James Ennis with the huge dunk in his first NBA game

James Ennis had a big highlight in his first game of the regular season with the Miami Heat.  He had many similar plays in the NBL last year with the Perth Wildcats and is now applying his trade in the big league. Here he is seen posterizing Rasual Butler of the Washington Wizards.

The Miami Heat defeated the Wizards 107-95 and Ennis finished with 5 points and 2 rebounds in 15 minutes. Chris Bosh had a big game for the heat tallying 26 points, 15 rebounds and 4 assists. Hopefully Ennis will continue to see some decent minutes and with some big highlights like this he is certainly exciting to watch.

Joe Ingles Claimed off Waivers by Utah Jazz

Joe Ingles has been claimed by the Utah Jazz and will join their team before the start of the season. Ingles was originally recruited by the LA clippers who decided not to keep him going into the start of the season. In his time with the Clippers Ingles averaged only 7.5 minutes per game and didn't really have enough time to gain any significant stats. Ingles joins his Australian National team-mate Dante Exum on the squad but his other Boomers team mate Brock Motum was recently let go the Jazz. This move is what opened up space on the roster for Ingles. A lot of Jazz fans were upset by the news that Motum was let go as he was a versatile big who shot at a decent clip from long range. The forward position with the Jazz is a tough spot to retain and Ingles will likely have to battle for minutes against recent waiver acquisition Jordan Hamilton. Lets hope Ingles does enough to retain a position with the Jazz and earn some meaningfull minutes heading into the season. Ingles is a very versatile player and could be a great pick up for the jazz this late in the offseason.

Josh Childress ejected from NBL game for throwing an elbow

Australia's most credentialed player in the basketball league Josh Childress was ejected from the game last night for throwing an elbow and knocking a player down. In what was a very physical game the Perth wildcats demolished the Sydney Kings 84-63 but its highlight was the Childress ejection. Steve Carfino even mentioned they may need extra security with how the crowd reacted. It was a very physical game which blatantly showed how amateur the NBL refs are who were greatly influenced by the fans in Perths sold out arena. Sydney managed to get called for every foul committed but the Perth Wildcats played very physical defense and set many illegal screens with no calls from the refs. In the play where Childress was ejected Jesse Wagstaff set a big screen which Childress believed to be illegal which hit him to the ground right in front of the ref with no call coming. Immediately after Wagstaff got the ball and took a shot from the top of the keyway when Childress jumped up, elbows up and took him down. Wagstaff went down hard and the other players stopped any further fighting as Childress walked to the bench and later left the stadium as the refs made a decision. They crowd was in an uproar and booing and yelling filled the stadium as Childress walked out. The frustration was too much for Childress and hell even iv been there myself when the refs just don't call any illegal plays coming your teams way. Wagstaff is known as one of the roughest and "dirtiest" players in the league maybe following his team mate Sean Redhage. Some fans on forums think it was about time a player reacted, over-reacted definitely but maybe the refs will look at this game and try to improve, because his reaction was a directly caused by the poor refereeing.

As Jonny Flynn said they play it rough down in Australia. The NBL organization really has to take a look at the league and how its officiated if they want to keep recruiting top quality players. (Sam Young, Jonny Flynn, Josh Childress, James Ennis, Deandre Danials) Why would a fringe NBA player or former NBA player come to Australia to get beaten up on the court every night. I'm not saying what Josh Childress did was the right thing it was definitely an over reaction and he did deserve to be ejected but lets hope it makes the league take a closer look as to why a player would react the way he did and make some changes in recruiting some more professional referees.
A clip of the play can be seen below, What are your thoughts?

Jonny Flynn's Perth vs Melbourne post game interview in 2012. He said it well back then. Their a hard enough team to beat alone without those "outside influences".

NBA Las Vegas summer league day 2 Australian player update

4 Aussies made appearances in day 2 of the Las Vegas Summer league.

Chris Goulding started the day off with another starting role with the Dallas Mavericks.  The Mavs managed to get the win over the Minnesota Timberwolves 93-85 after they had a loss in yesterdays game to the Knicks.Goulding played 15 minutes and finished with a total of 6 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist however his best stat was probably his +15 in the +/- column leading the team. He made some good defensive plays getting an offensive foul and on another play made a block only to be called for the foul. Goulding shot 2/3 from the floor for his 6 points but he will need to touch the ball a lot more for him to really get going like we are all so used to seeing in the NBL.
 

