Fast Break Report #10-11: Hawk Hunting/Hunted
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(Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images AsiaPa)
NZ Breakers 100-85 Illawarra Hawks
As far as weekend doubleheaders go, this one wasn’t as bad as last week. Just a quick pop over to Sydney, rather than the long-haul to Perth and this time it was the same for both teams because they were both the same teams. Illawarra at home followed by Illawarra away.
Granted, the Breakers lost all four against the Hawks last season so yeah, perhaps not the task they were hoping for. Oh no wait but since then they’ve nicked their top scorer, plus NZB swept the Hawks 4-0 in the two previous seasons. These things are easy to twist and spin.
Anyway, as predicted in this column last week, David Stockton made his Breakers debut off the bench, allowing Corey Webster to continue as starting PG. Fair enough, keep up with a good thing and ease the new guy into it. At least that was the plan, though 4 personal fouls for Webby meant that Stockie ended up playing roughly four seconds more on the court than Webster – with the pair sharing a lot of time as well.
Stocko did bloody good too, offering most of the little things this team needs in order to really provide the roster flexibility that suits having as many multi-skilled teammates as he does. Bit of playmaking, solid enough defence, a clever eye for a pass and especially the ability to score off the dribble. With as many solid jump shooters as the Breakers have, now also having a point guard who can draw traffic into the proverbial lane is a very good thing.
Supposing he can keep making his shots, that is. The dude topped-up with 17 points, 8/11 shooting and 5 assists to boot. As the game went on, he got more comfortable and he came up with a bunch of slick flip shots, particularly in the fourth quarter. A bit of that was garbage time stuff (and he had a team-high 4 turnovers) but all in all a very promising start.
Which is a phrase you could use about the game itself for the Breaks and you’d still be playing it conservative. They dropped 33 points in the first quarter. Seriously, what a start. Webster and Abercrombie going to work and it took the Hawks four full minutes before they got anything to drop, by which time the home side were 12-0 up at the NSEC.
Naturally, with the scoring potential of this Illawarra side, they soon starting sinking them. Rhys Martin picked up a few points. But then at the same time there was Kirk Penney doing what he does and doing it against his old team. 33-16 at the end of the first and it didn’t stop there. In his final home game Izzy Tueta came in and scored four quick points after the restart before Tom Abercrombie drew a three-point play and his recent free throw improvements shone through again as he made the entire trio count. As the third FT zipped through the net, the lead peaked at 24 points.
Half-time it was 57-38 and the Breakers felt worthy of every bit of that. Even Finn Delany was getting in there and going to work, although that shouldn’t be too shocking to see him crack double digit minutes since Rob Loe was out injured. The guy hurt a toe or something. Not having Loe obviously affects the bench scoring potential, though the way he played last week maybe not so much. Just as Webster took a while to carve out his role on this new team, Loe is having the same issue with fewer minutes to work with.
Disappointing then that the Breakers sorta eased off the gas pedal in the second half. They’d done so well to build a big lead but then were outscored 31-23 in the third quarter with the lead cut to 11 points thanks to Kevin White’s only field goal of the game to close the frame. But mostly it was the starting trio of A.J. Ogilvy, Rotnei Clarke and Marvelle Harris who all scored in the teens for the game that were able to haul it back. A couple times in the fourth they closed it to single figures, except Penney and Webster came up with some timely triples and the depths of the bench were unleashed for the final minute, the game ending with Tueta missing a three.
The Breakers shot 55% from the field, Illawarra were at 50%, plus the Breaks’ 10/22 three pointers were handy (ILL = 8/21). Then there was a 36-26 rebounding advantage and a 22-10 assist difference. Both teams turned the ball over 16 times, the Breakers pulling theirs out in the second half. Stockton scored 17, Abercrombie and Penney each with 16, Webster put away 14 with 4 assists and Pledger 14 with 8 rebounds.
Mika Vukona once again wasn’t a factor in the scoring yet he had 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals like the champ he is. That guy does so much, it’s ridiculous. He deserves the three MVP points, for this and all the other times he does the bulk of the dirty work to little acknowledgement. Stockie can have two for a thumbs-up debut while Webster gets the last point coz he got it all started. Penney, Abercrombie and Pledger all deserve something too but hey, what can ya do?
Illawarra Hawks 109-78 NZ Breakers
Last week they lost at home and salvaged that with a win on the road in Perth. This time the Breakers got that the more traditional way around. For whatever reason, they just looked flat in Wollongong. The effort was there, Mika was hurling himself all over the place and Tom Abercrombie did his best impersonation of his co-captain at one point when he went flying into an oppo player at full leap. But, like… some of the decision making was rash. Shots were off. It was a poor one.
Plenty of that came from the Hawks really laying on the press, keeping the Breakers from settling into their offensive sets and that flowed on into quite a few reckless turnover, trying to take advantage of a bit of space down low by threading these Hollywood assists and all that. A couple came off, which was handy. Plenty others did not, which was not.
