Moments that Mattered – Round 20, NBL24

The stage is set, the final 6 are locked in and it all begins with Tasmania vs Illawarra on Wednesday the 28th of February. Jack Heverin and Derek Rucker take us through how we got there in Round 20 of the Moments that Mattered.

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The stars come to well here we are the last moments that mattered of the regular season it came down to the very very last day the very last game and some of the last plays to decide the top six and what it looks like for postseason I’m Jack hean

Riding as always alongside Derek rocker what a last day we had Rock just a great final round to kind of cap off and outstanding NBL 24 regular season and we saw home teams just take advantage of the friendly confines can’s did it up there against Melbourne United we saw

Tasmania really handle their business and then today when New Zealand needed it most they were unable to get it done against a very defensive minded Adelaide Sixers and they spoil New Zealand’s opportunity to finish in fourth place so here is the ladder at the end of round

20 here’s how it all stood at the end percent percentage was a factor particularly for the Brisbane bullets and I think we we started to really highlight this about 3 weeks out didn’t we that their percentage was going to be a problem and it ended up being the case

And then you know we talk about moments that matter there are so many little moments across the season where percentage played a role both positive and negative for all teams well I think even the southeast Melbourne Phoenix can look back at the season and highlight moments where they didn’t handle their

Business and they could have found themselves in this final round in a much better situation but I think you highlight the team that suffered the most and that was the Brisbane bullets inability to close games early Midway through the season really got them relying on the percentage which was

Never going to go their way in these tiebreaker situations late in the season and they miss out why don’t we start with what we’ve just seen here at the Adela entertainment center the 36ers played the role of party pooper on the last day of the Season that were

Terrific full credit to them they were they came out a bit sluggish things weren’t looking great but but the main thing is that they were defending well and they never allowed New Zealand to get comfortable Parker Jackson cartright was solid will McDow white was solid before getting injured but really

Adelaide stifled everyone else on that New Zealand Breakers roster and limited them to only 70 points in this game let’s look get back to Adelaide in just a moment let’s talk New Zealand here and that name you mentioned will McDow white because they’re headed to a playing game

Against the Sydney Kings in Sydney you go back to last year’s Grand Final series will white was phenomenal he’s not going to be there this time around he’s a big out and hopefully I mean we don’t know certainly that he’s going to be out but it appears to be the case now

He’s got about 10 days to recover and get himself right but in his absence New Zealand really need to restructure how they attack especially on the offensive end they need a much better performance from Isaiah Leafa I think he was one for nine in today’s game they’re going to

Need to find some perimeter shooting to ADV value to that scoring uh lineup because they’re going to miss will mcdow’s white White’s ability to create off create off the bounce so they’re going to need some three-point shooting to make up for that loss so anything and

We’ve sung the praise of New Zealand a lot in the second half of the season so we’re not going to jump out of the canoe based on one performance but anything today outside of what you mentioned that would be concerning mod mayor heading into the playing I think the interior

Defense a lot is riding on Mango Matti Yang’s ability to protect the interior and I’m not sure he can do that on his own somebody else is going to have to step up cheum needs to provide more offensive punch I think he only had six seven eight points today that’s not

Enough to Adelaide while we’re here Scott ninis we spoke to him before the game started today he spoke to John casy on the coverage said he’s not interested in being an assistant coach or a general manager he’s either coaching this team or he’s off doing other things what

Happens next here with the 36ers well I think this week they will name Scotty NIS as their coach for the next two seasons I believe that would be the right thing to do now you can start looking at your roster who suits what Scotty nnis wants to get done when you

Looked at their performance today Jack it looked like everybody found a place and a roll out there on the floor but obviously that lineup isn’t enough to be a championship Contender so you’ve got to look elsewhere in the free agency market perhaps in the import market I

Like Trey Kell I like how he played under Scott n so I’d be looking to bring him back but there there’s definitely enough of a core there and then of course the big piece is literally Isaac humpr can you get him back and he must be their priority ASAP for 36ers fans it

Sounds like one way or the other there’s going to be an answer very very soon to Tasmania they hosted Perth at my State Bank Arena on Saturday night I was down there great performance are they the the inform team of the competition heading into postseason well based on how Perth

Are playing now they lost two games on that road trip at aoir where they’re never really in it Bryce cotton gets hurt then they go down to Hobart and Tasmania do a number on them and Tasmania are very very professional and clinical the way they win basketball

Games again they throttled Perth on the offensive end they had a good game plan and offensively they’re so patient and efficient at the same time and they score a lot of points they prove you don’t have to run up and down the floor like crazy jacking up shots to score a

