After winning on the road on Thursday night in Cairns, the JackJumpers return to Hobart to face the Adelaide 36ers and will look to claim back-to-back wins for the first time since December 9.
Tasmania JackJumpers (13-12) vs Adelaide 36ers (11-14)
When: Sunday, February 4th, 2pm AEDT
Where: MyState Bank Arena
TV: 10 Peach, 10 Play, ESPN, Kayo
Radio: ABC Hobart, SEN Tasmania,
With only 4 games to go at the start of the round, the JackJumpers started their round double perfectly with 94-86 win over the Taipans in Cairns. A second win for the round against Adelaide will give them some clear air in 3rd spot, but also a 14th win shoudl be good enough too see them qualify for the post season.
But despite their early season struggles, the 36ers are flying. They have won 6 of their last 7, including a Friday night win over ther Sydney Kings.
Matchups NBL24
Tasmania has come out on top in both of their clashes with the sizers this season.. The most recent encounter in Round 9 saw Doyle lead the 20 points, while JackJumpers stamped their authority on the defensive end very early. Restricting Adelaide to just 59 points, one of the lowest scores in franchise victory.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhile earlier in round 7 Tasmania visited Adelaide and led by as many as 19 points in the third quarter, before DJ Vasiljevic hit some big late game shots to bring the home to within 3 points. But the Jackies held firm to win 82-72.
The battle of the middle
Isaac Humphies is currently one of the premier big men in the NBL this season, and has been a big part of the sixers late season resurgence under new coach Scott Ninnis. Used as a secondary part of the offence earlier in the season, Ninnis has made sure the ball goes through Humphries hands on each offensive set, Humphries has enjoyed seeing the ball more often, averaging 17.8 points and 9.1 rebounds across his last 7 games.
Embed from Getty ImagesBut Tasmania are well prepared have limit Humphries impact inside the paint through the big man duo of Marcus Lee and Will Magnay. The two have played the anchor role in the middle on defensive, and are a big part of Tasmania allowing the fewest points per game in the NBL this season (86.6).
Magany was injured in their win over Cairns on Thursday, but coach Scott Roth is expecting the high – energy Magnay to play on Sunday.
Limiting impact of DJ
The JackJumpers well and truly know the impact DJ Vasiljevic can have late in tight games, but its something he has continuted to do in his retrn to the NBL this year.
As recent as Friday night, the Sydney Kings had kept the sharpshooter pretty well held across the first three quartes with just 12 points. However with the game in the balance with 5 minutes remaining, Valevic finished hit big buckets , scoring 8 of thier last 22 points as the took the game away from the Kings.
He did similar to the JackJumpers in thier first clash in Adelaide earlier this year, where down double figures at three quarter time DJ had 12 of his 16 points in the final quarter to almost steal an impressive win for the sixers.
What will it take to win
Against the Taipans we saw a return back to the JackJumpers offence being led by Crawford (25 points) and Doyle (17 points), which allowed McVeigh and Macdonald to find space at the offence end and impact the scoreboard. Although Doyle missed a lot his early shot, his aggressiveness and willingness to take early shots required his to be a focus for the defence.
At the other end, the sixers offence is focus around Vasiljevic, Humphries and and Trey Kell III. Outside of those three there really hasn’t a consistent go-to” scorer for the sixers, as the minutes for Jason Cadee, Jacob Wiley, Sunday Dech and Mitch McCaron have been inconsistent. So the Jackies will want get the ball out of the hands of their central trio and make someone else beat them.