Cameron Bairstow had his first professional start for the Chicago bulls and he put in a solid effort in their 85-70 win over the LA Clippers. Bairstow had 8 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist in 32 minutes of game time. He played some good defense, set some strong screens and made it to the hole on several occasions, however he didn't get as many touches as I'm sure he was hoping for. As a post player its hard to get into the offense when your not fed the ball. Tony Snell had a huge game for the Bulls racking up 27 points shooting 10/14 from the floor.


In what was a very anticipated game for the Utah Jazz fans, they finally got a chance to see what their number 5 pick in this years draft Dante Exum could do. In a close game that the Philedelphia 76ers managed to close out in the last minute 74-70 Dante showed how much of a facilitator he could be and got several of his players some open shots and plays around the basket. Exum had 10 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 27 minutes of game time. He wasn't shooting the ball great going 4/10 from the floor but his basketball IQ and speed was on display as fans got to see some nice finishes around the rim. Exum's opening basket of the night was a big alley-oop dunk off a pass from Trey Burke which got the fans into the game early. In what may be one of Exums best stat lines was his 1 turnover in a play which he quickly stole the ball back and dunked it in. The Summer league often has a large number of turnovers and often low shooting percentages. Although Exum looked a little out of shape getting tired early its a good start for the young kid from Australia showing some huge potential in the coming years.
Brock Motum who is also from Australia got some court time with the Utah Jazz and after a rocky start
finished the game strong with a big dunk off a missed Exum three pointer. Motum finished the game with 4 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Full highlights from the game can be seen below which include Exums alley-oop, his steal and dunk as well as Motums dunk off the Exum miss:

Also James Ennis who played last year with the Perth Wildcats in the Australian NBL has been putting on a show in his run of Summer league games and has recently made the top 5 rookie ladder. Ennis who narrowly missed out on the league MVP in Australia had 19 points, 8 rebounds and 1 assist in the Miami heats 92-81 win over the Houston Rockets.

2 Aussies with starting roles in day 1 of the NBA Las Vegas summer league

The NBA summer league is well and truly underway but it has finally begun for those of us who are following the young Australians hoping to make an NBA roster.
There are 4 Aussies hoping to play well enough to continue onto the final rosters of an NBA team at this years Las Vegas Summer league and today 2 of them had starting roles.
Mathew Dellavedova was the starting point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers who took on the Milwaukee Bucks in a highly anticipated bout between the number 1 (Andrew Wiggins) and number 2 (Jabari Parker) draft picks from the this years NBA draft. 
Wiggins dominated and lead all scoring for the game with 18 points but last years number one pick Anthony Bennett looks to be in good form and finished with 15. Hopefully Bennett can put his rough start in last season behind him and play the way a number draft pick should. Mathew Dellavedova although not getting much attention behind his star draft pick team mates had a stellar game finishing with 13 points, 6 assists and 9 rebounds. Hopefully he will continue his impressive performances from last season. Delly finished last season with the highest +/- score on the whole cavaliers roster. With the addition of Lebron James in the line up and the removal of Jarret Jack lets hope Delly gets the minutes to run the point as hopefully the back up point guard for Kyrie Irving.
Here's a clip of a Delly assist to a huge dunk from Anthony Bennett

Chris Goulding had a starting role for the Dallas Mavericks when they matched up against the New

York Knicks. Goulding however did not have the stellar start Delly did and didn't make the impact I'm sure he was hoping to make with only 6 points off 2 from 7 from the 3 point line. The Mavericks must see some potential in the young NBL star to give him a starting role. Hopefully in the coming matches he will hit his rhythm and show what a hot shooter he is.

