R20 Preview: New Zealand Breakers vs Illawarra Hawks

Friday, May 28, 2021

New Zealand found their offensive jets at home last round, but Illawarra are playoff hungry and bringing the D to The Stockyard.

When: 5.30pm (AEST), Friday 28 May

Where: The Stockyard, Auckland

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

The last time
Illawarra 73 (Harvey 24, Froling 12, Jessup 12) d New Zealand 71 (Delany 20, McDowell-White 14, Bach 13), Round 18, WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong

When a pair of Tai Webster buckets gave the Breakers a 31-24 edge after 11 minutes, it looked like the NZ offence was clicking. But Illawarra turned some serious screws, restricting the visitors to just 6 points in the next 14 minutes while putting on 28 themselves. The good times wouldn’t last, the Breakers responding with a 30-14 run to take the lead with less than five minutes to play, but Sam Froling and Tyler Harvey responded, before an unsportsmanlike foul call on Tai Webster allowed the Hawks to seal it from the stripe.

The now
Sydney’s second quarter capitulation in Perth means wins over New Zealand and Adelaide this weekend may be enough for the Hawks to claim fourth spot, while one more W from their final two would certainly lock it in. Beating the Breakers in NZ is not an easy task, but Brian Goorjian’s men have now won five of their past six behind their disruptive defence – and lead NZ 3-0 in the season series – so they will enter this clash full of confidence.

New Zealand have also stepped up their defence, particularly against the NBL’s lower-ranked clubs, and with their next three meetings against Illawarra, Cairns and Brisbane, they’ll be looking to press as high as sixth on the ladder to end a challenging season on a high. Against the 36ers, their offence started to roll too, draining 17 threes at 48 per cent, and a repeat anywhere close to that will test a Hawks team susceptible from the perimeter.

The stats

- Illawarra give up the second most three-pointers (10.5) at the third-highest rate (35%). The Breakers have averaged 13 triples against Adelaide, 10.3 against the Hawks and 8.3 against the rest of the league

- In the past five rounds, New Zealand have given up 90.8ppg to the top three teams, but just 76.1ppg to all other opponents

- In their 28-6 run in Round 18, Illawarra forced the Breakers into 13 turnovers in 14 minutes, while keeping them to 0-of-8 from the three-point line

- In this season series, the Hawks lead points from turnovers 61-23 and points in the paint 118-86

The key men

Levi Randolph – When Levi performs, New Zealand usually win. The Kiwis are 6-1 when he scores 13 or more, compared to 0-4 on his quieter nights. In the Breakers’ past two wins he’s nailed 8-of-15 from long range, and his team is 3-0 when he shoots above 40 per cent from deep and nails three or more triples. Illawarra will be hoping Dan Grida has his legs under him to take this job head on, allowing Justin Simon to dog the ball and limit supply.

Tyler Harvey – When Harvey performs, Illawarra usually win. They are 11-2 when he nails four or more trebles, something he’s done in his past two games. He’s gone just 5-of-19 in his past two meetings with New Zealand, but has scored 19ppg from ‘ones and twos’ to dominate both contests. The Hawks are +29 against NZ with Harvey on the floor, and -5 in his 13 minutes on the bench, suggesting he’ll be public enemy number one at The Stockyard.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TYLER. T?UGH.<a href="https://twitter.com/YoungTRaaw?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@YoungTRaaw</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/RbQb1KKkNt">pic.twitter.com/RbQb1KKkNt</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1396385773545426944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The quotes

After 11 seasons in the ‘Gong, and being a pivotal part of some great seasons but near misses under Gordie McLeod and Rob Beveridge, Tim Coenraad was pumped to welcome Brian Goorjian as the new Hawks coach to give him one more chance at the title.

“When they first signed Brian, my first reaction was, ‘Man I want to play for that guy,” Coenraad said.

“I've never had a problem shooting the basketball, but the defensive end is something I've always wanted to get better at and the way he pushes the defensive end, he really doesn’t get upset about the offensive end very much, it’s all the defence because he knows down the stretch that no team has ever won a championship that can’t play D.”

Unfortunately, when the contracts were handed out, Timmy was on the outside looking in, forced into retirement from the club he loves.

