The battle lines have been drawn in the lead-up to a do-or-die NBL grand final rematch between the underachieving Sydney Kings and an injury-ravaged New Zealand Breakers in the post-season.
Stars and coaches from all six NBL finals teams converged on Melbourne on Tuesday to begin the long build-up to Wednesday-week’s Play-in Tournament double header.
Tasmania will host Illawarra following the Kings-Breakers clash.
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Sydney’s season sat on a knife’s edge before the record-breaking 55-point win over South East Melbourne on Saturday night but under-pressure coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah said his squad was entering the playoffs with momentum.
“We’ve struggled with (consistency) the whole season but guys are getting back healthy, (they’re) aware of the situation,” Abdelfattah said.
“We finished the season off on the right foot and hopefully that can carry some momentum into the playoffs.”
The Kiwis fought through a rotating cast to finish sixth but will go into the game without All-NBL First Teamer Anthony Lamb (Achilles) and with stars William McDowell-White (shoulder) and Finn Delaney (back) under injury clouds.
Coach Mody Maor took umbrage at suggestions his team had “snuck” into the Play-in — the Breakers finished 3.73 per cent ahead of seventh-placed Brisbane.
“I don’t feel like we snuck in to the play-in, I feel we earned our spot there through a lot of hard work and consistent effort in a lot of different areas,” said Maor, who hopes scans for both his injured guns give each a chance to suit up.
“There’s one game with everything on the line. Nothing but excitement.”
Illawarra’s back-from-the-dead top-four finish after interim Justin Tatum took over has been rewarded with a date against the NBL’s toughest team.
“When we were 2-7, I talked to the guys, I said everybody starts with a clean sheet,” Tatum said.
“Everything we’ve done over the prior seven weeks, we just throw it out the window and let’s just rewrite our own stories.”
For JackJumpers coach Scott Roth, it’s a third finals appearance in as many seasons and comes after his team never once lost a game by double digits in NBL24.
“The build-up of the season, for us, had been quite choppy and we started relatively hot with expectations, and then we were very average during the middle of the season,” Roth said.
“By the end of the season, we found our way again by winning five of our last six, which is a good sign.
“We’re just starting to create our history.”
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Awaiting the survivors of the Play-in Tournament are the league’s two best teams, Melbourne United and Perth Wildcats.
The reward for finishing top two is figuring out how best to stay fresh and ready for the intensity of playoff basketball after a minimum 18-day break – the earliest date for the first semi-final is not until March 7.
“We did a great job in the middle (of the season) to give ourselves a chance of finishing in the top two,” Perth coach John Rillie said of a squad that reeled off 13 wins in 15 games.
“(But we understand) that we’re going to have virtually a three-week break.
“I don’t think anyone really understands how to handle that or deal with it, so just trying to figure out how to best use it (the time) so when we do play, we’re ready to go again.”
Top-of-the-table United’s Chris Goulding expected his team to dial up its focus in its pursuit of the Dr John Raschke Trophy.
“A whole new season starts now,” Goulding said.
“When we’re playing our best basketball, we’re going to be really tough to beat.
“It’s just a matter of how consistently and how often we can bring that out.
“I think we’re really going to see a mindset shift in the group
“There’s no ‘all right, we’ll back up two days later if we lose this game’.
“Backs are against the wall now, whether we like it or not, and that’s an environment we’re going to flourish in.”