Tom Abercrombie gets rejected (Getty Images via nzherald.co.nz)

Wollongong Hawks 88-68 NZ Breakers

Adelaide 36ers 96-92 NZ Breakers

box scores via eurobasket.com

What Went Right?

Not a lot. Two losses on the road basically end the Breakers playoff hopes once and for all. They need to win out from here to even have a small chance.
It looked for a while like the Adelaide game was a winner, with a half time lead and all. The 36ers came back strong though and the Breakers couldn’t edge it. At least it was competitive till the end, unlike the first match of this doubleheader.
CJ Bruton can still shoot. Oh boy can he ever! With only 5 games left in his career, he’s clearly looking to finish positively, and his two late threes, the second from well beyond the arc, almost, *almost* got the Breakers over the line in Adelaide.
As far as other individual performances go, Gary Wilkinson is continually dominating, making you wonder how this team could have fared with him around from the start of the season. His and Vukona’s double-doubles were two of the few positives from the Hawks game, and his 13 pts/14 rebs kept the 36ers game competitive right to the end.
Corey Webster is in season best form, he’s bringing a real spark off the bench, and he looks as good as anyone in this team when driving to the basket (perhaps Kerron aside), which is something that they’ve lacked, often settling for contested Abercrombie jumpers and the like. Webster hit double figures in scoring in both games, giving him a three game streak overall – a season high for him. He also added 5 total rebounds and 8 total assists over the two nights.
Tom Abercrombie’s jump shot is still a thing of beauty.

What Can Be Improved?

The entire Wollongong game was a bust. The team just lacked the effort and the intensity to compete, and were well and truly put away. The second game saw a marked improvement, though it wasn’t quite enough.
Shooting 11/31 threes in the first game is terrible. Of course that number of attempts was exaggerated by the team playing from behind for most of the game. Still, you just can’t let yourselves get in those positions if you wanna be challenging. They were even worse (7/26) in the second game too, strange because outside shooting is usually a strength of this team.
At half time against Adelaide, the Breakers led the offensive rebound stakes by 12-2, only to end the game with an advantage of just four. It was more a case of Adelaide picking up their game in the second half, but losing those extra possessions really damaged the Breakers and was key to the Adelaide comeback.
In fact Adelaide had 16 more total shot attempts than NZB (64-48), a huge difference in such a tight game, plus they got to the line on 12 more occasions (again, largely due to the late fouling as NZB tried to hang in there).
All season the Breakers have struggled to match up defensively against great opposition scorers. Vukona and Wilkinson are superb defensive forwards, but against dynamic guards like Rotnei Clarke or Gary Ervin, there’s no apparent answer.
As so often has been the case, the Adelaide game was there for the winning, but the Breakers couldn’t finish it off like they always seemed to in past years.
If only that potential game-winning Abercrombie triple had gone in vs the 36ers…