Tomorrow we will again see a few Aussies hit the court with Dante Exum making his summer league debut with the Utah Jazz as they take on the Philadelphia 76ers, Cameron Bairstow should get some decent minutes when the Chicago bulls take on the LA Clippers and hopefully Goulding will hit some shots and show what a streaky scorer he can be when the Dallas Mavericks take on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Its exciting times when Aussie basketball fans might get to see potentially 7 Australian suiting up for NBA rosters in the coming season. With established players like Andrew Bogut, Aron Baynes and Patty Mills already showing their skills lets hope more teams look down south for potential talent when scouting for bench roles.

Aaron Baynes has a huge game for the Spurs against the Toronto Raptors

Arron Baynes got to play some decent minutes with the Spurs back up centre Tiago Splitter injured and out for the night. He played 21 minutes and had a career high 14 points and 6 rebounds he was also a monster on defense shutting down the Raptors centre Jonas Valuciunis. Baynes has struggled to get some decent court time with the Spurs lately and spent some time in the NBA D league where he immediately dominated and was quickly brought back into the line up. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich had this to say on Baynes "[Aron] Baynes did a great job. He hasn't played that much but he went down to the D-League and played a few games to stay in shape, kept himself ready and it showed tonight. He came in and did a really good job for us."
Patty Mills played 16 minutes and had 11 points off 3-4 shooting from the 3 point line. Their was  great play where Baynes saved the ball from out of bounds and threw it up where Bellinelli got his hands on it and with a no look pass got the ball to an open Patty Mills for the 3 pointer. It was a good game and great to see the Aussies getting some decent minutes and being productive with what their given.

Check out Baynes making the highlight real with the play of the game

 And heres his highlights from the D league game that got him back into the Spurs line up. Looks like he has carried some of that confidence over to the NBA. I really hope we get to see more of him on the floor.

The Perth wildcats take down the New Zealand Breakers in a close finish

The Perth wildcats took down the New Zealand Breakers on their home court in what was Cj Bruton’s 499^th game in the league.It was a good game in what was looking it was going to be another blowout home win for the wildcats but the Breakers brought back the deficit and lost 95-91 behind some game winning heroics from James Ennis.

In the first play of the game James Ennis penetrated against Vukona who played some good d but a foul was called and it sent James Ennis to the line for the first 2 points of the game.

Opening scoring for the Breakers Darryl Corletto hit a 3 after Jervis got an easy 2 and Beal hit a 3 and Perth are off on the races. Another 3 by Beal and wildcats are away 10-3 with only 82 minutes gone in the quarter.

Alex Pledger had a fumble in the post and Perth force the turnover who got the outlet pass to Ennis for the fast break, who threw it off the backboard to himself and jammed it through the basket. It was only 3 minutes into the game and Perth were already dominating 12-3.

Another slam from Ennis just past the 5 minute mark and Perth’s transition offense has been too good. 19-8.

Mika Vukona got the rebound off Jermaine Beal’s first missed 3 and drove the ball up the court and took it to Jervis getting the 3 point play.  But immediately after Vukona got his second foul and had to take a seat. 19-12 4min.

Ennis was having a dunk party and he likes to throw it through the basket.

In a mid game interview Ennis had this to say on his self alley-oop jam, “I had a lot on my mind and always wanted to throw it off the back board in a game and Im pretty happy got to do it In a game.”

In the last play of the quarter Ennis worked his way to the foul line to cap a huge first quarter from the Wildcats with a total of 33 points to New Zealand’s 21.

Perth dominated on offense the first quarter  but the breakers at only 12 down didn’t do too badly on offense just played terrible defense. If Matt Knight can run the ball the whole length of the floor and get to the basket their had to be something going wrong on D.

2^nd Qtr.

Matt Knight opened the scoring in the 2^nd with a nice hook shot inside.

Cj Bruton is defending Ennis and doing a good job to contain him.

