NZ Breakers 89-81 Townsville Crocodiles

On one hand it was business as usual, on the other it was like nothing ever seen before.

That’s because while the Breakers won in a performance sooooo much better than Wednesday night’s in Adelaide… Mika Vukona wasn’t a part of it. Yep, he missed the game with a leg injury, the first he’s ever missed for the Breakers. Presumably they needed some kid of Hannibal Lecter straitjacket device to restrain him as the medical staff broke the news.

But anyway. After whiffing time and again from deep against Adelaide, suffering by the injury-enforced small ball tactic, this game was far more in keeping with the expectations of being defending champions. A big part of that was that while Mika didn’t play, both Tom Abercrombie and Alex Pledger were back and available. TA started (alongside Catfish Jackson) and AP came off the bench.

Both of these teams lost their first games, Townsville getting pumped early by Melbourne and failing to make the comeback (Todd Blanchfield with 29 & 8 while Hakim Warrick scored 21 off the bench for Melly. Brian Conklin scored 25 for the Crocs). So while it’s a long season, yada yada yada, avoiding playing catch up from the second round obviously sounds pretty nice.

Seeing both Cedric Jackson and Tai Wesley taking early three point attempts wasn’t the best thing early on. For a team that struggled to run their half-court offence in the first game, you’ve gotta assume Vickerman wasn’t designing plays for these two to shoot triples. But the game soon opened up and it was Cedric acting the spark plug.

Townsville had their problems starting this game and plenty of them came down to effort. The Breakers were getting to the rebounds and even though both sides played solid defence, it was the Breaks that had the speed in transition to capitalise on that. Cedric streaming down the court, getting all the way to the rim for a layup or hitting a teammate for an open shot. Lather, rinse, repeat and soon it was opening room up for Everard Bartlett to get that sweet jump shot out of the cupboard. TVC coach Shawn Dennis gave his team an absolute blasting for the ages after that.

He had a point too. Great defensive possessions were being wasted coz they weren’t then rebounding. This Crocs side leaked 28 points to Melly in the first quarter the other night, they leaked 29 to the Breakers in this game. Those 29 1Q points are more than NZB managed in the entire first half against Adelaide (26). It all seems to click when they play with speed.

Up 12 after a single quarter, the Breakers were able to establish themselves in the paint with the Pledgehammer coming back. He doesn’t have to score too many, or even rebound all that much, his presence down low is kinda huge. Not just literally, either. The fact that he can compete with the oppo bigs means more room for the rest of the fellas to get their shots off and, especially helpful in this game, less traffic when it comes to those fast breaks.

The Crocs happen to have last season’s MVP in their ranks but Brian Conklin wasn’t able to get his hands on the controller this game. He’s actually got a rough record against the Breakers, not once getting to his season average points total against them last season – especially damaged by a 1 of 13 shooting night for 3 points on Halloween. His next lowest total was 11 points, also against NZB. Pocketed. But while he didn’t dominate, he did still have a decent game, though it was 24 year old US import Jordair Jett that looked most troubling whenever he got involved.

The lead shrunk in the second as the Breaks went smaller but Cedric did enough to keep it distanced. He was on triple-double watch from about a quarter in. Bartlett was able to get better looks in this one too, and with his range of shooting they’re able to actually draw up plays to get him those looks more often. Based on this game, that’ll only happen more and more (unless Corey comes back in which case… hmm). He buried a three to finish the half, blowing the lead back up to 10 after some circus play from Cedric, see below.

Townsville kept at it, never quite going away, but the Breakers were always able to pad that lead, keeping it from ever getting too worrying. Bartlett shot the ball gorgeously and Catfish was able to bring the energy in the second half just as he did in game one. He’s gotta be a fan favourite before long. Ooh, and Reuben Te Rangi had himself an undercover afternoon too, giving his usually fine defence in his 18 minutes on the court as well as hitting 3 from 3 from deep for 12 points. He’s hot and cold as a shooter still (as most young player are) and this game the tap was certainly on red. Could be a breakthrough season for RTR if all goes as planned.

There was a feeling, however, that if Townsville had shot better than this could have been a different game. They repeatedly turned down good looks to head inside on the dribble only to either get rejected by the doorman or to simply miss their attempts. The Breakers deserve plenty of credit for not giving up easy shots in close but with some strong lads there the Crocs ought to have done more. But, yeah, miles better interior defence from NZB. Catfish and the Pledgehammer get plenty of raps. Tai Wesley too but he doesn’t have a cool FBR nickname yet which harms his case. Also he took some dumb shots. Nobody with the skill set of Tai wants to be a strictly post-up player but that is his best strength on offence. He’s bloody good when you can isolate him on a defender.

A quick burst of points in the fourth pushed the lead out to 15, TA, Bart & Cedric all hitting shots. It ended up closer than that but there was no way it was getting close enough to matter. The only shame was that the rebounds dried up for Cedric and his triple-double didn’t survive the game. 14 points, 12 assists and 8 rebounds. Still a vintage performance from the champ.

All of the starting five scored in double figures, plus RTRs 12 point off the bench. Abercrombie had 12 & 8r in his return, Pledger marred his own comeback with 8 & 5 in 15 mins. Catfish had 10 & 9, Tai had 11 & 8, and special mention to Everard Bartlett for his 19 points, top scoring off only 9 shots. He hit 5 of 7 three pointers. For the Crocs, Conklin ended up with 15 points (shooting 6/11) with 12 rebounds and Jett (“I can almost remember their funny faces…”) scored 16.

There was some question as to whether Cedric actually did get that triple-double as the in-game announcer let the crowd know as much. The stat board at Vector had him at 10, but either way an extra couple of rebounds don’t make him any more/less dominating. Still pleny of room for improvement but it was a lot better than last game. Bring on the rest of the season.

Stocks:

Movin’ On Up Like Curtis Mayfield – Everard Bartlett, man. 19 points, some fluent shooting and plenty of reason to keep him around. The word has been that Bartlett stays if Webster doesn’t come back but maybe they rethink that now? Which could mean bad news for Shane McDonald if that’s the case. Old Mac had 4 points and an assist in a quiet 14 minutes. He does fill a valuable role in this team as the backup point guard so that confuses things too. Hey, it’s a nice problem to have and who even knows if Webby’s coming back at all?

Goin’ Down Slow Like Howlin’ Wolf – Whoever’s responsible for the discretion between the NBL scorers and the ground scorers or whatever’s up with all that. We had it at 8 following the NBL app’s live stats and that seemed right but meh. It’s Cedric’s fourth trip-dub if it counts.

Key Stat

Before sitting out today’s game, Mika Vukona had played 210 consecutive matches in the ANBL. This was just the second game he’s missed in the last decade.

Play of the Game

Off the back and out to Bartlett for the late three. Cedric you freakin’ wizard.

Season MVP Standings

Cedric Jackson – 6

Everard Bartlett – 2

Charles Jackson – 2

Tai Wesley – 2

Match MVP Points

Cedric Jackson – 3

Everard Bartlett – 2

Charles Jackson – 1

Reuben Te Rangi – 1

Up Next

Wednesday, 9.30pm: Illawarra Hawks vs NZ Breakers, WIN Entertainment Centre (NZT)