SF2 Preview: Tasmania JackJumpers vs Melbourne United

When: 8pm (AEST), Saturday 30 April, 2022

Where: MyState Bank Arena, Hobart

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo Freebies; Sky Sports NZ


Who won the last time?
Melbourne 74 (Agada 16, Lual-Acuil 15) d Tasmania 63 (Adams 16, McVeigh 15) – Semi-Final Game 1, John Cain Arena, Melbourne

United played the role of bully big brother from tip-off, extending their lead to 10 in the second term, only for the plucky JackJumpers kept hanging around like an annoying little brother. But after Fabijan Krslovic drew them within three with the opening bucket of the second half, Melbourne went nuclear, blew up Tassie’s offence and blew the game open.

The Tasmanians managed just two points in the next six minutes and five for the remainder of the quarter as Jo Lual-Acuil and Ariel Hukporti dominated the airways at the defensive end. Caleb Agada turned that defence into high-speed O as the defending champs blew the lead out to 23, and while the JJs never quit, the damage had more than been done.


Who’s in form?

Jo Lual-Acuil – JLA had four of his six blocks in the second half, and changed numerous other shots, as Melbourne held the visitors to 3/19 shooting from two-point range in almost 13 minutes after half-time. Lual-Acuil was a big factor at the other end too, despite missing some he’d normally make, finishing with 15 points at 50 per cent and grabbing three o-boards.

Jack McVeigh – There wasn’t a lot to like offensively from the JackJumpers – who scored 21 points in 7:15 bridging half-time and just 42 in the other 32:45 – but McVeigh had 15 points at 60 per cent and was +5 in his 29 minutes. With Melbourne denying the JJs guards multiple touches, Scott Roth must get McVeigh opportunities away from the ball-screen.

https://twitter.com/JackJumpers/status/1519614291997265921


Who needs to be?

Chris Goulding – After hitting 54 per cent in his first two clashes with his home-state team, including 9/17 from range, Goulding has hit 17 per cent and 1/11 from deep in the past two meetings. Under physical pressure from Matt Kenyon and Sam McDaniel he rushed his shots in Game 1, and needs to calmly exploit their pressure for better looks and back doors.

Tassie’s possession game – The JJs were +15 in the possession battle during the season series, with 15 fewer turnovers and the same number of o-boards. In Game 1, turnovers were 12-apiece and Tasmania were smashed by 12 on the offensive glass. Jack White and Lual-Acuil had more o-boards than the entire JJ’s team, and that can’t be repeated.

https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1519634643766898689


Who’s statting up?

 - In Round 21, Tassie led points from turnovers 23-6. In Game 1 on Thursday, that stat was drawn 8-8

 - Take out the Round 21 dead-rubber game for Melbourne, and the JackJumpers have been outscored 144-88 inside the paint in three games (18.7ppg), shooting 42 per cent from two-point range to United’s 57 per cent

- Melbourne average 74ppg against the JackJumpers this season, compared to 89.3ppg against the rest of the league. They average 17.3 points from triples against the JJs, down from 30.7 across all other games

 - In United’s past two games against Tasmania, Agada and Lual-Acuil have scored 65 points while their teammates have scored just 70 in total. That pair have made more field goals (26/54 at 48%) than their teammates combined (25/81 at 31%)


Who’s matching up?

Josh Adams v Caleb Agada – Caleb and Co were outstanding running Adams off the three-point line and contesting his trademark pull-up, where he was 1/5. Tassie’s jumping jack made 5/10 at the cup, but took only two foul shots. If their ball movement remains stifled and Adams’ supply limited, look for Tassie to use some quick step-up screens in transition.

No one was better in transition than Agada, whose open-court burst late in the third put the JackJumpers to bed, but his penetration in the half-court was key for a Melbourne team that struggled to find shot-makers. The Nigerian international scored 14 of his 16 points in the paint and dished two dimes at the cup, making him a must-stop proposition for Adams and Co.

Josh Magette v Matt Dellavedova & Shea Ili – The equation for Melbourne was simple, let Magette manipulate the ball-screen early in the offence and he will find the roller, or move the ball on and then attack the pick on second touches. Either way, it leaves the help D scrambling and allows the JackJumpers to find their shooters camped around the arc.

Delly and Ili didn’t like that option, so they crowded Tasmania’s key man, shadowing him around ball-screens so their big men could quickly recover without giving up the short roll. Once Magette gave the ball up, he rarely got it back in dangerous spots, and the result was the JackJumpers hoisting just 14 attempts from deep, down from their average of 31.3.

https://twitter.com/JackJumpers/status/1519620762352898049




Who’s talking the talk?