Alex Pledger finally got the first points in the quarter for the breakers to stop an 8 point run from the wildcats 39-23 7:30 left in the half. Pledger got a good block on Hire and Corey Webster hit a 2 but every time it looked like they would get going Perth breaks them as Beal hit another shot.42-27 and 7 minutes left in the half. Vukona hit a nice hook shot and the Breakers had it back to a 10 point deficit 42-32 and 5:33 left till the main break. James Ennis fouled Abercrombie on a open court fast break and it was called a tech foul and the Breakers had the deficit back to only 6 42-36 at the 5 minute mark.  Breakers have stepped up the defense and gotten a couple of steal to bring them back into the game.

Mika Vukona had a big dunk off a nice dish from Abercrombie and the Breakers are back to only 3 down with 3 minutes left in the half.  Beal knocked down another 3 and Mika Vukona is too smooth with some spin moves going to the basket he has really stepped up his game this season.

Gary Wilkinson gets a tough offensive foul and then gets called for a tech due to complaining and that home court advantage had really stepped up.

In what in my opinion was a Bruton, Vukona lead come back it was a huge quarter for the Breakers who down by 18 early in the quarter got it back to 3 but a rough couple of plays to close the quarter and the Wildcats go into the main break with the lead  50-45.

2nd Half

James Ennis again opened the scoring for the Wildcats in 3^rd quarter with a rebound and little hook on the inside.

Darryl Corletto opened scoring in the the quarter for the Breakers with a nice little floater just in to the keyway and immediately after he made a long 3 to keep the Breakers in it. But James Ennis and Jermaine Beal were making it difficult for the Breakers to keep up. 58-50 and 7:30 left in the quarter. The refs were pretty trigger happy this week after last weeks lapse in tight calls. Ennis hit a nice 3 to take the lead back out to 11 and Damian Martin got a steal from Pledger who wrapped him up which  looked ugly but no tech called as it just looked bad. With Cj on the bench the breakers are back down by double digits and they need his leadership back on the court.

Beal hits a long 3 and the all of a sudden the lead was back out to 16, 3:38 left in the 3rd. Cj Bruton comes back on the floor. They Breakers got it back to 10 but with 2 minutes left but Jermaine Beal hit his 7^th 3 pointer of the game and took the lead back out to 13 and CJ got hit in the face and had to take a seat.

Abercrombie hit a 3 to take the deficit down to 11 76-65 but he fouled Jervis on the buzzer to end to quarter and the wildcats close the 3rd term up 77-65

Tom Abercrombie hit a 3 to open the final quarter and Ennis forced himself to the line to get the Wildcats on the board with 8 minutes left in the game 79-68. A good block by Pledger and a corletto fast break and 3 got the Breakers under 10 79-71 with 7:15 left in the game.  A killer no look pass by Kerron Johnson to TeRang and a Corlletto 3 get the breakers back to a only a 6 point deficit. 79-73 and 6min left.  

With 2 minutes left Kerron Johnson drove to the hole and dished the ball to Vukona to take the deficit to only 1 point and the game had turned around on the Wildcats.

Vukona was called for a foul on Shawn Redhage on another very weak call and the refs did all they can for the fans. He made them both and a tip by Abercrombie made it a 3 point play and it was 86-82, but a Wilkinson drive and 3 point play kept the Breakers alive. 86-85 1:31 left in the game.

In the last two minutes the two teams were trading buckets and every touch Ennis got going to the hole sent him to the line. I'm sure Sam Young wishes he got that kind of treatment.  90-87 with 37 seconds left In what was a looking like a blow out win for the Wildcats in the first quarter turned in to a very close game. In only 6 seconds Johnson got hit to the ground got up and got the ball back then dished it to Wilkinson for an easy lay in and got them down by only 2, 90-89 with 31 seconds left.  In the play of the game Jermaine Beal twisted his ankle but got the ball to James Ennis who with 2 seconds on the shot clock got the shot up from way outside the 3 point line and hit the shot off the backboard to ensure the win. 93-89. With 6 seconds left for the breakers they got a quick 2 from a Wilkonson cut and then a foul Ennis on the inbound to stop the clock who hit them both. The Wildcats won a tough fight and a great game 95-91 with the man of the match James Ennis secured the win.

Also revealed this game apparently James Ennis will most likely be staying the whole season. In what to me was unexpected as a talent like his wont stay out of the NBA for too long.