R9 Preview: NZ Breakers v SE Melbourne Phoenix

When: 2.00pm (AEDT), Sunday 14 March

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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

The last time

New Zealand 92 (Hopson 23, Abercrombie 18, Loe 18) d South East Melbourne 83 (Roberson 15, Pineau 14, Gibson 12) – February 14, 2020, Horncastle Arena, Christchurch

This was the final game of last season for the New Zealand Breakers in what turned out still to this day to be the last game at home even though it was in Christchurch. The Breakers needed to win the game to remain in the playoff hunt and while they did get the win, their finals chances ended when Brisbane hammered Cairns the next night, and then ultimately Melbourne took that fourth spot with a win on the Sunday over South East Melbourne. But the Breakers just had to win this one to stay alive and they ended up handing the Phoenix a seventh straight defeat, but they had to earn it. In the end they wrapped up the win thanks to late three-pointers from Finn Delany and Tom Abercrombie, before captain Abercrombie iced the win with the and-one play. Scotty Hopson scored 23 points for New Zealand, Rob Loe 18 and Sek Henry 14 but none will be there Sunday. It's a similar story at South East Melbourne with John Roberson having scored 15 points, Dane Pineau 14, Adam Gibson 12 and Ben Madgen 11 but none will be out there on Sunday.

The now

The Breakers and Phoenix are both gearing up for their third game in the final week at the NBL Cup, and while they are a little banged up they have been playing some good basketball and will look to end things on a high on Sunday before the regular season resumes.

The Breakers might have been without Corey Webster, Lamar Patterson and Rob Loe for their three games this week with their new signings Jeremy Kendle and William McDowell-White not yet available, but they are in their best patch of form for #NBL21 at the same time.

Going back two Saturdays ago, they snapped a four-game losing run with a remarkable 44-point hammering of the Adelaide 36ers. They backed that up by beating one of the teams of the NBL Cup, the Brisbane Bullets and then came into this final week in Melbourne after a narrow loss to the Melbourne United.

But the Breakers whilst down on manpower and basically using a six man rotation, came out on Wednesday night starting hot and then snatched the win on the buzzer from the Cairns Taipans thanks to the most stunning of buzzer-beaters from captain Tom Abercrombie.

They might have gone down to old rivals the Perth Wildcats on Friday, but they still fought valiantly meaning they come into Sunday's clash with South East Melbourne having gone 3-4 at the NBL Cup and with a 4-8 overall record.

The Phoenix, too, have been well short of full strength in last week at the NBL Cup. They did come into it on the back of consecutive losses to the Wildcats and Kings, but they have responded impressively starting Wednesday night with an overtime win over Melbourne. Making that all the more meritorious was the absence of Keifer Sykes, Ryan Broekhoff, Adam Gibson, Kendall Stephens and Dane Pineau.

They did unveil new signing Broekhoff against the Taipans on Friday night and he showed encouraging signs not long out of two weeks of quarantine on NBL debut, but it was Mitch Creek, Yanni Wetzell, Kyle Adnam, Cam Gliddon and Ben Moore who were outstanding.

That gives the Phoenix two straight wins coming into Sunday's game with an 8-7 record overall this season and to be 4-3 at the NBL Cup. They could still be a chance to claim some prizemoney with a top three finish with the more points they earn themselves on Sunday against the Breakers.

The stats

- The slower the tempo for this game might be the better for the Breakers. New Zealand is last in scoring this season at 83.4 points a game including just 76 against Cairns and 75 against Melbourne earlier this week. The Phoenix are second in scoring at 91.1 points a game.

- South East Melbourne won its first three games in the NBL to start the 2019/20 season but have never gone on a three-game winning streak since. They could achieve that with a win on Sunday following wins against Melbourne on Wednesday and Cairns on Friday.

- Finn Delany scored 30 points for the first time in his NBL career on Friday against the Perth Wildcats. That saw him join Tony Ronaldson, CJ Bruton, Tom Abercrombie, Phill Jones, Tai Webster, Aaron Olson, Ben Pepper, Corey Webster and Kirk Penney as local players to achieve that in franchise history.

- New Zealand has led at quarter-time in five of the last six games but have lost eight of the last nine second halves. The only third quarter they have won in the last 10 was during the 44-point demolition of the Adelaide 36ers.