Travel back to the start of February and ask Scott Roth if he’d like the NBL to get rid of the NBL13-style officiating interpretations and his answer would have been an emphatic no.

Up to that point, the physical JackJumpers had made the most of the grappling style allowed to hold opponents to just 76.1ppg and eke their way to a respectable 5-6 record.

But things were about to change. Will Magnay would get injured and reduce Tassie’s ability to defend the paint, while the officials would revert to the rulebook and spark a run of highly-entertaining offensive basketball where total scoring jumped by around 15 points per game.

Some might have felt that would spell the end of the expansionists’ run, given their perceived lack of talent, but the freeing up of Josh Magette and Josh Adams to use the ball-screen without being manhandled, and the shooting of Jack McVeigh, MiKyle McIntosh and Fabijan Krslovic in the frontcourt turned them into a feared offensive unit.

Fast forward to Game 1 of the NBL semi-finals, and it was a case of back to the future.

The whistles went away, checking, grabbing, pushing and arm-barring were back in fashion like early-season, and Tasmania’s offence had no answer.

Take out their brief burst in the second quarter that brought the game to life, and the JackJumpers scored at just 51.3 points per 40 minutes and connected at a wayward 31 per cent from the field as they simply couldn’t find open looks.

“Their overall physicality, they’ve got some pit bulls in the backcourt that can really get after you,” Roth said post-game.

“It’s a battle. Back when I played it’s (like) the Detroit Pistons v Chicago Bulls kind of old-school basketball smash-mouth, bang-up kind of game.”

Will the officials allow the same physicality in Game 2? Or after such a dour series opener will the edict be given to enforce the rules and open up the game? If it’s the latter, Tassie’s offence has a chance.

“We've got to score more than 63 points, so somewhere along the line our offence has got to get a little bit better obviously,” Roth said.

“But it didn’t happen and credit to them, they were very, very good defensively and they’ve always been, that’s a trademark of Dean. He’s a fantastic coach and they got after us.”

https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1519629383434399744


Melbourne also got after every loose ball and rebound, dominating the possession game in one of the few times Tasmania has been outdone for effort this season.

“We were usually the ones doing that and today it reversed,” Roth said.

“We didn’t do as good a job of getting our offensive rebounds and we've just got to be more conscious of sticking bodies and getting after them.

“If one of our bigs has to go and box out Acuil and take him out of the play, then our guards have got to get back and help rebound.

“We've got to gang rebound. We’re not a very big team, we’re not overly-athletic without Magnay around, we've survived the last three or four months of the season by gang rebounding and being aggressive.

“We’ll just have to get back to trying to do that on Saturday.”

While the JackJumper defence locked down in the final quarter, allowing only 12 points as Melbourne managed the clock, they have some concerns there too.

Up until three-quarter time, United had scored at least 20 in each term and ran up 62 points at 45 per cent from the field.

Tasmania must find an answer for Caleb Agada and Jo Lual-Acuil, who had scored 47 per cent of their team’s total at that point at 55 per cent conversion.

https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1519620710335119360


Often, when it seemed like the JackJumpers would get a stop, JLA would be there to clean up the mess.

“I loved his second efforts tonight,” Dean Vickerman said.

“I thought he has some amazing multiple-effort plays where he missed something, went back and got it, got an o-board, that was massive for us tonight.

“If we’re not making threes and not getting to the foul line as much, we really needed another way to score and second-chance opportunities (are it).”

However, Agada and Lual-Acuil only took two attempts between them in the final term and Melbourne’s offence grinded to a halt, and Vickerman wants more of his men attacking the hoop.

“We had 17 three-point attempts at half-time so I thought that was probably four or five above,” he said.

“If we could have attacked four or five more times and turned half of those into free throws we would have been better.

“The second half we don’t make a three, that won’t happen again, we’ll make some shots and finish some plays.

“I though on the break, even when our pace was pretty good, but there’s still an efficiency level where we've got to get fouled or finish the break.”

The fact that Goulding and Dellavedova went 2/12 from range and United still won comfortably is ominous for JackJumpers fans, but Roth believes those fans will make a key difference in squaring the ledger.

“It’s a series and they just held home court, they won one game and now we get to go home and we’ll see what we can do defending the island back there,” he said.

“It’ll be sold out, they’ve supported us from day one that way and the Tasmanian fans have been absolutely awesome.

“We’re excited to go home and play in front of them, we’ll have great support, there’ll be great energy in the building. It’s playoff basketball, it should be fun.”