As the Sydney Kings' defence lifted, the points dried up for the Tasmania JackJumpers, leaving one NBL coach delighted and the other wondering where his team's scoring will come from.
The JackJumpers arrived at The Silverdome in Launceston on Friday having suffered their biggest ever loss six days earlier by 33 points to the Illawarra Hawks, and they started off as if they were going to hit back impressively against the Kings.
Tasmania coach Scott Roth mixed up his starting five, bringing in championship pair Clint Steindl and Majok Deng for Anthony Drmic and Reuben Te Rangi, and it worked -- for a while.
The JackJumpers opened up a 16-point lead in the first half while forcing the Kings into 13 turnovers and holding their high-octane offence to just 33 points.
But things turned dramatically in the second half and Sydney coach Brian Goorjian credits that with his team having lifted their defensive intensity as they held the JackJumpers to 26 points.
In turn, Sydney scored 47 points for an 80-71 victory that improves their record to 5-2 on the season. It felt like the ultimate tale of two halves.
Goorjian was proud of how his team responded. "I think Tasmania are the best team over the last three or four years of tenacity, toughness, teamship, and that's their trademark," Goorjian said.
"So to win a game against them on a court where they are desperate, and 16 up right before the end of the half, is huge for us as this new group grows.
"That's an area that we've targeted where we've got to get better in competing and that's the biggest thing that we get out of this game."
While the JackJumpers showed improved offence in the first half with 45 points on the back of Jordon Crawford scoring 18 of his 25 for the game, the reigning champs are clearly struggling on attack.
They are now averaging only 78.2 points to be last in the league and the absence of the injured Sean Macdonald, and Houston Rockets NBA forward Jack McVeigh has left a big hole.
New import Craig Sword is averaging 5.8 points and fellow recruit Te Rangi only 4.0.
Roth doesn’t have the immediate answers, but knows the JackJumpers need to find more points starting Sunday in Adelaide.
"We have a hard time even getting to 80 points at the moment and our defence again was good, but did fatigue a little bit which you expect when you're grinding away at the other end of the floor," Roth said.
