R18 Preview: SE Melbourne Phoenix vs New Zealand Breakers

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Wednesday 12 May

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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

The last time
SE Melbourne 92 (Creek 24, Gliddon 18, Wetzell 18) d New Zealand 85 (Iverson 26, Webster 16, Delany 15), Round 12, John Cain Arena

The Phoenix led this Round 12 encounter by 17 points early in the second term as Cam Gliddon sizzled from long range, but that disappeared quickly as their shooting cooled and they found no answer for Colton Iverson’s offensive rebounding and roll game. It took 9 points in five minutes from Mitch Creek across three-quarter-time to get things back on the home team’s terms, and their defence held NZ to 6-of-19 in the final term to seal the deal.


The now

SE Melbourne’s defence hasn’t held firm for a while now, giving up 90 points or more in five of their past six games, giving up 95ppg in those five outings and copping five losses. Their offence has also failed to fire, especially when opponents take Creek out of the contest, and they’ve gone from third-place fancies to facing a crunch stretch to hold onto fourth place, starting with the bottom two in Cairns and the Breakers before another Throwdown.

New Zealand’s best is nothing like a cellar-dwelling team, as they showed in the first half in Perth. But for all the disciplined execution and fight they have shown, their record since the start of April is just 4-7 and they must now win all their remaining games and hope other results go their way. This week is a big one for them, as it marks the end of their 18-round road trip – plus pre-season time – and ushers in seven home games to finish the season.


The stats

 - SE Melbourne have averaged 97.5ppg against NZ, hitting 11 triples per night at 50 per cent. Against other opponents the Breakers allow just 7.4 treys at 34 per cent

 - In their past five games, the Phoenix have averaged 82.4ppg on 7.6 trifectas at 30 per cent, failing to score more than 86 points. In 23 games prior they ran up 90.5ppg on 9.9 threes at 37 per cent, passing 86 points on 17 occasions

 - New Zealand have scored 89 and 85 points in their two meetings with SE Melbourne and lost both. Against the rest of the NBL, they are 6-1 when they score 85 or more in regulation

 - The Breakers leaked 98 points to Perth, who nailed 11 triples at 42 per cent. Dan Shamir’s men haven't given up that many points or three-balls since their Round 9 loss to the Phoenix


The key men

Mitch Creek – When you speak of SE Melbourne’s 2-0 record against NZ, you’re talking about Creek, who racked up 45 points in 53 minutes at 64 per cent from the field, including a dominant 7-of-9 in the paint in their last clash. He’s had just 20 attempts in total in the past three games, however, after averaging 16.3 shots and 22.3ppg in his previous four, and with plenty of offence being run for him, Creek needs to put his team on his shoulders.

Tai Webster – In three games since returning, the younger Webster has compiled 46 points and 12 dimes in 65 minutes, shooting 57 per cent inside and 6-of-13 from outside. No team gives up more scores inside the arc than the Phoenix – who allow 49.2 points from twos at 54 per cent – and with Levi Randolph sidelined it falls on Webster to score and create on penetration, which won’t be easy against the tandem of Keifer Sykes and Izayah Le’afa.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tai Webster putting his best foot forward for a trial with the <a href="https://twitter.com/NZWarriors?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NZWarriors</a> and/or the <a href="https://twitter.com/AllBlacks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AllBlacks</a> on this dime ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/T8MW1XUS9V">pic.twitter.com/T8MW1XUS9V</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1388420869563711492?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The quotes

Sometimes you’ve just got to admit luck is not on your side.

This NBL season has seen a run of injuries league-wide that have tested every team, but few have had to deal with more than the New Zealand Breakers.

Going into last weekend’s clash in Perth without Levi Randolph and Corey Webster, the Breakers put up a gallant fight before falling short.

“We came here a little short-handed, survived for quite some time, but didn’t have what we needed for the last 12 or 13 minutes,” coach Dan Shamir said.

