Okay now, what have we got here? The supposedly slumping Breakers whipped out two straight wins over the Illawarra Hawks – one at home and one away – and have booked their place in the semi-finals. Two difficult wins over a desperate opponent. One built on clutch defence and the other on clutch offence. Geez, if only there’s been someone out there telling you that the Breakers were on the verge of something like this…

For real though, this was quality. This was what they’ve been building back towards, getting different guys stepping up when they need them and making it happen when they needed it most. The Breaks outscored the Hawks 24-18 in the fourth quarter over there to win by four points and did them 23-16 in the 4Q back in Aotearoa to also win that one by four spare points. Where they’d been struggling for late-game offence in recent times, the main hangover from the earlier slump, suddenly they were the team making plays, getting buckets, working open shots, making free throws.

DJ Newbill was superb in both games. 11 points (5/8 FG), 7 rebounds & 2 assists in the away one and then 20 points (7/13 FG), 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal in the home game. Take a peek at the bottom of the page and you’ll see that the hombre’s making a late run at Edgar Sosa’s MVP favouritism. Sosa was a combined 7/20 for the double-header, and 4/13 from deep. That’s nothing terrible but it’s also not his best. There’s room to grow there (although let it be known that he still made a couple crucial free throws in one game and a big 4Q triple in the other).

Instead it was Shea Ili who was pleasantly back to his early form, getting involved in the first game with a team-best +18 while on the floor despite only shooting 4/12 (and 1/5 from 3pt range). But he was busy and he flipped it around for three assists. As long as he’s creating offence, that’s the important thing. He’s been limited by teams who’ve allowed him to take those jump shots and he’s not always been so keen to let them fly. He wants to get to the rim, make that layup or take the foul. Maybe both.

Against Illawarra he was confident enough to shoot and after 9 points on 12 shots in the first, he responded with 17 points on 4/8 shooting the next – making 9/9 from the free throw line. It’d be an oversimplification to say he got back to his best self just because he missed some shots the previous time. The formula is to punish teams that stand off by dropping triples and forcing them to respect the jump shot. Yet Ili shot a combined 1/7 from distance here so that’s nothing at all for an opposition defence to worry about.

Instead what really opened things up was his passing. Rather than trying to attack a crowded paint area, he was dishing the ball around for 8 combined assists. And with Tom Abercrombie and DJ Newbill hitting seven threes between them that’s enough to get defences stretched. With that happening, Ili subsequently went wild. 10 of his 17 points in the second game came in the fourth quarter. Establish the wider offence then go hard at the end. It bloody works, mate.

By the way, Ili – along with Delaney, Vukona, Abercrombie and Loe - is off contract after this season (along with the imports, obviously). Might wanna do something about that in a hurry.

Paul Henare: “Now we can shift our focus. With four games left we have a legitimate shot at home court advantage and playing for the top two. We’ve ticked one box, now we want to try and gain any little advantage we can, and home court advantage is a big one for us.”

Four games to go, semi-final place already confirmed. And with these two wins the Breaks have soared up to second place, helped a lot by Perth losing to Adelaide straight after their second win (that game ended in a big old scrap, it was very enjoyable). Still got a game in hand on Perth who are half a game back and two games in hand on Adelaide who’re one win up. The Breakers edge both on win percentage as it stands but they have to win at least one of those games in hand to maintain it. Plus with Melbourne United sitting top with 17 wins and 24 games played… first place is still in range as well.

The difference between first and second is smaller than the difference between second and third or fourth. Gotta get that home semi-final and let a potential away grand final series take care of itself. As luck would have it, the Breakers play Melly Utd on Friday. It’s in Melbourne, which is tricky, but they then get them again at Spark Arena on Sunday. Another double-header. The Breakers have already beaten Melbourne twice this season so they’ll rate themselves to do it again – NZB and Perth are the only two teams to beat MU in Melbourne too.

Win both of those and they’ll be top. Then in round 19 they host the Hawks one last time before travelling the ditch to face Sydney in their closer. Two teams out of playoff contention. Here are the four semi-finalists remaining schedules:

Melbourne United:

vs NZB | at NZB | vs PER | vs ILL

New Zealand Breakers:

at MEL | vs MEL | vs ILL | at SYD

Adelaide 36ers:

at ILL | vs BRI

Perth Wildcats:

vs CAI | at MEL | vs CAI

So first place is on the line this weekend just as their semi-final place was on the line last weekend – the difference being that this time the Breaks are in the all-or-nothing possie that the Hawks were in. Adelaide are a tricky one as they beat the Breakers three times outta four so avoiding them in the semis would be preferable. Might take finishing first for that to happen, although any combination of seedings is possible right now. Just because they’re into the semis doesn’t mean the Breakers can chill out.

MVP Points vs Illawarra

3 – DJ Newbill

2 – Shea Ili

1 – Tom Abercrombie

MVP Points at Illawarra

3 – Rob Loe

2 – DJ Newbill

1 – Edgar Sosa

Overall Standings (After 24 Games)

Edgar Sosa – 32 Pts

DJ Newbill – 28

Tom Abercrombie – 21

Shea Ili – 14

Kirk Penney – 11

Alex Pledger – 11

If you rate the stuff that TNC does then slap an ad to help the team out, good on ya!