The NBL Finals are here but first we must find out who will join the Perth Wildcats and Melbourne United in booking their spot in the race to the title.
The JackJumpers and Hawks will be battling it out for one spot while the Kings are looking to keep their three-peat dream alive against the Breakers.
Read on for the key storylines to follow ahead of the NBL Play-In games!
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JACKJUMPERS – Is this the year they bring a title home?
The Tasmania JackJumpers were the fairytale story of NBL22, eliminating top-of-the-table Melbourne United on the way to a Grand Final Berth in their maiden season in the league.
But now, after becoming the only team to finish inside the top four in the past three seasons, Tasmania head coach Scott Roth said it is time to deliver a championship for the state.
“They’ve been the underdogs for quite a few years down there,” Roth told reporters at the league’s official finals launch press conference.
“They have a chip on their shoulder and for me personally, I’d love to win one, but it’s not going to make or break me. I’d really love it for the state and everything we’ve built over the last three years – the consistency, the sustainability.
“A lot of these clubs have a lot of history on their side, we’re just starting to create our history and to have our third year in a row in the top four is a remarkable achievement by the organisation.
“To win a championship for Tasmania would be a thrill of a lifetime obviously and we’re going to do everything to defend the island.”
It was not all going to plan last month though, with Tasmania losing six of its last eight games as Roth conceded he wasn’t sure if the team was going to be able to turn it around.
In fact, he went as far as to say the JackJumpers could’ve gone on to drop all six games.
Instead, they won five to enter the Play-In as one of the league’s most in-form teams and threatening to make a push for another grand final.
And for ex-NBL player Lanard Copeland, as much as winning a championship is more about Tasmania than Roth, he believes a lot of the team’s success goes back to the man who has been there right from the start.
That extends to off the court too, where Roth understands the power of every word.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Lanard Copeland said on NBL Overtime.
“That was reverse psychology [when he said] we’re going to lose six in a row because he knows what he’s working with. He’s done it since he’s been there.”
Now he may have the JackJumpers on the verge of another magic run, this time with expectations of going all the way.
Cotton joins Gaze with 4th NBL MVP | 00:56
HAWKS – The doubters fuelling stunning rise of ‘slighted’ Hawks
Tasmania winning its first-ever championship would obviously still qualify as a feel-good NBL story, but when it comes to underdogs to get behind this season it is hard to go past the Illawarra Hawks.
The Hawks have been on a fairytale run of their own to the post-season, led by new coach Justin Tatum who last week re-signed with the club for an additional three years.
Tatum, the father of Boston Celtics superstar Jayson, was appointed caretaker coach of the Hawks back in November after Jacob Jackomas was sacked following the club’s 2-7 start to the season.
Illawarra looked on a downward spiral having won just three of its 28 games the season prior to finish with the franchise’s worst-ever record, only further removing it from previous success under former head coach Brian Goorjian, who had guided the Hawks to back-to-back playoffs berths.
Tatum was assistant coach at the time of Jackomas’ departure, taking over the struggling club with little external expectation it seemed of achieving much this season.
But sometimes a fresh voice and approach is all that is needed and fast-forward to Wednesday night and the Hawks play the JackJumpers after securing an unlikely Play-In berth, having won 12 of their 19 games under Tatum.
BEFORE TATUM WAS HIRED
Record: 2-7
PPG: 84.4
Opp. PPG: 95.3
AFTER TATUM WAS HIRED
Record: 12-7
PPG: 94.1
Opp. PPG: 87.1
“When I took over and talked to the guys [I said] everybody starts with a clean sheet,” Tatum said at the NBL’s official finals launch press conference.
“Everything we’ve done the prior seven weeks we’ll just throw it out the window and let’s rewrite our own story.”
The Hawks have done just that, beating the second-placed Perth Wildcats three times this season while also overcoming a tough late stretch of games to punch their ticket.
“Unbelievable,” Tatum said of the way his team rallied to book a Play-In spot.
“We probably had the toughest stretch of teams to play to make it to the playoffs and we knew it was going to be a grind.
“It was a real testimony to the guys who stayed locked knowing what our focus was because we had to win so many games… we got tested towards the end which is going to help us for the run.”
It is why Tatum – and the Hawks as a whole – still don’t’ feel like they have quite got the respect they deserve, with the Illawarra head coach telling AAP this week they “still feel slighted”.
