Canadians in Australia: NBL Grand Finals 2022
Whatever the final result would be, the 2022 NBL champions would have got there on the back of an amazing story. One of the teams contesting the finals had kept coming close to the title in recent times but kept falling short, while the other had made it this far against the expectations of many.
The story of the NBL playoffs have been the Tasmania JackJumpers: in their first season the islander team has stunned everyone down under by eliminating the top-seeded Melbourne United in three games to book their place in the finals.
With Canadian MiKyle McIntosh in tow the JackJumpers now had a chance to go that one step further but had to do it without finals experience. Their next opponents, the Sydney Kings, had been here before but had not seen finals victory in seventeen years and were prepared to break that streak. The two teams had played each another three times in the regular season, with Sydney winning twice. The smart money would be on Sydney but there had already been one upset from the JackJumpers, another was entirely possible.
In game one, picking up early points in the paint while also matching the Kings from three-point territory, Tasmania may have trailed throughout the first half but kept themselves within reaching distance of Sydney. That all changed in the third quarter, where the Kings dominated on both ends and went into a double-digit lead.
Tasmania tried to make up the difference from three-point territory but kept falling short, which proved fatal in this game. McIntosh had an equal team-high 14 points, along with Jock McVeigh, but the all-important win was Sydney's, 95 to 78.
Game two was a far closer affair. Connecting from distance, the JackJumpers built an early double-digit lead. Tasmania had thirteen threes in the whole game, one coming from McIntosh, and were led by Josh Adams with thirty points on the contest.
Sydney started making up ground from the paint, led by their three players who finished with twenty points. In the fourth period Tasmania went cold and the Kings pounced, and a 10-2 run putting them up five in the final stretch. It went down to the last thirty seconds, after Adams made it a one-point game, but a three from Dejan Vasiljevic sealed a second win for Sydney.
It was now do or die for the JackJumpers, they needed a win not just to avoid a finals defeat, but a finals sweep In game three Adams and Corey Magette hit the mark early for Tasmania, who managed two five-point leads in the face of rampant low-post offence from Sydney.
An and-one from MiKyle McIntosh plus a three by Clint Steindl saw the JackJumpers lead at the end of ten minutes. When play resumed the Kings came out firing from all distances, to which McIntosh replied with successive threes, part of a 12-0 Tasmanian run which put them back in front. It took Sydney no time in getting the gap back down again, matching the JackJumpers on offence throughout the third quarter.
McIntosh and Adams combined to give Tasmania a narrow advantage to begin Q4, but it was too small to keep the Kings from edging back in front. Key looks from Ian Clark keeping the lead firmly with Sydney, who then had an eight-point lead with three minutes left. In which time Tasmania lost their composure and missed shots kept piling up, they had to watch the win and their season escape from then.
A small consolation for McIntosh was finishing with 14 points and 8 boards, behind Adams with 27 for Tasmania. Of course all that was eclipsed by the win and the 2022 NBL title going to the Sydney Kings in three games. Even so, they defied the odds and stunned Australia by going as far as they did and had a statement season signaling that, just because they are new to the pro ranks, they are not to be taken lightly.
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