NZ Breakers 91-94 Illawarra Hawks

Melbourne Utd 98-74 NZ Breakers

The first sign that this was gonna be a terrible week for the Breakers was when Corey Webster got arrested. That was a bad start to the week, no doubt. There’s every chance that nothing more comes of it but there’s a court date set for a few days’ time (or something, dunno) and while the Breakers came out with a very classy statement supporting their dude having investigated the whole thing, they also decided they didn’t want one of their players out until the early hours of the morning at an Auckland bar when there was a game in a few days, regardless of whether it was his birthday or not. Sorry, Corey. That’s a one game suspension.

Since none of us were there, there’s no point in speculating about what happened. Instead we’ll trust that the club know how to handle these things. But dammit they coudla used him on Friday night.

Webster getting suspended was the second bad sign. The third was when it turned out that their game on Sunday was on at the same time as the first Hadlee-Chappell ODI because of course it was. The Phoenix game too, goddammit.

So prepare yourself, this was not a good weekend. The Breakers lost at home to Illawarra and then on the road to a resurgent Melbourne team and with that they drop to 6-8 for the season and last on the table. They swapped places with Melbourne with this result – actually three of the bottom four teams were in the playoffs last season. What a comp, aye?

What’s there to say now? There’s no point dredging up bad memories with the play by plays so how about this as an indication of how things went. This is the scoring development chart (shout out to the NBL.com stats) from the Illawarra game. When the line turns blue, that’s when the Breakers were leading.

It was never blue. This was a home game for chrissake.

The deal was much better in Melbourne except that having never trailed until midway through the second quarter they then ended that Q on a 14-3 Melly run and from there they got blown out in the second half (36-50).

Now, both of these teams have the ability to pile on points and they’ll do this to better defences than the Breakers boast. Illawarra got absolute gold off their bench from Rotnei Clarke and Marvel Harris, Clarke with 22 points and Harris 17 while Melbourne survived a pretty average game from David Anderson (10 pts, 2/10 shooting) thanks to 26 points from Casper Ware. No ghosting from that bloke (sorry…). But here’s the thing… the Breakers had a better field goal percentage than Melbourne and were only a percent worse off than Illawarra. They comfortably outrebounded each of them and the assist tallies were pretty even. What went wrong then?

Against the Hawks you have to look at the perimeter defence when a team is shooting 12 of 24 from their threes. That is not sustainable for any playoff defence and while Melly Utd were a much more palatable 36%, the Breakers tossed up trash with 16/56 for the weekend’s 3PAs. They also committed 16 turnovers in each game and an average of 29 personal fouls adding up to 63 free throw attempts, of which the oppo buggers landed 49 points. Like, you can cop a couple huge games from the other guys if you’re just that unlucky because those things can’t be plotted. But goddammit guys, don’t make it so bloody easy for them.

Anyway, let’s run through some positive before we banish the last few days to the furthest point back in our memories. Banish this weekend like Armin Tamzarian. In the Hawks game we got some quality out of David Stockton piling on those little drives to the hoop, mixing it up with a few jumpers and plenty of slick passing on his way to 24 points and 10 assists in his first start as a Breaker (he got the chance with Webster suspended but stayed in the main five for Melbourne with Webster returning to the bench – punishments can have a few different effects, son). Akil Mitchell also scored 12 with 11 boards and Mika Vukona for long periods was the only thing holding the team together at both ends with his 11 points (5/6 FG) & 9 boards. Unfortunately he also had fouls a-plenty. Then there was Rob Loe chipping in with a very busy 15 minutes of court time playing as a stretch big like he should and taking lots of shots. 21 points, 9/12 FG. Two triples and 5 rebounds. We needed to see a performance like this from him, even if he still clearly has issues keeping guys off the FT line on defence.

Over in Melly things were plenty uglier. When you only score 51 points in three quarters then it’s hard to find much to brag about. Corey Webster top scored with 15 points, though he needed 17 shots to get there and was 1/7 from deep. Gotta find a way to get to the line, he’s our best free throw shooter but he’s never there. Kirk Penney scored 14 and he is a guy who does know how to draw a foul. Get talking, lads. Trade a few secrets.

Umm… Alex Pledger got 10 with 5 rebounds which was solid. On this day, solid was good enough for bonus points. Then Mika did a few things too, granted without scoring much. Nice to see Shea Ili getting a run around too

Stocks:

Movin’ On Up Like Curtis Mayfield – Please, no. Not this week. Maybe Dillon Boucher as GM with the way he handled Webster’s indiscretion. There’s a lot to be said for an organisation that can react with as much poise as that, balancing the fans, the player, the teammates, the league, all of them. Good man.

Goin’ Down Slow Like Howlin’ Wolf – This is hugely out of character so there’ll be no proselytising here, but this is what Tom Abercrombie’s weekend looked like:

6 PTS (3/16 FG) / 7 REB / 4 AST / 3 STL / 2 BLK / 3 TO / 7 PF

The one consistent guy in the team and he had more fouls than points. What in the actual hell is going on!?

Key Stat

Have another look at the Abercrombie stats. It wasn’t all his fault by any means but those numbers are pretty indicative of a shocker of a few days.

Play of the Game

Meh, he’s done better.

Melbourne MVP Points

Kirk Penney – 3

Alex Pledger – 2

Corey Webster – 1

Illawarra MVP Points

David Stockton – 3

Rob Loe – 2

Mika Vukona – 1

Season MVP Standings

Tom Abercrombie – 15

Alex Pledger – 13

Kirk Penney – 12

Up Next

Thursday, 7.30pm: NZ Breakers vs Brisbane Bullets, Vector Arena (NZT)