Lot of points you can be very methodical and get your numbers up where you become very hard to beat I’m just going to set this one up for you and then you can do the rest I might just even walk away if you want will magne will magne is the

Man if you look at his net rating he’s one of the top guys in the competition he makes Tasmania so good offensively while also making them almost like bad boy Pistons like defensive levels yes he’s a rim protector he’s a shot blocker he’s starting to do things on the

Offensive end that we saw three four years ago when he was destined for the NBA I think will McDow white is H sorry I think will magne is one of the most important pieces that you can have on your franchise they just need him healthy but you see what happens when

He’s out there on the floor so fingers crossed that he can maintain his health and I look forward to seeing him play in a playoff series because we haven’t seen him in the past two years P Wildcats went in without cotton just a precaution so nothing to worry about there from a

Perth perspective they they got to play out in real time the what happens if Bryce gets injured scenario did you like the look of it no no not at all and look there’s nothing wrong with having a team built around one player we’ve seen success for decades in leagues all over the world

Where that is the case it just puts a lot of pressure on that one player now fortunately for Perth Bryce has been durable and Bryce is brilliant so we’ve never really had to worry about what Perth looked like without him but we got a glimpse and it and it wasn’t great so

They need to just get him healthy and then get back to playing good basketball they’ve kind of lost their way a little bit too over the past few weeks and I think John really will use this Fe break really to hammer and iron out some things Melbourne and eloir was how we

Started the last day of the regular season Melbourne United won it was a bit of a Topsy Turvy game you’ve been talking a bit about Melbourne’s form and and have we seen their best they’ve been up they’ve been down how important was it for them just to win today don’t

Worry about margin or the way it looked just to win in the last game of the regular season and to win against a good team Jack and a team that was highly motivated ilir really wanted that game so for melbour United to dig deep and win after the disappointing game up in

Cams on Friday night I think it’s very important and now they can take some confidence into the fever break as opposed to losing that game and wondering do we really have what it takes now if you look at how they’ve been for been performing across the

Season they haven’t been nine out of 10 they’ve probably been about seven and a half 7.8 out of 10 in that range the good thing for them is they can they can beat most teams performing at that level but Dean vickerman I’m sure wants his

Team at nine out of 10 where there’s no contest if they perform at nine out of 10 they will sweep the championship series if they can get up to that level are they the same debate oh without a doubt they’re the team to beat and like

I said I didn’t like how they played up in cans I haven’t liked some of their performances but make no mistake with that depth with the talent with the athleticism with the shooting ability they’re the team ilaa are a great story and they may be an even better story

Tomorrow night if Justin Tatum is crowned the coach of the year at the gazes last round needed to win they they sort of almost stumbled into fourth place now after all of this haven’t they well let’s talk about that coach of the year because I’ve had John really just

Ah hit of Dean vickerman for about the past month or so uh Justin Schuler got into the got into the running a little bit but then he faded out but now Justin Tatum’s come back I now have Justin Tatum as the coach of the year based on

The fact that he beat John really three times decisively and I think that he’s done the most with his group over the same time frame since he took over the ilaa Hawks and I think he is the deserving coach of the year and uh full credit to him for what he’s done they’re

In fourth place and who could have all the moments that mattered episodes we did where I had to avoid being critical of the Hawks because it looked like I was picking on them and we avoided the topic so for him the resurrect that program and get them to where they are I

Don’t think I’ve seen a story like it a comeback story within a season like it in NBL history quick one on cans because sometimes when we don’t talk about cans the typ hand supporters get a little bit NY um you were there Friday night so you

Are the best place person to talk about what happened but I guess what what’s going to happen next with this team well I think they got some decisions to make and unfortunately whenever you have that type of beef between a player and a coach both parties get examed and we

Don’t know all the ins and outs but it certainly looked like on Friday night in their home finale that some type of an agreement had been struck yeah where tajir was going to go out there and start and do his thing I don’t have any facts behind that but certainly there

Was an there was a mood of like okay let’s get through this and they got through it they came out there and played well they got outstanding contributions also from Pat Miller tajir was energized and I think that’s what the Tai pans fans had hoped for kind of

From rounds 15 to 19 where things kind of became disassembled for the Tai pans just going to change the rundown order slightly here we normally finish with thumbs up thumbs down let’s just go to thumbs down now and get it out of the way because I’m pretty sure it’s

Unanimously going to be the southeast Melbourne f isn’t it it is it’s uh it was tough to watch that and you know they showed a flicker of Hope a few weeks ago when they defeated the Sydney Kings and we were you know we were all gung-ho about how they fought and they

