All the talk before the NBL playoffs had surrounded Bryce Cotton, Will Magnay and anyone but him ... but, cometh the hour, cometh Keanu Pinder to steal the show.
Playing his first finals game, Pinder came up big in the Perth Wildcats' win over the Tasmania JackJumpers on Friday at the RAC Arena.
By the end of the regular season, Wildcats superstar Bryce Cotton had won a fourth MVP award and JackJumpers duo Milton Doyle and Jack McVeigh were named to All-NBL Teams.
The dominant performance of Magnay in last Wednesday's finals opening win for Tasmania then had him the talk of the NBL world..
But it was Pinder who took the limelight. Having started in Adelaide and then exploded to prominence in Cairns, the 28-year-old West Australian made sure the 111th game of his NBL career - and his very first in a playoff - really counted.
He made a statement early with a rim-rocking one-handed dunk over Tasmania centre Marcus Lee. He produced a strong physical performance all evening, but it was his three-point shooting that was the difference.
Especially stretching the floor and given space by JackJumpers rim protector Magnay, Pinder produced the outside shooting night of his career making 5-of-7 three-pointers on his way to 25 points and seven rebounds.
It was a match-winning display for Perth to prevail 89-81 to take the one-nil series lead over the JackJumpers and Wildcats' coach John Rillie couldn’t have been happier.
"Keanu had a great week leading up to this and he chips away at his shooting," he said.
"I want him to expand that part of his game and you saw tonight when he steps up and shoots it confidently, it is a difference for us especially when we were playing a little clunky at the offensive end at some stages.
"It was a great performance and this was KP's first time playing at this level, and what a great start for him."
JackJumpers coach Scott Roth also paid respect to the performance of Pinder, but will expect his team to do a better job in Hobart for game two on Monday.
"Like any player, when you start to see your shot go in your confidence builds and we didn’t step up on him enough and most of those shots were just completely wide open and really in rhythm," Roth said.
"He's a very good player and I'm assuming that's probably his best game of the season or pretty darned close. He was really, really good."
Rillie was also high on the performance of Next Star and expected high NBA draft pick Alex Sarr, particularly at the defensive end where he had three blocks and influenced plenty more.
"I believe this was the best game for him protecting the rim for us," he said.
"His activity protecting the rim was tremendous and that's where I really thought he made a difference in the game for us."
