NZ Breakers 79-86 Cairns Taipans

This was a weird week – the Breakers lost a game they were expected to win and then went and won a game that most people thought they’d lose. And they did it without their new point guard, David Stockton, son of John. Yes, John Stockton the NBA’s all-time leader in assists. Utah Jazz legend and Hall of Famer. That John Stockton.

The Breakers signed his son. Sounds like he was on the shortlist before they eventually went with Ben Woodside but with that guy out for what sounds like a couple months (at least six weeks) Dave’s been called in as a replacement import. They have a spare slot anyway. Let’s come back to him at the end coz it’s pretty related to a couple performances this weekend but it’s also worth saying that Cedric Jackson’s timely release by Melbourne would have had nothing to do with the Breakers – other than them beating Melly Utd twice already. They’ve moved on to a different style of offence, he’s a legend but he ain’t coming back.

Stocky was unavailable this weekend but he was in attendance to watch the Cairns game at Vector. Fair enough, the Taipans were also without Travis Trice, their US import guard. Lucky for them they did have Cam Gliddon though. That bugger. They also started red hot with Nate Jawai beginning things with a layup before Gliddon and Fuquan Edwin each made threes for a sharp 8-0 lead. But as Tom Abercrombie started to get a couple shots to fall – bloody hell if he ain’t been our best player this season, he’s got a commanding lead on the FBR MVP stakes already! – and the Breakers soon hauled that back to be 22-17 up after the first quarter. TA scored 8 of them.

Corey Webster continued his thing of running the point, he’s looked better since he assumed ball-handling duties. This isn’t a team that runs its half-court offence through one bloke like they have with Cedric in the past, so the change isn’t too dramatic from playing off the wing. In fact without Woodside, we’ve seen Webster, Penney and Tueta all sharing those duties and then we’ve also seen them all on the court at the same time. Interesting stuff from Coach Henare, who’s been showing a couple more tricky lineups recently.

Anyway, Webster’s looked good with the adapted role but that doesn’t mean he’s been flawless. A travel in the first quarter was an ugly one, while his shooting is still down on where it could be. He’s not a high percentage shooter, he’s a volume guy, so that’s not the worst. Just a little frustrating because you get the feeling he plays better when he can get that first one to drop.

That must’ve been the case in the second quarter, which he opened with a layup for cash and ended scoring 7 with 2 assists in the frame. The good thing about getting the ball in his hands is it opens up his ability to put the ball on the deck and drive to the hoop, which then means more chance of getting to the free throw line where he’s such a gun and then even if that doesn’t happen and he misses the finish, well guys like Alex Pledger and especially Akil Mitchell are no mugs at those put-back offensive boards.  

The Breakers hardly dominated the second though. By the end they led 40-39 and only then coz Webster timed his final play run to the hoop to perfection. Cam Gliddon was 4/4 shooting in the half, he’d come out with an even longer leash after the break. Dunno what was up with Rob Loe. He was jawing with Jawai quite a bit and ended up fouling out with less than 12 minutes of total court time to his name. Gotta be better/smarter than that, bro.

Here’s a weird one: the last seven shots the Breakers attempted in the third quarter (going back to the last 3:40 of the 3Q) were all three pointers. They made three of them so that’s okay but you’d imagine that Henare was calling for a little more variety than that. They then came out in the fourth and after a Webster turnover, popped a Rob Loe three and missed another three triples after that. So… 11 consecutive field goals, all 3PAs. What the hell, guys?

Part might have been the pressure of the Taipans hitting the deep ball themselves. By the time Mika broke the trend with a two pointer, they’d fallen behind again and Cam Gliddon then promptly ensured they went back into a deficit with another flippin’ triple. It wasn’t good, mate. Falling into silly mistakes and then missing decent enough looks cost them.

The Breakers were outscored 27-17 in the final quarter. There were six turnovers in there, including a shot clock violation and – inexplicably – two more Webster travels. They shot 3/5 from 2pt but 3/10 from 3pt in the frame and found themselves falling to a comfortably defeat in a game they had led after every other quarter. Hard to say why this happened, other than that they could’ve used Ben Woodside as a floor general towards the end. Abercrombie made a three with six seconds left that didn’t make a difference so it wasn’t even as close as it sounds.

