NZ Breakers 91-78 Melbourne United

For the fifth time in six years, the New Zealand Breakers are heading to the NBL Finals. No matter that they lost six games in a row midseason, no matter that they barely scraped into fourth and had to play the first placed Melbourne United. Following a fantastic performance in Victoria to take game one, the Breaks returned home with the chance to clinch at Vector. Lose and they’d hand back the momentum to Melly with game three scheduled for Friday over there. Turns out we won’t need that.

The game began with Dan Kickert sinking a three – that was half his game one points total right there within a few seconds. Cedric picked that difference up with an And-One. The free throw attempt was abysmal but it served a purpose: it reminded us of the brilliance of Mika Vukona as he catapulted himself for the offensive board. A major factor in the first win, off-boards were on the menu from the start. For both teams to be fair, Owen Odigie had a couple himself.

Unfortunately so were turnovers, and as great as Mika had been this series in every other regard, he was the main culprit here. Giving the ball back to them without a shot, that was keeping United on top through the beginning stages. But 2:55 left in the first and Abercrombie bombs one from three, the Breakers take their first lead 15-13.

Tai Wesley and Hakim Warrick got lippy pretty much as soon as they checked in. Hard, physical basketball, as far as the Breakers go it was great just to see they weren’t gonna let Warrick go to work like he did back in Melbourne. Abercrombie began with fire in his hand, Goulding did not. He clunked a few shots before finally making a deep two. A rare lane violation call meant Tai Wesley got a second chance at a missed FT before an even rarer occurrence… a beautiful, ripe Reuben Te Rangi three pointer. 23-17 after 1Q, Breakers on top.

Shea Ili continued his recent trend by getting in on the action more regularly. Guts though, the first thing he did was get completely sold up the river by Chris Goulding on the fake. Count it for three. But Ili’s a hustler and the very next possession he went flying - *flying* - through the air and over guys six to ten inches taller than him for an insane rebound. Apparently he has the best vertical leap in the Breakers team. Hard to doubt it, really.

In other news, Webster wasn’t at his best with the shot but he was doing good things on defence. He rode the contact to finish for two. Also Catfish Jackson was out of the fouls early on and that meant he was all the way into this game. There isn’t a hype player in the league better than Catfish, watching him charge down the court in celebration is an absolute joy and he really owns the chemistry tag. That is, the guy responsible for keeping the team’s emotional chemistry in balance. He made this great block on Warrick, showing that he’d learnt at least some of the lessons that HW took out on him last game. Two rebounds and two blocks with no personal fouls in his first 6:50. Big effort. Cedric and Tai hit threes and the lead was 33-24, the biggest of the night.

But Corey was still struggling, hurling them at 2/8 FG by this time and Melly came roaring back. A Goulding three tied it. A Kickert three put Melbourne in front. Cedric matched that one but Warrick took a knock for a three point play and followed that up by blocking Abercrombie at the rim. Cedric pulled off a veteran move to get a shooting foul on an intentional cop, MU coach Dean Demopoulos went raging at that. “That was a terrible call!”. Clever stuff from Ced but… Demo wasn’t far wrong to be honest. The most amazing part of it was that Cedric got all three free throws.

Anyway, that was after Goulding added five more and Steven Holt finished the half getting two on a Pledger goaltend. Half-time and United led 46-41, Cedric with 11 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in the first 2Qs. Goulding had 17.

Missed threes and rebounds were the third quarter theme. Either that or defence, the defence was looking tops from both teams. Really focussed in as each knew this could be their season on the line – for Melbourne it was, while for NZB you never want to waste a chance to clinch or else you’ll tend to be made to pay. Holt drilled one to make it 53-47, Abercrombie replied in turn. Webster was doing fine stuff with four assists but he couldn’t seem to sink a three pointer, with only 6 points on 13 shots at this stage. Still, there was this fella named Tai and he wasn’t ready for another international flight quite yet. His post moves were guiding the Breakers through a tough period and a smooth little hook shot got them within a basket. That basket came via Charles Jackson, shout out to the Ili bounce pass. 56-55 to NZB. That score was 58-57 to the Breaks at the end of a quarter of some magnificent defending.

Shots were traded in the fourth. 63-all, this was there for the taking for either side. A little Circus Cedric late in the shot clock, swish, Breakers up 68-63. Now the crowd were really screaming. Wesley poked away the ball on defence, ball to Ced on the fast break… Abercrombie makes two in the corner. 70-63. Then its Catfish getting the long ball under the basket, after breaking down the court like a wide receiver, he flips it to Abercrombie. Three points, count ‘em up. 73-63 and the Breakers were so in the zone, you could see United begin to show their frustrations. Catfish fouled out with 3:23 remaining but his steal off Warrick was massive before that.

And then with the game, with Melbourne’s season, in their hands, the Breakers kept on making shots. Abercrombie was incredible. He always shoots from the absolute peak of his jump, and that makes the whole wind up so much fun to see. Nobody in the league has a smoother shot, bar maaaaaybe Kirk Penney.

Kickert and Holt made threes to keep it mathematically possible. Then Warrick came up with a reverse dunk worth a dozen replays, although it wasn’t nearly enough.

83-73 with 1:38 on the clock. Now came the fouls but Mika was good on both of his, Abs made 1/2 and this one was all over. 91-78 was the final. Abs scored 23 shooting 9/15, Cedirc with 19p/8r/7a/2s and Wesley a crucial 16 points and 4 rebounds. On the other side of things Goulding topped with 23 but again he wasn’t able to make the clutch impact he desired. Warrick added 17 & 6 while Kickert scored 16.

Dean Vickerman: “Tom really wanted the basketball and tonight you could just see that there was an absolute confidence that he was going to make plays”

Remember that Melbourne didn’t have to play the Breakers. They settled for resting guys after securing top spot knowing that a win in NZ in the second to last game and the Breakers would’ve been on the brink. But if we’re playing the tactics game then it’s Perth who really won. In dropping to second without a worry, they get themselves in that Illawarra series with a chunk less travel to do and they get Melbourne taken care of. Kevin Lisch’s injury is a huge blow to the Hawks, though they did rebound to take game two, that one is 1-1 with the decider in Perth on Friday.

Which brings us to another complaint: the scheduling. Because the game threes of the semis were set for Friday, the finals don’t start until next week, a good long break for NZ but then potentially three games in five days and that could well be against Perth. That is a lot of travel, man. Not to mention that there’s a Madonna concert coming up at Vector that may force the Breakers back to the NSEC with a smaller crowd. It worked last season when they clinched there. But you’d rather 10,000 strong at Vector if ya can.

Key Stat

The final rebound count across these two games:

• NZB – 90
• MU – 68

43-36 in the first game and 47-32 in this one.

Additional Key Stat

That was the Breakers’ ninth consecutive playoff series victory and 11th consecutive playoff win. Both are Australian NBL records. 2012 was their last playoff loss – an 87-86 defeat in Perth to the Wildcats in the 2011-12 season finals.

Play of the Game

Match MVP Points

Tom Abercrombie – 3

Tai Wesley – 2

Cedric Jackson – 1