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SF2 Preview: Sydney Kings vs Illawarra Hawks
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Sunday, May 1, 2022
Jaylen Adams and the Kings are one win away from the NBL Grand Final, but Tyler Harvey and the talented Hawks still stand in their way.
When: 3pm (AEST), Sunday 1 May, 2022
Where: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney
Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo Freebies; 10 Peach; 10 Play; Sky Sports NZ
Who won last time?
Sydney 89 (Adams 30, Clark 16, Vasiljevic 12) d Illawarra 79 (Reath 26, Cleveland 21, Harvey 10) – Semi-Final Game 1, WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong
Antonius Cleveland was rolling early and the Hawks led 24-17 moments before quarter-time, but what happened next might long live in Sydney folklore. DJ Vasiljevic and Xavier Cooks scored 12 of their next 15 points, then Ian Clark and Jaylen Adams dropped 13 of their next 17 to power an extraordinary 35-9 run that effectively decided the contest.
Illawarra missed a bunch of bunnies in the paint and a string of open long-range looks to fuel that run, then produced some of their most porous defensive transition of the season. Duop Reath led a furious final-quarter charge to electrify the packed WEC, but just as the Hawks were within three, Adams and Clark made the big shots needed to seal the deal.
Who’s in form?
Jaylen Adams – In the 13 minutes that made up Sydney’s decisive second quarter run and their 11-4 finish to ice the game, Adams delivered 16 points at 57 per cent while getting to the foul line six times. After previously holding the MVP to 8/27 from the field this season, Illawarra struggled to find any answers in transition or on the other side of the ball-screen.
Antonius Cleveland – Coach Goorjian went with the Cleveland-Adams match-up again in Game 1, but it just left his key defender switching off JA at the first ball-screen. Illawarra had more success defensively with AC at the four-spot, but his 11-point scoring run in the first term came with him exploiting the undersized Clark and Angus Glover at small forward.
Who needs to be?
Xavier Rathan-Mayes – XRM is a serious concern for Goorj, his key shot-maker shooting 10/42 in his past three meetings with Sydney. He’s also had 10 assists to 9 turnovers and gone back to pounding the ball and starving teammates of flow. The Hawks are -19 with him on and +7 with him off in that span, and either need a lift or need to play him off the ball.
Ian Clark – While XRM struggled to support Tyler Harvey – the Hawks were -15 in his 10 minutes on the bench – Clark played his supporting role to perfection, dropping 16 points at 70 per cent, with 10 at the rim, for a game-high +19. His two driving baskets in the final minute were the nail in Illawarra’s coffin, as he exploited some guard-to-guard screening action.
Who’s statting up?
- Sydney are 18-2 on points in paint in their 20 wins, holding opponents to 44 per cent on twos. In losses they are 3-6 on PiPs and give up 51 per cent. Going into Game 1, points in the paint were 162-158 in the Freeway Series, but Sydney dominated 46-28 on Friday
- In the second and third quarters of Game 1, the Hawks shot 4/20 inside the paint (20%). Over the rest of the game they hit 10/14, while across the R20 and R21 clashes they made 37/73 at 51 per cent and tied points in the paint at 74-apiece
- In 11:35 leading into half-time the Kings outscored Illawarra 38-12, shooting 65 per cent from the field and 11 free throws. The Hawks won the other 28:25 of the game 67-51, holding Sydney to 39 per cent and giving up just 11 charity shots
- In losses, Illawarra average 5.8 fouls on the opposition leading scorer for 6.2 free throws. In their past two defeats to Sydney they’ve been whistled for 17 fouls on Adams for 20 foul shots. In their R9 win over the Kings they fouled Jaylen just twice
Who’s matching up?
DJ Vasiljevic v Justinian Jessup – JJ had been hunting shots and killing Kings lately – 45 points on 10/17 from deep in the past two games – but he was his old passive self against some acute attention on Friday with just one attempt in the opening 15 minutes. Illawarra need more. In contrast, Vasiljevic played his role to perfection, attacking the rim to go 4/4 inside knowing the Hawks would be crowding the arc after his 33-point Round 20 outburst.
Xavier Cooks v Duop Reath – This was perhaps the best individual battle of Game 1, Reath a huge factor with 26 points on 5/8 from deep, 11 rebounds, 5 o-boards and 3 blocks. He’ll be kicking himself for his 3/12 conversion inside though, missing a bunch of chippies he usually makes. Cooks was outstanding too with 11 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 swats, but for the first time this season Reath and Co were able to keep him off the o-boards.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dogsontheball?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Dogsontheball</a> ??<br><br>? <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> <a href="https://t.co/hld3jEdFEb">pic.twitter.com/hld3jEdFEb</a></p>— Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1519990140541693952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Who’s talking the talk?
After Brian Goorjian and the Hawks could not find answers for Sydney’s incredible 38-point scoring run in less than 12 minutes into half-time, he said he was “finger-pointing everybody”.