One thing that wasn’t expected was the Taipans to come out and shoot as well as they did. They’re not a high scoring team at all yet here they bagged 13 trebles at 56%. The Breakers made 12 at 38%. Take out the 4Q numbers and they were 9/21 which works out to 43% or so. At that rate, they were sticking with the Taipans. The number slips a bit and so does the team. You can’t be relying on that.

They also were unlucky to have to deal with Cam Gliddon scoring 25 points on 9/11 shooting, making 5/6 from deep. Yeah, he was a thorn in the side. Maybe someone try stopping him next time, aye? Mitch Worthington also got a bit too much with his 17 points and Edwin added 14 for Cairns.

On the Breakers side, Abercrombie scored 18 (6/13 FG), Webster 17 (7/16 FG) and Penney 16 (5/14). 12 of those attempts from Penney were triples. Not that unusual to see him prefer the deep one but it’s better you shoot more than 25% if you’re gonna do that. Again, he had some good looks. They just didn’t drop.

Mika Vukona had a huge effort with 10 rebounds and 4 assists but he only scored 4 points (2/4 FG). They’re not gonna run too many plays for him with all the shooting surrounding, are they? A bit of a frustration that Mitchell didn’t play more, he had 8 pts, 4/4 FG but also 4 PFs which kept him to 17 minutes. Izzy Tueta didn’t do a lot in his 22 mins (5 pts, 2 ast) and Rob Loe’s already garnered a mention. Just a strange game, where the Breakers were a step off the pace and made to pay for it.

Ah, but this:

Perth Wildcats 86-87 NZ Breakers

That Cairns loss was made even tougher by what followed it: a trip to Perth to play their biggest rivals of the last decade. The last seven champions being drawn from this duo, remember. There’s a name for this rivalry: It’s called the NBL Finals. But recently the home team has generally prevailed, which was the way it went in last season’s finals as home court held throughout as the Wildcats won it all.

Stockton wasn’t ever gonna be considered for this game either, though they’re anticipating him being ready for Friday. Sounds fair, can’t really chuck him on the court so soon after arriving in the country nor can you then chuck him straight back on a plane to Perth and ask him to play there either. His role is a little up in the air though. Clearly they need another point guard – they’re balancing rotations on a precipice now and Tueta can’t be expected to play big productive minutes. Sure if he’s having a good one he’s shown you can ride with him but to expect that game after game is a risk.

After a mostly good game against Cairns (littered with some dumb mistakes), Corey Webster then had his best of the season in Perth. Got himself full MVP points below. It’s doubtful Henare wants to keep him as the starting PG given how the season began but then he’s also played his best ball there. Coming off the bench he’s looked rusty and short on energy. Since he’s started running things more it’s been a different story. Keep an eye on if Stockton might play off the bench himself, even if only to begin with.

Webster and Penney both made early triples and the Breakers shot out to a 10-4 lead. They wouldn’t score another point for almost four and a half minutes. 4:27 to be exact. Remember that number. That they were able to keep Perth to only a 21-19 lead was then a positive, what with barely over half a quarter’s worth of scoring done.

Right, so that 4:27 scoreless? Starting from the last 15 seconds of the first quarter, Perth found themselves on a 4:07 streak without a point to balance things out. What’s twenty seconds between friends? Nothing, the Breakers were able to get to the line for money and would take a 46-41 lead into HT. A lead that should have been bigger too, had they not let the home team finish the half on a 7-1 run. Casey Prather doing the business there.

Matty Knight too, between them lads the Wildcats were looking really tough. The second half was a real slow burn. Two competitive teams each wanting a win, Perth trying to keep an unbeaten home start chugging and the Breakers hoping to make up for a sloppy Friday night (hey, we’ve all had a few of those before).

Knight and Prather, man. Normally the Breakers are a top shelf rebounding team but they were completely done in for here. 59 boards to 40 – almost 50% more – and that’s a huge margin to overcome. Knight would haul in 13 of them and Prather 10. It was really frustrating, as in a close contest you ideally wanna limit those second chance points. At least that makes sense in theory. Actually, the SCP numbers were almost even… but that’s in part down to some trash from a few other contributors. Corban Wroe played 33 scoreless minutes. As for Jaron Johnson… we’ll come back to Jaron Johnson.

