NBL Road Trip part One

Last weekend I had the lucky opportunity to attend two NBL games, firstly on Saturday in Sydney and back to Wollongong the next day.  It was a fantastic experience as I don’t get to see many games live as I live about five hours away from the closest team (Wollongong).  So here are my impressions of both the Kings vs. Wollongong game and then the Wollongong vs. Adelaide matchup.

Sydney Kings vs. Wollongong Hawks – 24^th March 2012

In the first quarter the Kings looked fantastic, running the ball and catching the Hawks off guard.  The Harbour City Boys were also rebounding like crazy with Jerai Grant grabbing multiple offensive rebounds and that hard work got them out to a double figure lead in the first term.  Then all of a sudden they decided that the game was over and decided not to play anymore and had to scramble back in the fourth behind Anatoly Bose but that came up short as Ayinde Ubaka blasted them out of the contest.

Kings

-As said before they looked great for a half and then must have thought that the game didn’t matter and wanted to get back to the wannabe celebrities.  Some good news was that Shane Heal looks like he the players’ support and I wouldn’t be surprised if they can’t find a new coach that blows their socks off they will bring back the Hammer for another season.

 

-Anatoly Bose has terrible handles, as in he has a tough time dribbling the ball most times.  He can do one-on-one moves with a decent amount of dribbling but he should not be counted on to bring the ball up the floor when there is pressure defence.

-It was a hard time for Julian Khazzouh and he was very ineffective for the majority of the game.  Sure he had 18 points but he didn’t have any impact on the game and was content on shooting mid/long range shots.  Hopefully this game doesn’t show his immaturity and lack of mongrel, I would rather the best player on the team to really push to win the last game of the season.

-It was interesting to see Kevin Ratzsch get no playing time.  It was so easy to see that he wasn’t going to play in the game he was behind development player Jarrad Weeks on the bench.  I would bet my house that he isn’t coming back next season.

-The Kings’ defence was pretty bad for the majority of the game and their full court press was dismal.  The press was so bad that they didn’t disrupt the Hawks at any stage and all it was doing was taking a maximum of three seconds off the shot clock which just isn’t worth it.  They also gave up a few easy buckets because the defence was out of position.  Sydney’s players were also going under screens way too much which gave the Hawks plenty of time to line up three pointers which they made more than they should have.

Hawks

-I didn’t say much, or anything, about the Hawks in the game recap because they did heaps of great stuff that it needed to be put in their own category.  At the start of the game they missed a lot of shots but they were good enough shots that you knew that eventually the Hawks would start hitting them, which they did.

-What impressed me about the Hawks in this game was their ball movement.  They always had a look out for the extra pass and usually Oscar Forman was on the end of the chain and hit the basket.  During the Kings’ full court press Wollongong constantly looked down the court for the open corner player who would then look to drive or kick it to an open man.

-The guards were also impressive on offense and they made the defenders pay as they used the screens well.  Seeing the defender go under the screen (set well by both Joevan Catron and Larry Davidson) they would stay behind the screen and hit the open jump-shot.

-When Sydney made their late run on the back of Bose Wollongong had some very good shots that rattled out.  If those shots went down then the game would have been decided a long before.  Fortunately for the Hawks Ayinde Ubaka is clutch.  Hitting two quick contested three pointers the newest Hawk put the game out of reach and made the crowd sit down for good.

-The Hawks did shoot too many three pointers and should have been more focused on attacking the paint.  It worked in this game but if they want to play better during the whole season next year then getting easy buckets under the ring should be a priority.

General thoughts

-Sitting next to three wonderful ladies was a delight.  Whoever was sitting next to me was hilarious and made a fantastic point.  When a home team is defending the crowd usually chants “De-Fence” with hand claps.  This was pointed out that it is redundant.  If the crowd is telling the team to play defence then something is very wrong with how the team is playing.  The crowd doesn’t chant “Off-Fence” when the team has the ball so why should it be any different on the other end of the court.  I think basketball crowds need new chants.

-The PA system was WAY too loud and I was cringing every time the announcer was talking.  Please turn down the volume, I know we aren’t sitting next to you but you don’t have to yell, you have a microphone.

The support of Mat Campbell from the Sydney crowd was fantastic as he was given a standing ovation.

-Probably the funniest moment of the game was when the “Kiss Cam” was shown on the big screen, it landed on two very attractive young women, with the crowd roaring with approval.  Luckily for the two girls they camera quickly moved onto another pairing.

All in all it was a decent game, with many of the crowd looking like they were going to be in a photo shoot with expensive clothes and ridiculous haircuts, but I did get to see Larry Emdur so it wasn’t all bad.