Remarkably though, he pointed most of his famously crooked fingers at Harry Froling, Isaac White and Tim Coenraad, who only played a combined 12:09 of the total 58 minutes in that stretch.
“Went to the bench a bit in the second quarter and they blew it out,” he said.
“I'm finger-pointing everybody, staff, it wasn’t just the starters, it was the guys coming off the bench. We brought them in and we elected not to go back there the rest of the game.
“We couldn’t. It blew from a five-point game when you go and rest somebody to 20-something.”
The truth is, during that game-changing run, Illawarra’s big six – the starters plus Xavier Rathan-Mayes – shot a woeful 4/19 from the field and triggered one Sydney transition attack after another.
The Kings scored 22 points in the first half of the shot clock during that destructive burst, running off make or miss.
“They beat us, the other guys got involved in transition, we talked about getting bodies behind the ball and we ended up playing in the half-court, they ended up running the ball down our throat,” Goorjian said.
“That’s what they're great at, you score or you miss and they run the ball down our throat.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pull up ? <br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL22?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL22</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> <a href="https://t.co/2J8mol7kZl">pic.twitter.com/2J8mol7kZl</a></p>— Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1519980987437912064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The fact Rathan-Mayes avoided Goorjian’s public wrath and racked up 26 minutes despite his third horror showing against the Kings highlighted the master coach’s lack of trust in the majority of his local crew.
But on reflection, he knows running a CBA-like six-man rotation won’t deliver playoff Ws in a league as good as the NBL and against a team as deep and fast as the Kings.
“They're an important piece and I elected not to go back there (to the bench) because the second quarter was 30-9,” he said.
“I used the time-outs, stayed with that six or seven, but you can see that’s not going to get it done. Four minutes to go we were on our blades, so it’s going to fall on that group of nine, not just five or six going into this Game 2.”
The Hawks looked at their best defensively with high pick-up points that forced Sydney’s screening action away from dangerous positions.
However, they didn’t have full-time buy-in to that high-energy style for nearly enough of the game, and a Kings team with Jaylen Adams, Ian Clark, Jarell Martin, Xavier Cooks and DJ Vasiljevic can easily find weak links or make tough shots under pressure.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Is Jaylen Adams serious? ? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/ROcIdD71Jv">pic.twitter.com/ROcIdD71Jv</a></p>— Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1519993597042454528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
At the other end, Justinian Jessup and Tyler Harvey were targeted by a cohesive Kings unit, keeping that pair to 1/8 from the arc after they’d nailed 7.3 triples per game at 52 per cent against Chase Buford’s men in the season series.
“I think today we paid great attention to detail in the scouting report, we didn’t want to let those guys, especially their hot shooters, get comfortable and get open looks,” Clark said.
“They got some in the second half but for the most part I felt like we stayed together after the run they made and made plays down the stretch.”
It was their star guards making things happen down the stretch , capitalising on Illawarra’s emphasis on protecting the roll-out and securing the defensive glass after Cooks and Co had owned that area in recent battles.
Vasiljevic bobbed up at opportune moments, Clark was clutch once again, and after being shut down for most of the second half, Adams made several key plays late as the Hawks’ defence tired.
“Him and Ian and DJ at times were really big giving us a scoring lift. But JA, the floater he hit, a couple of threes he hit, just tough, tough baskets. A hell of a basketball player bailing us out and making some great plays,” Buford said.
Can the Hawks get everyone on board to play the disruptive defence that has become their trademark under Goorjian?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ladies and gentlemen, <a href="https://twitter.com/ac_uno1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ac_uno1</a> - our Defensive Player of the Year?<br><br>?: <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Foxtel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Foxtel</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TogetherWeFly?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TogetherWeFly</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreIllawarra?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreIllawarra</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL22?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL22</a> <a href="https://t.co/qjaSId41hc">pic.twitter.com/qjaSId41hc</a></p>— Illawarra Hawks Basketball (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1519996575811981312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“We were walking it up playing a half-court game and weren’t doing what we do best which is to run, and to run we've got to get stops and we just didn’t get them,” Tim Coenraad said.
“It felt like the other way around, it felt they were getting stops and running it down our throats … we fought, which is great, but as professionals we need to be a little bit better than that.
“We've got to take a little bit more pride in the one-on-one containment.”
Will we see Cleveland defending the four-spot from tip-off so he can step out onto Adams? If so, will the Hawks go small, or deploy Duop Reath or Sam Froling to Wani Swaka Lo Buluk?
Time will tell, but Buford knows his team’s defence, led by the inspirational Cooks, must be at the same high level that allowed just 79 points at 37 per cent in Game 1.
“They're a good team, they're talented, they’ve got a bunch of individual offensive players that can really fill it up, so they're always a couple of hot makes away from making a run. We've got to keep playing defence and keep executing on the other end and keep attacking,” he said.
“It will be huge. Come pack the Q, Kings fans. We’re going to need every bit of support, we’re playing a great team, they're going to come at us hard, we know that and we’ll be fired up to come play Sunday.”