“But at the end of the day we’re OK with that because we have our self-respect,” he added.
He also has the admiration of superstar son Jayson, who was asked about his father’s success at the Hawks ahead of the recent NBA All-Star Game, revealing the pair had been talking earlier that day.
“Extremely happy for him. Happy for what he’s been able to do over there and kind of turn that organisation around,” Jayson said.
“He loves it. He loves it over there. He loves being in Australia. He says the games are extremely competitive. The atmosphere is crazy. Hopefully they can continue and go all the way. But it’s been great to see him turn that thing around and have a lot of success over there.”
Hawks cement NBL playoff spot | 01:14
BREAKERS – Will the mind games work for NBL underdogs?
Finn Delany had no problems calling it a “rivalry game” but Mody Maor doesn’t seem to want to go anywhere near that word, or any other one close by that matter.
Since last week’s official press conference ahead of the post-season, the New Zealand Breakers coach has played down talk that their Play-In game against the Kings brings added motivation.
Specifically, he was asked if it would help them banish any “demons” remaining from Game 5 in last year’s Championship Series, where the Kings went on a 14-0 run late to secure a comeback win.
“Demons kind of insinuates this is something terrible that happened to us and it’s not how I feel,” he said.
“This is part of our learning curve, this is part of our growth as a club, me as a coach, the players that where there. This is an experience we can draw upon conclusions we’ve made and put them into practice. But definitely not exorcising demons.”
That kind of messaging was consistent from Maor this week too, telling media that it wouldn’t matter who was on the other side of the court — dressed in purple and gold or not.
“The reality is whoever we would face now I would want to beat the living you know what out of them,” he added.
“Does the fact that we lost Game 5 of the Finals over there give us extra motivation? No, it doesn’t, because we’re chasing something that is relevant only to this year.
“The only thing that is relevant to the past is the lessons learnt. As long as we learned the right things, and hopefully they come into play and help us in this one, it’s all that matters.”
Whether you believe him or not is one thing, but the mind games continued when the Breakers coach was asked about the underdog status his team carries into the game.
“They’re right,” he flatly said, adding the Kings are “definitely favourites” and that people are “right to write us off”, which will especially prove true if Will McDowell-White (shoulder) and Finn Delany (back) are ruled out.
It is all set up for an ambush but will the Kings take the bait?
KINGS – Are the defending champions feeling the pressure?
Well, they’re the defending back-to-back champions for a reason and so you’d expect an experienced group like this one isn’t going to get drawn into mind games too easily.
After all, the Kings have their own problems to worry about, namely the outside noise surrounding the organisation as it faces the prospect of premature elimination.
Sydney entered this season with much loftier goals, chasing a three-peat after becoming the first club to achieve the feat back in 2005.
It was always going to be challenging without coach Chase Buford and key duo Xavier Cooks, DJ Vasiljevic while the team’s new-look import trio was hardly a guarantee to hit the ground running right away.
Not checkmate yet – Kings still in fold | 01:10
But an inconsistent season has left the Kings in a perilous position and there is little room for error now, although the way Sydney finished the regular season has Mahmoud Abdelfattah confident, having cruised to a 122-67 win over South East Melbourne.
“The guys are aware of the situation but we finished the season off on the right foot,” he said.
Abdelfattah ran out a different starting line-up in that game to the one that played in Sydney’s 106-95 loss to Illawarra the game prior, with Alex Toohey, Jonah Bolden and Shaun Bruce all getting the start alongside Jaylen Adams and Denzel Valentine.
The Kings coach though told media last week that wasn’t necessarily a sign of things to come ahead of the do-or-die game against the Breakers, pointing out the fact he has experimented with the starting team quite regularly this season.
“We’ll see. I’ll talk with the coaching staff,” he said.
“I’ve changed the starting line-up five of the last six games. I’ll probably change the starting line-up again. I’m not worried about keeping the same starting line-up or mixing things up.
“Whatever I feel is going to work for the collective unit, I’ll do my best to do that.”
WHAT TIME ARE THE NBL PLAY-IN GAMES?
The JackJumpers host the Hawks at 5.30pm AEDT on Wednesday in the first Play-In game at MyState Bank Arena, with the Kings in action against the Breakers right after at 7.30pm at Qudos Bank Arena.
HOW CAN I WATCH THE GAMES?
You can watch every game of the NBL Finals LIVE with ESPN on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >
