"He's Going to Kill You" - Blueprint to Stop Cooks Revealed

Former NBL Defensive Player of the Year Adam Gibson has locked in on where the Taipans need to improve to take their Playoff Series against the Sydney Kings to a decisive third game.

The answer is simple. Stop Xavier Cooks – but that’s easier said than done.

Cooks annihilated the Taipans’ defence in the second half of the Game 1 victory and finished the contest with a game-high 27 points and 14 rebounds. He was so good, in fact, that some corners of social media were praising the game as the most complete performance of his NBL career.

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“They’ve got to lock into guarding Xavier Cooks,” Gibson said on NBL Today. “He had a great game and there were too many possessions where he took it coast to coast. He’s shown if you give him one-on-one coverage, he’s going to kill you.

“It’s going to be more locking onto him, not letting him go one-on-one.

“Guys where shooting isn’t their forte, if you give them too much space, they’re going to eat it up and get so close to the hoop that it’s too hard to guard.”

While the rivalry between the Taipans and Kings has been one of the most engaging and fun to watch in the NBL23 season so far, there will be an element of added spice to the Game 2 contest after a hot exchange between Kings coach Chase Buford and Taipans guard Jonah Antonio.

After Antonio torched the Kings for 20 points in the first game of the series Buford said post-game that the 25-year-old guard has to play like that on offence to make up for his deficiencies on defence – before Antonio fired back on social media.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You’d never talk down on my name if you knew the work I put in.</p>&mdash; Jonah Antonio (@jonah__antonio) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonah__antonio/status/1625934911558553600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Gibson says rates Antonio’s response to the dig.

“I like his response ‘you’d know my name if you knew the work I put in’,” Gibson said. “He obviously does that because you can’t average one minute a game and then come in and knock down four, five, six threes without putting in the work.

“There are a lot of shooters in our league that don’t play any defence and say ‘defence isn’t my specialty, I’m a three-point shooter and trade threes for twos.

““It was a phenomenal performance from him … it makes an interesting news line for Game 2.”

The second game of the Playoff Series between Cairns and Sydney tips off tonight at 7:30pm AEDT on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.

The Taipans need to win on their home-court to keep their championship aspirations alive, while a Kings win would see the Sydney side make their second Championship Series appearance in two seasons.