“Hats off to Perth, they are a great team, they executed, we struggled to stop Cotton and Mooney and Blanchfield coming off screens. We gave it everything we had they were just better.”

While the loss hurt, the biggest wound probably came from having to watch their Rock of Gibraltar, captain Tom Abercrombie, limp from the floor with a hamstring injury late in the piece.

“It’s sad but we’ll have to overcome this too. We've been through this,” Shamir said.

“You can see it everywhere in the world, when teams don’t have their players it’s tough to win. You can win some games and you definitely look at every possession and give it everything you’ve got, and be focused and locked in, other people can step up.”



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">With this three, Tom Abercrombie ties Kirk Penney for the most three-point makes in <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NZBreakers</a> history ?<br><br>This, in his 350th NBL game <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/KUKvndI7pz">pic.twitter.com/KUKvndI7pz</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1381932766632112130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


If there is one team that can top the Breakers’ injury run it is SE Melbourne, who have been without Dane Pineau and Kendall Stephens for practically the entire season, and lost superstar talent in Mitch Creek, Ryan Broekhoff and Keifer Sykes for extended periods.

Somehow they managed to put themselves in the box seat for third place less than a month ago, but the wheels have shown dangerous signs of falling off.

“We’re clearly not functioning as well as we can right now, for multiple reasons, personnel is one, but there is also bringing players back in and learning to live with each other and play with each other,” coach Simon Mitchell said.

“We probably haven't had the opportunity to get the repetition because of our numbers at practice, and we need to get that.

“Hopefully we can get Rowdy (Broekhoff) back for the next game, and hopefully we get a great reaction from Cam Gliddon and he makes a great comeback, because we need those guys, not just because they're extraordinarily talented, but because they help us with our practices.”

Another guy who needs repetition is Sykes, who was shaping as one of the NBL’s best two-way imports early in the season, but looked rusty on return in April before suffering another setback.

On Saturday against Melbourne, Sykes got to play almost 27 minutes to try and get his sea legs under him again.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sykes finds Karena inside for the ?? <a href="https://t.co/gRGUcKqNiw">pic.twitter.com/gRGUcKqNiw</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1390944471248818185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


“He’s been our point guard since the start of the season and then we missed him for 10 weeks or whatever it was, so the player we had at the start of the season was someone we were learning to work with, then by the time a month had past I felt like he had a good feel for his teammates, his teammates had a good feel for him,” Mitchell said.

“Now we have to find that chemistry again that we had before he got injured, but we don’t have that first month of the season to get that. We've got to somehow manufacture that straight away.

“The easiest way to do that is to get up-and-down on the floor. We've got a pretty heavy schedule ahead of us over the next week, we've got three games in the next week.

“I was glad to be able to get him the minutes we were able to get him tonight, and maybe because there was a bit of a deficit there we were able to get a bit of the lethargy out, get a bit of the touch that he needs.

“He was really good early, we’re a better team when he’s firing, we've got three really good guards who can play the point for us – Izayah, Kyle and Keifer – and if they're all firing I feel we can do some good things.”



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Best of Zay <a href="https://t.co/0CZnVbJobJ">pic.twitter.com/0CZnVbJobJ</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1391190403823534082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 9, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


With the Webster brothers back in tandem for New Zealand, that guard battle will be crucial for a Phoenix team that looks nothing like the slick offensive machine they were mid-season.

“Am I concerned? Yes. We've had a fairly big fall from grace the past three weeks, probably since the second half of the Illawarra game when Rowdy got hurt for the first time,” Mitchell said.

“I don’t think we’ve really gained traction. We had a little moment up in Cairns, we had a moment against Sydney in Sydney, but I don’t think we've had anywhere near the level of competency to compete in a playoff series, but there are still games to go and form is fluctuating across the league.

“Perth looked like they were struggling a little bit and then they come out and put on a wonderful performance on the other night, so we've got a couple of guys who are down, they're carrying some physical things and playing, but what we need is an injection of form and confidence.”