Hoops

R2. Breakers Vs Sixers. Vector Arena

hope the lads behind us at home games are pleased DJ has gone. Bet they'll be even happier with the crap dished up by Wilson in the last few games. Least DJ hit shots, Wilson brings what? me/me/me/I/I/I?

please tell me cos im dying to know

Wilson questioned the tech and finally appeared to agree that it was too blatant to not be called.

DJ sucked for 3 seasons and played to his potential for one. Then he left. That's all.

If he had sucked for 3 seasons and then stayed and played to his potential for the next 3 - all good.

But Adelaide and its fans were played. In fact they are only people he outplayed consistently for 3 years.

Adelaide were pretty aggressive early and did earn a lot of those calls, NZ were tentative and took a little while to get into it and got beaten off the dribble and were getting whistled. Once they got their offence together and started putting Adelaide on the back foot the Breakers started getting those same calls.
Both teams did look completely bewildered as to what was happening when the whistle was blown more than once.

Rhys Carter once again impressed, ran the team well when Jackson was rested & seems to work well with Jackson or Webster and plays both ends of the floor.

Cory Webster 4/5 from beyond the arc, played some good D as well.

Tom Abercrombie came on and dropped a pair of 3's before quietening down but he played solid defence with 2 steals and 2 blocks. With TeRangi picking up quick fouls it was lucky Abercrombie was in a condition to contribute as much as he did after recent surgery.

NZ with good front court depth this season as long as Pledger can keep on the court. Wesley & Ibekwe both look like crafty versatile players and seem to be developing some chemistry with each other pretty quickly. They'll need to be with Vukona's current rate of picking up cheap fouls.

Vickerman has been pretty good so far. Liked his rotations and he has managed to stem the tide when come backs have been mounted and their lead was slipping away in both games and made adjustments which have worked but still early days and plenty of games to go.
It will be interesting to see if the Breakers can get up for the Melbourne game.

Schensher was actually pretty good, was handy round the rim and blocked shots & changed even more. Without him Tai Wesley & Ibekwe both would have outscored Cory Webster.
Peter Crawford was a passenger/luggage, pick one...

Adelaide are ok but aren't quite good enough to compete with the elite. Was impressed with Wesley and Webster tonight. Adelaide need to win next game to take the pressure off. Montreal was good when he was - Wilson was terrible though too much 1 on 1.

Well okay 21 dosnt look good. But anything 30+ would of gone to really bad. And they were within 10 at one point.

I think I need to see the 6ers play the Hawks to find out how they are really going.

Just wondering when the nbl are going to tell us the teams involved in the NewNbl

Sixers showing some fighting spirit but not enough to get over NZ at home.

Jacksons 3point shooting has improved massively making him so much harder to guard & Webster had his jump shot on automatic tonight and as Macdub said, he's gonna have quite a few of these nights through the season.
Wesley is like having 2x Vukona's and Ibekwe with those long arms has been effective around the rim at both ends and Pledgers contributions have been valuable.
Abercrombie was the player of the game for me.

21 point loss not that bad? Ok then..

I feel sorry for guys like Gibson and Petrie - they deserve better. They were the heart and soul of last year and the franchise has let them down. Guys like Crawford, Teys, Anthony, Daly, Creek..good players but let's be honest this is the leagues weakest bench and thats hurting them.

Wilson starting 5? don't think so......maybe top scored with 15, but those stats don't lie for effiency.

down by 25, Wilson subs out. down by 10, subs in. lose by 21. enough said

21 point loss. Thats not too bad, At one point I was expecting an ever bigger blowout.

On another note Montreal cant play D to save himself.

Wilson is not up to it IMO.

10pt game.

Im going to be so mad if Breakers win by less than 8. There will go my TAB bet. I was laughing 10mins ago.

quite right mystro. looking at second units. breakers have 35, 6ers have 16. disappointing given what we could do last year.

Liking Vickermans rotations, deep bench helps.

All over red rover.

Wilson; 4-15 @ 27%! seriously.....ball hog?

I said Webster is in for a big year and will show people what he can do...much to peoples amusement on here who said he won't improve..