But few fairy tales have happy beginnings, and when Goorj was in need of a piece to replace Deng Adel, he didn’t know how lucky he would be.

“I feel like right from the beginning, getting to know Tim I made a mistake, I should have never had him retire when he did. I put it on COVID that I didn’t get the opportunity to see him face-to-face,” Goorjian said.

“He’s been relentless, he’s helped with the team spirit, the culture of the team, he’s a Hawk and tonight we were down seven, it was going away from us and he came in and hit some big shots.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="tl" dir="ltr">TIMMY <br>C?ENRAAD.<a href="https://twitter.com/coenraad22?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@coenraad22</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/Vk4ugd3Omy">pic.twitter.com/Vk4ugd3Omy</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1396371056542158848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“He's a threat, he defended for us and played with big heart. Really, really pleased to be going down this back stretch with him.”

His worth was obvious against Cairns, +14 in 10 minutes as he helped break the Taipans’ zone.

“I knew coming in here that Mike (Kelly) had changed up with the squad he’s got now and he's trying to zone,” Goorjian said.

“I've got Isaac White, I've got Tim Coenraad, I've got Deng Deng, I've got Justinian, I've got Tyler, and our bigs are on-ball roll-out guys, they're not back-to-the-basket guys, so I was more than happy to spread the floor and move the ball around and spot up on the three-point line and let it fly.

“On the offensive end we had 48 at half-time which is huge for us, we had 90-something points which is huge for us.”

It makes for a fascinating match-up with the Breakers on Friday night.

The two teams rank seventh and eighth respectively in scoring, and ninth and seventh in both three-points makes and conversion.

Yet last round both let it fly with gay abandon, and the Breakers finally got hot as they burned Adelaide for 17 trifectas.

“(We) caught a run in the first half when we started making shots and the ball started moving, that always helps everything, spacing looks different and the whole energy looks different,” coach Dan Shamir said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">C-Web, you dropped something..<br><br>A DIME ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NZBreakers</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/cwebster9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cwebster9</a> <a href="https://t.co/hSkhctFSXf">pic.twitter.com/hSkhctFSXf</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1397111880548642817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“All our schemes, all our Xs and Os are based on us having good shooters. Part of our struggles this season is a lot of good shooters didn’t shoot the ball well. That’s just part of it, but at the beginning that was really rough from that perspective.”

In their two wins at home they’ve dropped a staggering 31-of-62 from the arc, and Shamir is hopeful that kind of cooking will continue on Kiwi soil in the boutique Stockyard gym, making their Australian shooting woes a memory.

“In today’s game, and the way we are designed (three-point shooting) is a major part, and you cannot separate not having a home game from that,” he said.

“We are playing in six different arenas and it’s not a normal situation, but we still feel at home.

“We get a little push and it’s important for us to put a good performance in those home games, and this is part of it – shots are falling, we are catching a little bit of momentum, the team looks happy and is having fun and sometimes this is the whole difference.”

Yet neither team should expect that feel good stuff to last long on Friday.

Both love playing physical basketball, and in a season where the whistles have largely been put away, this is likely to be a grind.

A big key will be how New Zealand manage to limit Tyler Harvey, and a large chunk of that will come down to his ability to expose them on the short roll and make them change coverage.

At the other end, the Hawks found the recipe to shutting down the Breakers’ dangerous ball-screen and hand-off action last time around, which is a must to restrict time and space for the Websters and a red-hot Finn Delany.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Finn Diesel shifting gears ?<br><br>Delany testing out the rims in Christchurch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/ErshK87Fen">pic.twitter.com/ErshK87Fen</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1397101492356620291?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Their coverage in on-balls has been super-aggressive of late,” Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman said after the Round 18 Hawks-Breakers clash.

“I thought at times New Zealand got the better of it and were able to move the basketball and create really good offence out of the aggressive coverage.

“Goorj makes the change to go to show coverage and recover and uses his zone a little bit more.”

Have no doubt Goorj will use whatever it takes to make this a scrap and get his team one step closer to their first playoff appearance in four years.

“We are going to claw, fight, dive, scrap, leave it all out there and I'm so excited for the finish of this season,” Goorjian said.