Breakers stop the rot with win over Taipans

Sunday, November 5, 2023

The New Zealand Breakers have snapped a four-game losing streak and run out 10-point winners against the Cairns Taipans.

The New Zealand Breakers stopped a four-game losing run in an impressive display with a 91-81 win in Christchuch in the NBL's Indigenous Round against their other well travelled rivals, the Cairns Taipans.

Both teams have been travelling the world so far this season having played two NBLxNBA games and then battled injury woes since returning, but it was the Breakers who found some confidence at Wolfbrook Arena in Christchurch.

New Zealand had lost the last four matches this season and had already had to replace Justinan Jessup with Zylan Cheatham now missing with a broken foot. The Breakers were up against a Cairns team without Patrick Miller and Tahjere McCall back with the team after the birth of his child, but not suiting up after having just flown back from the United States.

It was the man who the Breakers signed to replace Jessup, Anthony Lamb fresh off playing last season at the Golden State Warriors who hit three three-pointers in the space of 90 seconds to help turn a one-point half-time deficit into a 12-point lead at the final change.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Anthony Lamb is feeling it ?<br><br>He's drained 3?? triples in the third quarter. <br><br>Catch the action live on ESPN via Kayo | SkySport in NZ ? <a href="https://t.co/tAmyaTzVRc">pic.twitter.com/tAmyaTzVRc</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1720350203620778124?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

New Zealand never again trailed with Lamb going on to top-score with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting but he got plenty of help.

Dynamic uard Parker Jackson-Cartwright (13 points, seven assists) shook off knee soreness and was influential early in the third term as the Breakers got going.

Boomers representative Will McDowell-White helped stick the boot in late with a three-pointer just after the final change as he found some form coming off an injury to start the season.

He scored 12 of his 14 points in the final term - more than any other Breaker.

Izayah Le'afa started ahead of McDowell-White and produced his best game of the season too with 14 points on 4-of-8 three-point shooting to go with four assists.

Next Star Mantas Rubstavicius also played his best game with 11 points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting while Mangok Mathiang also avoided foul trouble to play almost 21 minutes for six point and 11 rebounds.

The win hoists last season's runners-up from the bottom of the ladder and stops the rot after a campaign start disrupted by injuries and a trip to America for the NBA pre-season.

"It's fairly satisfying," Breakers coach Mody Maor said.

"You could see there was a level of connectedness, the way they played. They created for each other. It's a very good step for us."

It was an NBL debut for rookie point guard Taran Armstrong for the Taipans. He has been out with a foot injury, but came in to play 19 minutes for seven points, three rebounds and two steals.

Bul Kuol (18 points, three rebounds) was again a workhorse for Cairns, coming 64 seconds short of playing 40 minutes for a second consecutive game, with Lat Mayen (18 points, seven rebounds) also big.

The Taipans sit at 3-3 ahead of Sunday's road clash with South East Melbourne.

"The level of disappointment by that team in the locker room right now, you know, they are feeling the loss," Cairns coach Adam Forde said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bul Kuol is heating up ?<br><br>The <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cairnstaipans</a> star is up to 12 points mid-way through the second quarter. <br><br>Catch the action live on ESPN via Kayo | SkySport in NZ ? <a href="https://t.co/PJ1jCd1NP8">pic.twitter.com/PJ1jCd1NP8</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1720339509026422826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

But they struggled for support, in no small part due to impressive Next Star Bobi Klintman finding himself in foul trouble early.

Cairns were never able to take full advantage of the Breakers' lack of size, with Cheatham out for at least another five weeks.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL INDIGENOUS ROUND

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 91 (Lamb 19, McDowell-White 14, Le'afa 14)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 81 (Mayen 18, Kuol 18, Klintman 17)

BOX SCORE