Townsville Crocs 89-66 NZ Breakers

Well, now that was an eventful week. Not only the dramas in the 2OT Hawks loss on Sunday or this particular banger either, but also the kinda unexpected resignation of Coach Dean Vickerman at the end of the season. And not only him either but CEO/GM Richard Clarke has been headhunted and is also leaving the club. He’s off to the Brissie Bullets to chill with C.J. Bruton.

In fact, the Bullets are gonna have one hell of a Breakers core to it (there are worse teams to mimic, to be fair), because Andrej Lemanis will be coaching the expansion side and you can expect a couple ex-Breakers on that roster given all that. No word on where Vickerman is off to.

Replacing those two is actually some really exciting news. Paul Henare will step up into head coach, a promotion for the current assistant and a very deserving one for the Tall Blacks coach and NBL winning boss of the Southland Sharks. As for Clarke, his role will be taken over by another former starlet: Dillon Boucher. Both men have been groomed for their new role and there are few better signs of a well-oiled franchise than when those plans come to fruition. Plenty of good vibes from all that.

But those are developments for the 2016/17 Breakers to deal with. This game was for the 2015/16 edition and after four lost games on the trot and the final playoff spot starting to drift towards the horizon, it was one that the defending champs really needed to win. No excuses, no problems. It’s too getting late for the ones that got away.

Plus they’ve already beaten this team on the road once this season. So… two quick fouls on Catfish Jackson weren’t ideal and neither was falling behind bright and early.

It’s the same thing for every team in playing the Breakers now. Double Corey Webster and ask someone else to beat ya. And bloody hell, even when it doesn’t work it doesn’t miss by much. There was a possession in the mid-1Q when Webby had nowhere to go but backward, flipping it to Mika who found himself in an unnatural place: the three point line. And as good a player as he is, he’s not a deep baller, not only did he step on the line with his front foot but he air-balled the sucker under the hoop. Out of his depth, apparently. Soon after that a Clint Steindl triple after an off-board followed by an and-one by Omar Samham and it was 21-7 to the home team. And then 23-7, Steindl into double figures hitting his first four field goals. For God’s sake, guys.

At the end of the first it was 29-18, Cedric with a three-point play to shorten the deficit right at the end there. A nice end to the Q but dammit it was a sloppy opening. Getting slammed on the boards and giving away fouls. Don’t wanna be playing against head-starts when the W is at a premium but that’s exactly where they let themselves be with some poor defence but especially some messy offence.

There were a couple times when guys just left their lanes on defence. Went wandering for no real reason, leaving fee paths to the basket. You can’t call a guy’s bluff like that on his dribble. That’s nothing but laziness. But at the same time there were signs of a comeback all the same. Webster found new ways to get involved, Pledger and Wesley provided some points and they got a few stops the other end. But a slow finish to the half pushed it back out to 50-34. Too many points to concede and not scoring nearly enough.

“I’m disappointed in how soft we’re playing!” – Dean Vickerman at HT

About right. The message seemed to get through because the effort was much improved. The full court press came out prematurely and that meant some good and some bad results, as it goes. What really helped them was the rebounding. So much better, if only could hit a few bleeding threes. Honestly, this wasn’t one of those games where they unreasonably relied on triples. They were working some good looks and simply missing. Webster, Jackson, Abercrombie… they couldn’t seem to finish their threes. Meanwhile Clint Steindl couldn’t miss. 21 points for him midway into the third.

Problem was, both Mika and Catfish were in foul trouble, leaving the frontcourt a little exposed. The Pledgehammer was having a fine game but then so was Mitch Norton. Down by 20 with two and a half left in the third. It was 69-48 after three and very difficult to envision a comeback after their previous efforts fell so tamely flat.

And so it happened to be. We can moan about rough officiating but the Breakers keep getting this and at some point you have to adapt and realise that they are gonna call certain things so you don’t wanna do those things. Common sense, really. Shooting fouls are one thing but loose ball fouls really shouldn’t be a regular. Cedric got tech’d for having a moan at the refs, there were definitely some home court calls, yet you don’t have to let that stuff beat you. Catfish got feisty on a couple occasions too. Clear and vocal frustration.

First quarter of the final quarter and the only points for NZB came from a reverse alley-oop between the Jacksons. Cedric had a three circle the drain and drop only to foul out with 6:51 remaining. Then Sanham flipped a treble and the Breakers turned it over, back to square uno. No matter what they did to get inside or outside looks, neither bore any fruit. This was a rubbish loss to a team that isn’t even much good.

At least there’s the chance for a quick turnaround on Saturday against the Taipans. Pretty soon they’re gonna start being proper Must-Wins.

The chief destroyers were Steindl with 23 (shooting 8 of 13) and Samham with 16 and 12. Norton added a cheeky 14 points himself. On the other side, Webster offered just 11 points, 4 of 12, while Jackson wasn’t far ahead with 12 from 4/11. Tai Wesley top-scored with 13 points thanks to a bit of garbage time balling and also his 5/5 free throws. Everard Bartlett made a couple late threes too, which boosted the team’s stats to 6 of 24 from 3pt. 25%, that’s still quite crap.

Stocks:

Movin’ On Up Like Curtis Mayfield – Nobody on the bloody court, that’s for sure. Instead moving on up this week is the succession line. Coach and CEO are for the exit, everyone else moves up a spot. It’s so incredibly helpful for a team to have these plans in place and be able to swiftly and smoothly transition through a blow like losing you coach. Though it’s worth wondering when he made the decision, how much the players already knew and whether that happens to coincide with this five game skid that has NZB back at 11-11 for the season, winning record (temporarily) gone.

Goin’ Down Slow Like Howlin’ Wolf – Tom Abercrombie got a duck. O-for. Blanked and shut out. He didn’t score a single point in his 27 minutes on the court, missing all seven of his field goal attempts. That’s so uncharacteristic for a guy who has such a pure shooting motion and has so often been able to get those key buckets. Here he was rimming out open looks in the corner and everything. Too many late nights with fatherhood or something.

Key Stat

Play of the Game

Always dig a bit of up and atom from Corey:

Season Standings

Cedric Jackson – 30

Corey Webster – 28

Tom Abercrombie – 20

Match MVP Points

Mika Vukona – 3

Tai Wesley – 2

Alex Pledger – 1

Up Next

Saturday, 9.30pm: Cairns Taipans vs NZ Breakers, Cairns Convention Centre (NZT)