Honestly, the Breakers deserve heaps of credit for staying in this one at all. Perth had a feisty crowd feeding on plenty of momentum as they overtook the Breaks and went ahead but a few timely shots meant the kiwi side were always within arm’s reach. Webster had a fine performance with 20 points and 7 assists, again not shooting especially well but staying involved and staying aggressive. Tom Abercrombie had some cheeky buckets on his way to 17 points too. Then there was Akil Mitchell playing some tough basketball on his way to 16 points and 10 boards. Important stuff from him, there were a few stretches where he was seriously relied upon, being a dude who could score inside.

Matt Knight’s three point play made it a 70-72 game with a tad under four minutes left, when Casey Prather fouled out. Safe to say that helped. The Breakers had managed to limit Prather by moving Vukona onto him as a defender, a move that was facilitated with he and Mitchell both taking the court at once, flanked by Webster, Penney and Abercrombie. Really exciting lineup, a small one too with Perth still going hard with Knight and Wagstaff. Mika offers so much to this team even when he doesn’t fill the box scores.

Perth edged in front but Abercrombie hit a massive triple. Then Mika went and spoiled some of his good defensive work by missing two free throws. Johnson made 1/2 of his own, Penney missed a two for the late lead and then Johnson couldn’t score on the final possession. Off to overtime...

... Where the Breakers looked like they couldn’t hit a damn thing. Looking to get Penney and Webster going, they couldn’t. Thankfully Akil Mitchell chipped in with a few, his tip-in from a Vukona miss was enormous to cut the deficit to a point. He did the same later on after Penney had missed and that had NZB down by one with 16 seconds left. They didn’t foul. Instead they pressed the full-court and while the foul was sure to come as soon as they advanced it, they didn’t have to as Jaron Johnson inexplicably threw it away. Broooo… what are you doing!?

Poor Jaron. He was cut from the Wildcats the other week (after a crap showing vs the Breakers) and replaced by a new import. But that new guy left straight away for personal reasons and they re-signed Johnson. Don’t be surprised if they cut him again now. After Prather fouled out, which was one of the decisive moments of this contest, he assumed the playmaking roles and with 12 points on 3/16 shooting and 0 assists it’s safe to say he didn’t quite do his job.

Which gave the Breakers one last chance to take the lead and Webster utilised it like a champ.

YES!!!

Also, Penney scored 15 points on 5/17 shooting. Vukona had 6p/8r/2a/2s. Prather scored 20 with 10 boards and 3 assists (but 7 turnovers) and Knight had a career-high 24 points and 13 boards. Such a big effort to win in Perth – that’s the second overtime road win on the trot too. Time to exhale now.

They did a baby race at half time, which was a bit of a laugh. It’s been done in the NBA before, you get one parent with a baby at one line and then the other parent maybe 10-15 metres away and the first baby to crawl the distance wins. They never do, which is part of the charm. But for those of you saying it was the best half-time entertainment ever, take a look at what the Cavs just did. This trumps all:

This guy. This guy is a hero who speaks for all of us:

Stocks:

Movin’ On Up Like Curtis Mayfield – He’s been hobbled by a hip injury and we probably won’t ever know how much that affected him early but Webby is back, folks. Two games where he was able to make important shots and pile up the stats and he polished a strong weekend off with the winner against Perth. The Breakers don’t need one guy to dominate every game but if Webster and Penney are alternating the heavy duty scoring then they’re in a fine place. The way he worked through traffic to get that final shot up… that’s not easy at all.

Goin’ Down Slow Like Howlin’ Wolf – Rob Loe really did get low over the weekend. 8 fouls and less than 24 minutes in total across the games. He was scoreless in Perth, though he did bag three assists. Gotta figure out a way to be sturdier on defence though because it’s costing him right now.

Key Stat

Play of the Game

This one went down smoothly, that’s for sure.

MVP Points vs Perth

Corey Webster – 3

Akil Mitchell – 2

Tom Abercrombie – 1

MVP Points vs Cairns

Tom Abercrombie – 3

Mika Vukona – 2

Corey Webster – 1

Season MVP Standings

Tom Abercrombie – 15

Alex Pledger – 8

Three Players on 7

Up Next

Friday, 7.30pm: NZ Breakers vs Illawarra Hawks, North Shore Events Centre (NZT)