22?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL22</a> By the Numbers powered by <a href="https://twitter.com/LaTrobeFin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LaTrobeFin</a> <a href="https://t.co/uNYXMv1MVe">pic.twitter.com/uNYXMv1MVe</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1514041538527244293?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sydney Kings

It wasn’t pretty but the Kings extended their league-best winning streak to 12 this week, with road wins over Adelaide and New Zealand.

According to NBL Facts, Sydney’s current streak is the second longest by any team in the last 13 seasons of 40-minute NBL. It also represents the second longest single-season streak in Kings history and the fourth-longest by an NBL first year coach.

The most impressive part about all of this? Sydney’s ability to chalk up wins on the road. They’ve now won eight straight away from home, equalling the franchise’s best road winning streak in a single season.

Melbourne United

Speaking of getting it done on the road, Melbourne went 2-0 this week to clinch a finals spot and advance their remarkable road record to 11-2.

This really is extraordinary stuff.

Dean Vickerman’s squad went 12-2 on the road last regular season (not including the NBL Cup), which gave them a road winning percentage of 85.7. That’s tied for the fourth-best ever recorded across an NBL regular season… and they have a chance to match it with a win in the final round.

For context, here’s the list of the league’s greatest ever regular season road teams:

1985 Canberra Cannons – 12-1 (92.3%)

1984 Geelong Cats – 11-1 (91.7%)

2008 Sydney Kings – 13-2 (86.7%)

2021 Melbourne United – 12-2 (85.7%)

2001 Wollongong Hawks – 12-2 (85.7%)

2022 Melbourne United – 11-2 (84.6%)

1986 Adelaide 36ers – 11-2 (84.6%)

1996 Melbourne Tigers – 11-2 (84.6%)

When you look at it like that, it’s pretty darn impressive. These guys are currently sitting amongst the greatest road teams this league has ever seen and a win over Tassie in the final round will further solidify their place.

Tasmania JackJumpers

While we’re on the Jackies, kudos to Scott Roth and his crew on securing a bounce-back win. The Ants were squished by Sydney last week, but they got to their feet this week with a victory over Cairns.

That’s now 14 wins in their inaugural season, including 7 from their past 9 games. Unbelievable. The fact that we’re two weeks out from the end of the regular season and these guys are still in the hunt – at least, mathematically – is a massive credit to them.

Not that Roth is worrying too much about it.

“When the twenty-eighth game is done, we’ll be where we’re supposed to be,” the Tassie coach said.

“As long as we keep fighting, I think we’re going to have a great chance of finishing very strong.”

Zhou Qi (South East Melbourne Phoenix)

Finishing the season strong is precisely what Zhou Qi is doing.

The Chinese star was terrific in the Throwdown last Thursday, posting 17 and 7, before backing that up with 22 and 6 with 4 blocks in SEM’s win over the Breakers.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">With 4 blocks today, Zhou Qi is once again leading the League in blocks per game ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL22?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL22</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/10PeachAu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@10PeachAu</a> + <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> ? <a href="https://t.co/JjeU1imZ64">pic.twitter.com/JjeU1imZ64</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1513012995110371334?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Yanni Wetzell (New Zealand Breakers)

The Pretzell may have been outplayed by Qi on Sunday, but that came between a couple of standout performances from the talented Kiwi.

Wetzell averaged 19 and 10 across NZ’s three Round 19 games, shooting a very healthy 67 percent from the floor and 83 percent from the line.

Throughout an impossible season for the Breakers, Yanni has been absolutely fantastic.

DUDS

Brisbane Bullets

The Bullets did split their home-away double this week, but they land in the duds nonetheless, thanks to their insipid performance in their final home game.

James Duncan’s squad just didn’t show up defensively against the Hawks, giving up easy finishes at the rim throughout the night.

“I almost want to apologise for our performance in our last home game,” the Bullets coach said. “We wanted to send them off in a better way.”

Adelaide 36ers

The 36ers also dropped their final home game, as part of an 0-2 round that saw them fall to Sydney and Brisbane.

The Sixers battled hard against the Kings and Kai Sotto (21 points) played well on Monday, but ultimately that’s four losses in a row for CJ Bruton’s squad, and 10 Ls from their past 12 games.

The challenge now? Try to play spoiler against the Wildcats and the Kings.

Cairns Taipans

The Taipans entered Round 19 on a three-game winning streak but they lost that momentum as they went down to Tassie and United.

Scott Machado suffered what appears to be a season-ending injury against the JackJumpers and, while Ben Ayre and Joe Blake were in good form on Sunday, the Snakes suffered their biggest defeat of the season at the hands of United.

Following that loss, Adam Forde challenged his guys to reset their focus, ahead of the team’s final four games.

“There are a lot of free agents on the team,” the Cairns coach said.

“There are a lot of guys who have done well who are probably going to try to warrant more income and there’s guys who aren’t doing very well and are nervous about what their future looks like. I understand that aspect of the sport.

“But you’ve got to look at how you finish out the season. What is most recent in people’s mind is how you go about this period right now.”

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