Plus there were a lot of whistles, being honest here. Travels tend to be pretty clear cut calls so can’t really complain about that, but some of those charge calls were bloody harsh. Not that we can blame the result on a few refereeing decisions when the stars were missing hoops all evening. Kirk Penney landed a triple to get proceedings underway and that’d be about it until it was too late. Tom Abercrombie picked up the next couple points and the Breaks led 5-0 inside a minute. A 16-4 Hawks streak followed that and the home side led 26-20 after 1Q.
It was a difference approach in the second, as Mika and Akil combined for the first 11 points for NZB although maybe that was only coz Webster and Penney were missing. The Hawks outscored the Breakers by six in this frame as well, scoring 30 points, and at half-time they had it in their hands at 56-44. Long way back for the kiwis, though hardly insurmountable supposing the fellas that had been tossing bricks might figure that thing out. They didn't... but no reason to turn the telly off yet.
Interesting that the Hawks and coach Rob Beveridge made a couple changes to the starting five here. Kevin White came in for Rotnei Clarke and Cody Ellis came in for Nick Kay. White more than doubled his minutes with 7 points, Ellis tripled his with 9 points. However the real effect came from those bench lads as their three top scorers all began the game on the sidelines. Kay shot 8/11 on his way to 17 points, Rhys Martin 5/7 on his way to 15 and Clarke topped for the game with 22 points, 10/17. Tim Coenraad also scored 10 off the bench. A.J. Ogilvy also dined out with 12 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks. Yikes.
Ogilvy and Coenraad then began the third with a flurry and pushed the lead out to 17 points. They never again got it closer than 15 and if there was a comeback coming, it got lost along the way. Once again the Breakers had a ten-board advantage in rebounds and yet they also shot more than ten percent worse from the field, 53% v 41%. Also a relevant note in defeat: 22 turnovers versus only 10 for ILL. The Hawks scored 20 more points from those turnovers and they also considerably outscored the Breakers bench, 65-28. Probably understandable given how the teams were shuffled but not by that margin, mate.
The Breakers got to triple figures on Friday? Well the Hawks did it Sunday with 3:15 still to play. Touche. They lost by 31 points in the end, not the best for those defensive figures – which had been looking flash ‘til now. The Breakers entered this game averaging 83.8 points against per game. That’s sixth in the league out of eight, so not as good as last season but enough for a +4.0 differential – which only Sydney’s +4.1 could better. Safe to say that number’s taken a hit with this one.
Kirk Penney shot 3/11 for 9 points, all of them triples. Corey Webster was 2/12 for 5 points. That’s the biggest worry for this team, that both of those two have bad ones in the same game and it’s too much to overcome for a couple of streaky, high-volume shooters. Stocko was a little worse this time too, 10 points (4/11 FG) but he also had 7 assists and that vision oughta be a great thing for those two shooters once they’ve figured out the combos a bit deeper.
The best of the court for the Breaks was once again Alex Pledger. 16 points and 11 rebounds with 2 assists and a block. He’s a different player this season, finally looking fully healthy and he’s back to being a leading player. It’s his re-emergence that’s meant Rob Loe’s absence this weekend was only a footnote. Abercrombie added 11 points and 6 rebounds, Akil Mitchell was pretty good with 12 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Clunked a dunk though.
Stocks:
Movin’ On Up Like Curtis Mayfield – Right so the new guy looks solid. There’ve been plenty of words on David Stockton already in this column so no reason to keep harping on, but 27 points, 5 rebounds and 12 assists in his first two games is a pleasing way to kick things off.
Goin’ Down Slow Like Howlin’ Wolf – Shea Ili returns from his off-season injury now so Izzy Tueta is done with the team, flying back to Queensland and presumably starting work again on Monday. Guts bro. For a late replacement, it’s safe to say that Tueta did better than most people could have hoped. He added a bit of spark off the bench, shot alright and generally did his career prospects no harm with his cameo. Poor lad laid goose eggs across the board in his last game though, with 3 turnovers the only thing he tallied. No shots, no rebounds, no assists, etc.
All up, here are the averages for Tueta:
11 MINS | 38.7% FG | 35.7% 3PA | 1.1 REB | 1.1 AST | 3.8 PTS
Key Stat
Even after a 5/20 three point shooting night in Illawarra, the Breakers are still at a comfortably league-best 40.1% from deep this season. As a team. That’s crazy. Kirk Penney and Tom Abercrombie are 69/142 from 3pt between them – 48.6%.
MVP Points @ ILL
Alex Pledger – 3
Akil Mitchell – 2
David Stockton – 1
MVP Points vs ILL
Mika Vukona – 3
David Stockton – 2
Corey Webster – 1
Season MVP Standings
Tom Abercrombie – 15
Alex Pledger – 11
Corey Webster – 8
Up Next
Sunday, 4pm: Cairns Taipans vs NZ Breakers, Cairns Convention Centre (NZT)