Moments that Mattered Presented by Mitsubishi | Round 2, NBL27

Well, I thought this was an outstanding performance by the Adelaide 36ers.

Down some men and they come in here at their first home game of the season against a tricky team, the Cairns Taipans, who haven't looked brilliant throughout the course of the season thus far.

So I was expecting a really strong performance by the Taipans, but it wasn't to be.

The 36ers really nailed them on the defensive end.

The Cans look fairly inept offensively, and the Sixers pretty much dominate this basketball game.

Without Isaac Humphries, Nick Rakosevich has been asked to do a whole lot more, but he looks as though he's capable of a whole lot more.

Career-high 21 points here in this game against Cans, a dozen rebounds as well, but I just like the way he went about it.

He hit his first six shots, really set the platform for Adelaide, gave them an option that they could rely

on.

Well, he's providing more scoring, I think, than people thought that he was going to be able to give this season.

He's a great rebounder, but also on the defensive end, he's active.

And I think he makes a lot of good winning basketball plays.

It's one thing to go out and accumulate stats, but when you create stats that are actually impactful towards winning, that's when you become a really important piece of a team.

So good upside for the Adelaide 36ers.

The flip side of that is the Cairns Taipans that just could not get going here.

And Jalen Brown, their recruit, look, a quiet game from him.

They really need him.

He has to be scoring or he has to be distributing, and in this one he didn't either.

Well,

the last game before coming in here, he had 20 points against Tasmania up in Cairns, and I thought he was on an upward trajectory, but this game right here never found any rhythm.

But I'm not sure the Cairns system... and how they play on the offensive end is getting the most out of him.

I think he's a very dynamic scorer, a guy that can create.

But alongside Jack McVay, I think they need to utilize him in more two-man game where I think they can both thrive.

And overall, just more structure and organization on the offensive end will help Brown find some consistent performances.

And we're going to get some more bodies involved as well.