Cairns Taipans 73-66 NZ Breakers

Umm… what the hell was that exactly? Away in Cairns on New Year’s Eve, the Breakers came up with quite comfortably the worst offensive performance they’ll have all season (by the grace of God) in scoring a mere 66 points in four full quarters of basketball. Well, full by NBL standards but whatever. This was ugly.

There was no Markel Starks or Stephen Weigh for the Taipans, leaving them short on playmaking, however it was the absence of Tom Abercrombie (the NBL leader in minutes played – 33.7 per game) for the Breakers that was the biggest loss. The rest of the team stayed over in Oz after beating the Kings in Sydney but Abercrombie flew back to NZ early for the birth of his child, meaning he understandably missed the game.

Been in cairns for way too long 😳
— Corey Webster (@cwebster9) December 30, 2015

Thus a start for Reuben Te Rangi at SF, a rare opportunity to play big minutes with the starters (he’d play 30 mins). It also happened to coincide with a terrible team performance, unfortunately. Defensively there was nothing wrong. Despite Torrey Craig doing some nice things in his first start for the Taipans early on, the first quarter ended 18-17 in the home team’s favour. The Breakers with the last six points of the Q, finishing strong.

But the second was a black hole for buckets. From Corey Webster’s three with 9:17 to play right up until a Catfish dunk with 3:37 left in the quarter (that’s 5:40 of game time – more than half the period – for those without a calculator) the Breakers did not score a field goal. Eight misses and four turnovers, it was a complete shambles. Catfish had at least did- some nice things in the first half but aside from the odd Corey Webster jumper (he shot a very high volume but not especially well, we’ll come back to this) there wasn’t too much to talk about offensively. Most of these guys will play good defence. In fact, a team with the Jacksons, Mika, RTR, Corey, Tai Wesley and Alex Pledger taking most of the minutes will usually play great defence supposing they’re tuned in and getting the right coaching nods. But there was no offence coming and it was killing them. Keeping Cairns to 73 points should be a win any day for this team. 29-26 at the big break, Webster had 12 of them.

Spurred on by six quick points by Catfish Jackson, the Breakers shot out to a lead early in the third. They would be up by as many as six but then this Shaun Bruce dude happened. He’s a bloke who came through the franchise as a development player and signed a one-year extension before the season. Here he showed all the things that he’s good at, clever passing and protecting the ball, shooting selectively but shooting well. He scored 17 points (6/7 FG) with 4 assists. A career high for points. Then Cam Gliddon drilled a three right before the buzzer to make it a 50-44 CT lead.

Gliddon beats the buzzer #HardBall @CairnsTaipans @NZBreakers https://t.co/3M0E95LYDc
— NBL (@NBL) December 31, 2015

Try as they might, the Breakers couldn’t overhaul the difference. A Webster triple to bring it within two was matched next possession by a Bruce treble of his own and a Cedric three was matched by a Torrey Craig three. Timely offence to keep the Breakers at bay.

Here’s the problem: shooting balance. A crunch-time line-up of Cedric/Corey/Mika/Tai/Pledger offers one great jump shooter, two very sketchy jump shooters and two guys without much range beyond the paint at all (though Mika can sink them on his day – he’s probably underrated there). So what happened is that Webster was continually double-teamed, Cairns knowing that he couldn’t afford to pass because nobody else was gonna hit anything. Cedric actually shot 2 of 3 from 3pt but he’s at a woeful 20.4% for the season. Tai Wesley tends to play closer to the basket. It’s a wonder they didn’t try post him up a little more, actually, just to get a bit of inside punch going. Not sure why Catfish didn’t play more when fouls weren’t an issue and he offers more than Pledger on offence, but the Pledgehammer’s been playing well recently so fair enough (going back and forth with counter arguments: Catfish had 16p & 12r in 12 mins, he shoulda been there). They desperately needed Abercrombie, not only to space to floor but to actually score some points and hit some shots.

Which brings us to this idea: Where was Everard Bartlett? Only 2:41 of floor time with zero field goal attempts. He’s at 45.5% from deep this season, give the dude a chance when the offence is lacking like that!

“The score was the right total – it has been a grind of a game the couple of New Year’s games we’ve played up here have been in the 60s and low 70s so defensively we did a decent job. The biggest thing for me was (Cairns’) intent to get to the foul line. We settled for too many jump shots tonight and didn’t attack the rim enough.” – Dean Vickerman

Dead right, coach. Only eight free throw attempts in this game for the Breakers, that is far from good enough. Corey Webster last game (and in flashes elsewhere) showed a superb knack for dribbling to the hoop and making things happen, taking contact and drawing fouls. But he was double teamed, so… nothing happening there. Cedric gets stopped too coz teams know he wants to dribble and won’t stop and pop, so they stand off him more to protect the lane to the hoop. It’s a problem and without Abercrombie (who can do both of those things), it meant a whole lot of contested jumpers. Bloody tough to watch, really.

Webster top-scored with 24 points (9/24 FG, 6/13 3P), Mika had 9 rebounds, Wesley scored 7 off the bench (with 6 boards). Torrey Craig scored 21 for Cairns with 12 rebounds.

NBL Round 13 Cairns Taipans vs. New Zealand Breakers Highlights #HardBall @CairnsTaipans @NZBreakers https://t.co/4JwMizT6jG
— NBL (@NBL) December 31, 2015