The Tall Blacks Are Winning Games And Everything’s Choice Right Now
The Tall Blacks are one step closer to partaking in the 2019 FIBA World Cup after taking care of business in their two home qualifiers over the last few days. And, would you look at that, they didn’t even need Steven Adams after all! Just goes to show that… nah, let’s not go down that path again. As George Harrison told the Be Sharps: It’s been done.
The biggest result of these first round qualifiers for the Tall Blacks came back in February when 18 points from each of the Webster Bros helped them to an 82-73 win against China in Dongguan, the kiwi side finishing strong with a 27-point fourth quarter. With that the damage was basically done. A win against Hong Kong in Rotorua was always going to be a formality and while China put up a tough battle in Auckland, they also weren’t crazy motivated considering they’re the hosts of this upcoming World Cup and thus qualify automatically. Yao Ming may have been in the crowd to watch but there was no sign of Chinese stars like Ding Yanyuhang, Zhou Peng, Zhou Qi or Yi Jianlian. They did have Wang Zhelin but goes to show that it wasn’t only the Tall Blacks dealing with a lessened roster here. No big deal then.
By the way, that game in February? Yi Jianlian scored 37 points and Zhou Peng scored 17. Nobody else had more than six. Seems a rather decent indication of what we were up against then, even before the news that they’d only flown into Aotearoa at 1am on the morning of the game after their defeat in South Korea on Thursday night. That’s 1am with a 3pm tipoff too. Ruthless scheduling there from FIBA, sorry ‘bout it.
Hong Kong game first and it didn’t take long for the kiwis to pull away. They scored at least 30 points in all four quarters, leading 32-17 after 1Q, 63-35 after 2Q, 93-50 after 3Q and polishing things off at 124-65 for the final. Paul Henare was able to get all dozen players on the roster at least 11 minutes of action and every single one of them made a field goal while six different players scored in double figures.
Can’t ask much more than that from the lads. The Tall Blacks won the rebound count by an astonishing 50 to 14. They had 38 assists and 12 steals. A few too many turnovers but so it goes. They also shot 18/30 for 60% from the 3pt line and that’s including Shea Ili missing all five of his attempts. Tom Abercrombie shot 5/6 from deep. Rob Loe was 4/6. Jordan Ngatai, Finn Delany and Dion Prewster each made a couple. Isaac Fotu shot 8/9 from the field for his 17 points. Abercrombie and Loe led the way with 18 each. Delany scored 15. Job done. Love that a big crowd of Rotorua fanatics got to enjoy it all.
Then back for China and this was a much friskier affair. The NZers didn’t start particularly well and offence proved tough to come by for both teams. There was a sellout crowd at Spark Arena, another big win for basketball in New Zealand (lots of great expat support for the visitors too which was awesome), and they got a good glimpse at the depth emerging in this country. Remember that the two best scorers were unavailable, the two players who carried this team past China last time they played. Corey Webster wasn’t released by his Chinese club side while Tai Webster is preparing for another NBA Summer League, this time with the Miami Heat. Alex Pledger also wasn’t available. But Isaac Fotu kinda stunningly declined a short notice offer to play Summer League with the Boston Celtics. He barely even considered it when it meant flying out immediately and missing this game in front of friends and whanau in Auckland.
Side note… that’s a little crazy, right? It’s a relatively meaningless game in terms of the result. There’s no guarantee he gets another NBA call either. He might, hopefully he does… but damn. Oh well, those people who think Steven Adams is somehow unpatriotic for not playing here can at least have Isaac Fotu. What a bloody player he is too. The Tall Blacks MVP over these two games, no doubt about it. 17 PTS (8/9 FG) & 7 REB against Hong Kong and then 15 PTS (6/12 FG) & 5 REB against China - he top scored in this second game, in fact.
China had some decent grind to them, continually looking to push the ball inside while only shooting 3/13 triples, rarely settling for the deep look. Not only that but they also played some quality defence. This was a well-coached team despite it not being nearly their best outfit. They even led this thing after the first quarter but a 13-0 run to start the second, led by Fotu, saw the Tall Blacks take a lead they’d never surrender… although it did get rather close at times.
Abudushalamu Abudurexiti scored 23 points for China. Meanwhile the TBs were struggling to be anywhere near as effective at range as they were the other day. Chuck in some horrific free throw shooting too and they never hammered home the advantage like they could’ve. Expect better from you at the line, Shea. One outta six ain’t what he’s about. With a starting gig at the Breakers likely, it was nice to see Ili showing off his playmaking ability over these two games but he does need to be making strides with his scoring too, which we didn’t see here.
We did see Jack Salt though, the University of Virginia big fella back in the country and showing off how much he’s bulked up. Salty’s sneakily putting together a great college career for an NZer and we may not have seen heaps of him in these games but it was a quality reminder of the prospect that he is. Just gotta work on that touch around the rim first and foremost. He’ll get there. And Rob Loe, mate, he was fantastic against China. Might even say we wouldn’t have won without his 13 points and 10 rebounds. Four blocks too, don’t forget it.
With these wins the Tall Blacks have now won five qualifiers in a row after their shock home defeat to South Korea last year. Herare’s boys go through first from Group A and that’s big as those points carry through into the next stage, where we’ll play Jordan, Syria and Lebanon twice each over three windows, probably only needing to win half of those games to book qualification for the World Cup. But, like, bugger just qualifying. If this team keeps on the way it’s going they should be looking at winning a few games amongst the big boys too. It’s a 32 team comp this time with a group stage like the FIFA World Cup and then a second group stage before the quarters start. We’ve gotta be giving that second group stage a good swing if everyone’s healthy.
Until then, get on the phone to all your NBA scout mates and see if we can’t get Isaac Fotu a Summer League gig as a reward.
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