Fought but that was novel and things uh yeah things aren’t looking great there um they’ve got guys going all over the place now going on holidays deserved holidays I suppose but certainly there will be significant changes you would think not necessarily because people have done a bad job but I would say

Sometimes you just lose your job because things haven’t worked out and I think that’s what I see with the Phoenix are we talking total rebuild here like almost go back to the start and reload and do the whole thing from the ground up probably a 95% rebuild and you know

You can’t clean everybody out but you can clean enough people out so that you get the idea that everything is fresh and I think that’s what the process should be it was hard to watch very very hard to watch let’s have a look look at what’s coming up February 28th is where

You want to be take the day off work take the night off work get the kids babysat do whatever you need to do because we got a 5:30 and 7:30 double header to start the postseason it’ll be Tasmania and ilara to start with at my State Bank Arena and then no tomorrow

For the Sydney Kings and the New Zealand Breakers well that Tasmania ilira game will be fantastic the thing I like about ilara Jack is that they go on the road and they play well we’ seen seen them do it in Sydney we’ve seen them push New Zealand we saw them push Melbourne

United so I think they feel confident and the way they carry themselves Justin Tatum’s got them walking around chest out they’re puffy they feel like they can beat you no matter where they play you so that’s a dangerous game for Tasmania now the second game is the really intriguing one of course because

It’s Do or Die can the Kings show up defend and just take New Zealand out of it and win the game and move on that’s what you would hope to see if you’re a Sydney King supporter no messing around no lack of effort No Lack of heart

Because this Breakers team if they’re if they’re down a man they’re going to come in more energized and more chip on their shoulders so it’s we’ve got some great matchups I don’t think we could have scripted a better matchup I’m going to put you on the spot who’s who’s winning

Both of them on the 28th I’m going with Tasmania and Sydney so New Zealand done I think New Zealand are I think I didn’t like what I saw from them offensively and that’s how precarious everything is because three weeks ago before the Anthony lamb injury I had them potentially going to the championship

Series I felt they were one of the two or three teams that could have appeared in the championship series but I just worry about the effect emotionally that it has on a team to keep having to deal with the psychological impact of losing key players so we’ve already done our

Thumbs down let’s just do a thumbs up to finish off where do you want to go this is a long one Jack you’re not expecting this this one but I just want to thank everybody that helps us do our thing whether it’s here moments that matter at

The venues uh in the hub so let’s start at NBL HQ heo Lan Tony Skinner guy Neville Luke Sakari great job guys Jam TV Nathan John Patrick Austin Luke ton Cliffe Greg miles Faith Highland Allison Harding Nikki Carson love you the producers Rachel Dan Jack Nathan John o

Does some producing Matt Pat audio Matt we got it all who else we got up in Brisbane Pete and Maddie basle Brian Nadia Winona up in cans Rob Pete Andrew Luke and of course all the CEOs and especially the ones I deal with Mal Watts Mark broft and Chris pongrass

Thanks for your help you guys may not may not always agree with my opinions but you continue to support us and provide assistance when where where it’s necessary thank you guys very much I can’t believe I remembered all those names over to you jack I’ve got that as

About 30 names you just remember did you memorize all of that before we started I did I had a long night it’s very very good by you I just want to back that up we can’t wait for the postseason of what’s coming up from a fans point of

View we heard you we know you wanted us back in the venue as often as we could from a commentary point and we took a big jump forward this year and there are some great plans for next season as well that doesn’t happen by accident there’s

A cost obviously but it’s also the clubs they have their setups already organized they have their corporate areas and throughout the season all of the clubs have bent over backwards to find room for us even Tasmania last night for the first time had to reshuffle their entire

Corporate area just to fit Us in which means that we can be there during the playoffs and I just want to back that up I think it’s a really really good point and it sets it up for a great back end of the season and then my special mentions obviously Nicole Cornelius our

Producer who I work with more often than any of the others thank you Nicole you always make the job very easy and Brad Rosen our our our third partner here Brad is our first year working together you’ve been fantastic and of course you jack you’re one of the best in the

Business without you here I wouldn’t be able to do what I do and be able to go off on the tangents that I do so I appreciate you buddy and I’m glad to have you as a friend as well it has been fantastic we’re not done though we’ll be

With you right throughout the postseason here on the moments that matter and a big thanks to you as well Rock and thanks for tipping me into that hairdresser that you use as well worked out really well for me we are going to be back right across the final series

Here on the moments that matter don’t forget the gaz’s on tomorrow night you can stream it on the NBL website and will Bryce cotton be crowned a four-time MVP can’t wait for that we’ll see you during the [Applause] [Applause] plane