Webster will have a lot of nights like these this year

Is it all over ? or could they still come back?

Both teams have looked confused with the refereeing at times.

Tech called on Jamar Wilson at the end of the 2Q?

Sheesh, I thought Vukona was bad, didn't even notice DQ. 3 fouls picked up in 1:18. Ow.

"Offensive foul anyone......we're giving them out cheap, two for one if you are playing for the 36ers"

Ok, can anyone tell me if the three offensive fouls against the Sixers in the second quarter were warranted or is my inclination to want to blame home cooking justified (I'm at work and watching the live stats)

Im only seeing the stats but this game seems ugly foul-wise.
Vukona and Te Rangi on 3 fouls already.
Carter, Anthony, Teys, Montreal, Creek and Petrie on 2 fouls with still half of the second quarter to go.
Could be a few foul outs

Also on the topic of fouls; three offensive fouls by the 36ers so far in 2Q. How is Joey Wright taking it?

Vukona picked up the 2 fouls in 3:45. Subbed in at a FT, fouls after the missed FT, gained a whole 1 second of court time before being subbed back out.

3 fouls in 3:46 and it isn't even half-time. Never change Vukona, never change.

Foul trouble id say. He got 2 fouls in 50 secs of play.

From an 0-8 start, the run has been 23-9.

And there NZ goes, back to regular service.

5 fouls racked up in less than half a quarter, 2 for Vukona in under 4 minutes of court time.

Do the Breakers run a book on who can foul out quickest?

NZ with 3 fouls inside 4 minutes, losing 5-10.

Please don't tell me you guys actually suck and you just happened to play a GF-esque game last week because we unveiled the banner... That would be really irritating.

I hope Dean goes with his head and not his heart and keeps his rotations going as he did against Perth. I thought his substitutions were pretty good in that game.

hoping the 36ers turn up not the 35ers or the 34ers

If Vickerman falls in love with his original starting 5 whom over half of are nursing injuries, Adelaide has a very good shot at stealing a win but Vector up until last season was an absolute fortress for the Breakers.

36ers biggest job will be containment. Don't let the Breakers get into one of those crazy Jackson-led 15-2 runs. If that happens on Friday = game over.

I think the 36ers can steal this one (as hard as it will be) if they turn it into a grind.

or road kill....

while only yesterday, ch2,7,9 and 10 news were all ai sixers training and that was pretty good.
we fly to nz today and we gonna become road warriors.

Tornado, the Sixers defence was significantly improved against Townsville. There was a lot of hustle and I thought they were getting their rotations right a lot more often than they have in the past. Schenscher did a great job of defending the rim as well.

Better call Saul

Blow Out! Crisis meetings! Sack Imports! Sack Dean! Sack Joey!

will be interesting how TeRangi goes in court, hopefully the judge will take his and New Zealand's win in Perth into consideration when sentencing him. ;)

Winning in NZ is always hard and this is the Breaker's game to lose. All the pressure is on them and if Reuben has a bad day in court, off court, then that will make it very interesting. I agree with Isaac, a Sixers win would be mighty impressive.

Peach v Vukona. That is my favourite match up. Get me a wading pool and some baked beans and that would do me just fine. Both would win the Sam Burgess award.

Jackson Vs Wilson - You would think Action
Carter Vs Crawf - Battle of the 3's. Carter might beat him in the hustle.
BigRed Vs Pledgehammer - The Pledge might be renamed "grasshopper" and learn from the master
Creek Vs Abba - we all know Creek>>Abba.


Settle back and enjoy a great game.

When you look at the match ups as Mystro has set out, it is closer than you would think on paper. Breakers imports are better, but it is quite a good match up across the board. Except that he forgot potentially the two most explosive scorers for the Breakers in Abercrombie and Webster.

I usually pick the Breakers form based on how quickly Vukona fouls out, but he played a limited role against Perth and they still got the W.

Breakers to win by <6 (perhaps on the memory of getting beaten by Ervin last year on a loose inbounds play) to win a close one.

Te Rangi's court date is also on Friday.

The New Zealand Breakers are also retiring CJ Bruton's #23 to recognise the massive contribution he made to the club on Friday night.