R14 Preview: New Zealand Breakers vs Brisbane Bullets

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Friday 16 April

Where: Silverdome, Launceston

Broadcast: ESPN; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
New Zealand 81 (T Webster 27, Delany 17, Bach 16) d Brisbane 76 (Drmic 25, Sobey 23, Krebs 10) OT, Round 11, Nissan Arena, Brisbane

After nine lead changes in the opening 23 minutes, it appeared New Zealand had control of this Round 11 game in the second half, but eight late points in 90 seconds from Nathan Sobey forced the game into an extra period, where a clutch Finn Delany trey sealed a memorable and much-needed victory for the Kiwis. The key to their win was possession-game scoring, winning points from turnovers and second chance points by a combined 31-15.


The now
That was NZ’s only triumph in their past eight games, indeed they’ve claimed just four of their past 16, but the good news is two of those Ws were over Brisbane. The Breakers christened their temporary Launceston home on Tuesday by finding yet another way to lose a close contest, William McDowell-White making a late free throw he was trying to canon off the backboard, opening the door for Bryce Cotton’s heroics. Dan Shamir’s men can now probably afford only three more defeats from 17 games if they are to be playoff-bound.

After falling to Melbourne on Monday, the Bullets have now lost four of their past five outings to fall one game behind the fourth-placed Hawks. The pleasing sign from the past two games – a win over Illawarra and that fightback loss to United – was their offence got back on track, averaging 88.5ppg after managing just 73ppg in their previous three matches following the loss of Vic Law. Getting 16 points and 6 assists from Lamar Patterson in 36 minutes across those two contests is another promising sign for the hectic run home.


The stats

 - Dan Shamir’s Breakers are 5-2 against Brisbane over the past two seasons, compared to 15-25 against the rest of the NBL

 - Andrej Lemanis has the best record (7-5) of any Boomers coach against European teams at World Cups and Olympics

 - New Zealand’s five Ws over the Bullets in that span have been by an average of 5.6 points, with only one margin greater than five points, while their losses have been by an average of 15.5 points

 - Over their past five games, Brisbane have coughed up 13.8 turnovers per game and been outscored on points from turnovers 45-84


The key men

Corey Webster – In Round 8, C-Web as he poured in 21 points at 64 per cent and picked up a game-high +17 in the five-point win. He scored 14 of those points from straight-on as Brisbane struggled to deal with him off the Breakers’ clever on-ball action. Tai Webster’s shot chart has looked similar against the Bullets, where he’s averaged 21.7ppg and 6.3apg. However, in Round 11 he went 2-of-9 from above the foul line – and 10-of-29 overall – as NZ scored just 69 in regulation, so expect Brisbane to make Corey also finish at the cup.

Nathan Sobey – In two losses to the Breakers, the usually red-hot Sobey has shot just 33 per cent from the field and dished 6 assists to 5 turnovers. In Brisbane wins this season, Sobey-Wan-Kenobe has connected at 54 per cent from the floor and dished 4.9 dimes to just 1.9 miscues. In the Round 11 loss to NZ where he struggled mightily, shooting 8-of-25 and registering just 1 assist, there was no Vic Law and no Matt Hodgson, so if Patterson and the supporting crew can stand tall this time around, it will be much harder to target Sobey.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sobez heard his <a href="https://twitter.com/BrisbaneBullets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrisbaneBullets</a> needed some buckets and went immediately to work in Q3.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/uTkZlsZ08v">pic.twitter.com/uTkZlsZ08v</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1381558698263257090?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The quotes

Round 10 was not a good one for the New Zealand Breakers. In a season where they have fought through to tremendous adversity to be in the thick of contest after contest, this night the dam wall broke.

With Nissan Arena pumping, the Bullets were dominant, scoring 52 points in the paint, grabbing 20 offensive rebounds to own the basketball and force New Zealand into walk-up offence most of the contest.

“It was a tough night for us in few aspects, the first one is defensive boards,” coach Shamir said.

“They had 20 (offensive rebounds), 14 in the first half. They really controlled that. Part of it is this is a good offensive rebounding team, and the second reason is probably every time Colton (Iverson) plays 14 minutes for us and gets into foul trouble it’s tough for us to control what happens in the paint.”

Iverson fouled out again to open Round 11 in Bendigo and Shamir went into campaign mode for his under-siege big man, subtly pointing out the discrepancy between how Iverson has been refereed in the NBL compared to high-level European competitions.

It worked. With Brisbane once again the menu 48 hours later, Iverson producing a 20-rebound masterpiece despite a dodgy ankle to lead the Breakers to a super-gritty overtime win.

“It was not the prettiest game, both teams are missing players and in the 30 per cent field-goal percentage, so it’s not for a coaching clinic that kind of game, but it definitely feels good,” coach Shamir said.

“We are really leaving everything we have on the floor every day, and the biggest thing that happened today was Colton played. I really didn’t think he would play, twisted his ankle and from what I heard and how it looked I really didn’t believe it, played with a lot of heart, 20 rebounds, ended up playing 38 minutes, really amazing.”



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">After being a game time decision Colton Iverson has pulled down an <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> best 20 rebounds.<br><br>Have to respect the efforts from the big fella ?<br><br>OH, and this big stop on the defensive end. <a href="https://t.co/YhnkdUYvhG">pic.twitter.com/YhnkdUYvhG</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1375727777559629826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Iverson’s performance typified the heart the Breakers have shown throughout NBL21, refusing to quit even as injuries and close results continue to run against them.

“We've got some guys playing heavy minutes, Tom and Finn and Tai and Raz and Weeksy all giving it their all,” Iverson said.

“We've got a full group in the locker room that are supporting each other, fighting every day for each other, and we just know we’re going to keep fighting for each other no matter how hard times get, so it feels good to finally come away with the victory after some struggles.”

Brisbane showed plenty of heart that night too, short of key players, but that went missing in the opening 20 minutes against Melbourne last round.

“There was lots I didn’t like, it wasn’t just the defensive end, I thought we got man-handed in that first half, they had their way with us in terms of what they wanted to do,” coach Lemanis said afterwards.

“They had 11 offensive rebounds at half-time, they’d turned us over a bunch, they’d had 30 points from the three-point line, so there wasn’t a lot to like from our perspective.”

For a team right in the crush for fourth place it was an inexcusable start, and the continuation of a worrying trend of slow starts and poor ball security that leave them chasing.

They are +24 in their past two second halves, however, and showed they can play with the best in Melbourne if they get the little things right.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Silky<br>Smooth<br>Lamar<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> live on <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> <a href="https://t.co/sVoTueqoi6">pic.twitter.com/sVoTueqoi6</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1381565946649714688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


“Ultimately we still had a lot of turnovers,” Lemanis said.

“To have 15 turnovers in the game, they had 23 points off our 15 turnovers, 23-8 off turnovers, that tells a pretty big tale for me in terms of where the difference in the game lay today.”

In their two losses to New Zealand they’ve averaged just 12 points in the opening quarter, and given the Breakers jumped Perth 23-9 on Tuesday, the Bullets can’t afford any more early lethargy.

“The focus for us is we've got to come out with the right focus at the defensive end and it’s a collective energy and grunt to get the job done. You want to take away the stuff they're familiar with, their rhythm they like to play with,” Lemanis said.

“We’re sitting around now again in a hotel room until we play against New Zealand and then we could sit around again in a hotel room until we play Perth so we've just got to find a way to ride through that and come out with the appropriate intent at the defensive end from the tip.”