{"id":577319,"date":"2026-03-31T23:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T23:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577319\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T23:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T23:41:09","slug":"dellavedova-eyes-place-in-nbl-nba-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577319\/","title":{"rendered":"Dellavedova eyes place in NBL-NBA history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Dellavedova is just one of seven Australians to win an NBA championship, doing so with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Before that, though, he and the Cavaliers, led by LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, first experienced the heartbreak of losing the 2015 NBA Finals.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to the Hungry Jack\u2019s 2025-26 Championship Series, and the 35-year-old guard is now just one win away from claiming his maiden NBL title.<\/p>\n<p>And the four-time Olympian\u2019s journey to this point has been similar, filled with heartbreak and disappointment, having lost the past two Championship Series with Melbourne United.<\/p>\n<p>While the journey has been tough, Dellavedova is simply embracing the moment rather than focusing on the result ahead of time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnytime you&#8217;re playing for a championship, everyone&#8217;s competing really hard,\u201d Dellavedova said during Tuesday\u2019s club media availability.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s fun, and this is why you play basketball, you have these opportunities to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbl.com.au\/news\/nbl26-championship-series-schedule\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Championship Series tickets, schedule &amp; more<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While the Kings sit with a 2-1 lead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbl.com.au\/news\/davis-shines-dellavedova-difference-maker-nbl-series\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">with Dellavedova playing a huge role in that due to his defence on Bryce Cotton<\/a>, the Australian Boomer knows there are small changes the Harbour City side needs to make ahead of Game 4.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll make small adjustments here or there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[That involves] watching a lot of the game tape, walking through some things on the floor and a lot of different conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One aspect the Kings won\u2019t change is their defensive intensity, which is holding the six-time MVP to just 16.7 points a game, while shooting 36.2 per cent from the field, significantly lower than his season averages of 25.6 points and 43.8 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefensively, it&#8217;s important to be on a string,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;ve done a good job of that so far, so it\u2019s important we stay to the game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Dellavedova wins the 2025-26 championship, he will become just the fourth player in league history to win both a NBL and NBL title, alongside Andrew Gaze, Ian Clark and Jack White.<\/p>\n<p>Game 4 of the Championship Series tips off at 7.30pm AEDT on Wednesday at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, live on ESPN and 10 Drama in Sydney and Adelaide.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1775000469_482_69ba3d951d002ba2b025a249_NBL26 Finals_Champs_Article Banner_1290x250.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Dellavedova is just one of seven Australians to win an NBA championship, doing so with the Cleveland&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-577319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}