The key men

Finn Delany – He is coming off the best offensive game of his career. He started hot against the Perth Wildcats on Friday night and went on to deliver 30 points, seven rebounds and two assists on 12/17 shooting from the field and 3/4 from beyond the arc. The rest of his team only scored 45 points and shot a combined 17/45 but if he can step up again on Sunday, it will give the Breakers a sniff. He also has a huge job to do at the defensive end and he'll be given the task to try and quell the influence of Phoenix superstar Mitch Creek at the same time.

Cam Gliddon – For so long to start his NBL career with the Cairns Taipans, he was the man behind any success the Snakes had including taking them to a Grand Final where ironically it ended with a loss to the New Zealand Breakers. But he is now warming to life at the South East Melbourne Phoenix nicely and it all starts on the defensive end. He's never got the credit he deserves, but he has always been an outstanding defender and he will likely spend plenty of time on Sunday opposed to Tai Webster. He also presents a real match up problem up the other end for New Zealand. They don't have a good match up for him without Corey Webster, and still no William McDowell-White or Jeremy Kendle. He had a brilliant all-round game in Friday's win over Cairns and can be a match-winner again on Sunday at both ends.

The quotes

Breakers coach Dan Shamir knows there is plenty of things his team can improve on, but he's marvelling at the heart they continue to show and they are going to have to rely on that as they finish the NBL Cup with a third game in five days.

"It's a personal thing and Finn for example looked great in this great in this game and he's playing heavy minutes, but not everyone is like that obviously," Shamir said.

"I'm sure players love to play and they would prefer three games in five days rather than five practices in five days, but it shows obviously. In a lot of little things, it shows but we have to play through it and we are who we are right now. We can do a little bit better and win games like that. It's doable. 

"It wasn’t enough for this game but we need to push ourselves to be better in a lot of little things like not giving backdoor cuts, being in the right spots defensively all the time and making a few better decisions because more or less the coverages defensively were OK. If we executed a little bit better we'd have a chance to win a game like that."

One player embracing the challenge for the Breakers is forward Finn Delany and he hopes to build on what he produced with the 30 points Friday against the Wildcats.

"Obviously players want to play and it's tough with a lot of games in succession, but we would favour that over a longer time between games, and we have to find a way to be on the floor for this long and win," Delany said.

"I just played what was in front of me and I was put in positions to make shots, and the ball came my way. I wasn’t trying to force things or anything like that, I just played every possession how it was."

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell is facing plenty of challenges too ahead of a third game in five days for his team as he battles a lack of manpower despite the positive of having been able to enjoy the comforts of home for the past month.

"We're all probably in a little bit of survival mode right now in regards to the scheduling, and we are just going to have to make sure we look each other in the eye and push through knowing we'll have close enough to a week's break after the game. We will have to hold each other accountable and make sure the effort is still there," Mitchell said.

"We'll have to get these guys their rest and recovery right, and get a video session in. New Zealand have changed a few things of what they've done the last couple of games and I'll have to sit down and study them a little harder. We'll have to make some adjustments to the team we play against three times in pre-season. It will be a challenging game for both ball clubs."

New Phoenix signing Ryan Broekhoff showed good signs on Friday in his NBL debut including hitting a three on his very first touch of the ball and first possession he was part of.

But having only just come out of quarantine a few days earlier and getting some short runs out on the floor, playing his first game since a win for the Dallas Mavericks against the Charlotte Hornets on February 8, 2020 was always going to be a challenge.

He now only expects to start getting better from here.

"It has been a little bit over a year since I last played a competitive game which by far and away is the longest stretch that's happened," Broekhoff said.

"I had lots of nervous energy heading into the game, some anxiety and was feeling some pressure just coming in and being ready to go in such a short amount of time. But I felt comfortable once I got out there after a while. 

"The team did a great job of sort of covering for me when I was slow especially on the defensive end in the first half. I was just out of rhythm I guess you could say and the guys did such a great job in covering for me. I won't lie, when that first three went in it was a bit of a relief. 

"But I had a lot of family and friends in the stands who haven’t seen me play especially on home soil so close to home for it seems like forever. I'm definitely looking at it that I can't play anywhere so there's definitely positives moving forward and we'll just keep working on trying to find that rhythm."