How to watch & talking points: New Zealand v Illawarra

New Zealand Breakers v Illawarra Hawks
Sunday, September 20, 3.00pm AEST
Spark Arena

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How to watch‍

‍Watch every NBL27 fixture live on ESPN.

>> How to watch ESPN

Tickets

>> Ticketing information

How to follow & live scores

‍Live scores, stats, breaking news and game highlights are available via the free NBL App.

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Rosters

New Zealand

Expected depth chart:
PG: Jackson-Cartwright (IP) / Le Gassick (out) / Evans Jr. (DP)
SG: Vasiljevic / Le'Afa / Cooper (DP) / King (NRP)
SF: James (IP) (out) / Davison / Te Rangi / Chunga (DP)
PF: Mennenga / Noi / Robinson (DP)
C: Bediako (IP) / Rissetto

Illawarra

Expected depth chart:
PG: M.Doyle (IP) / Hickey / Adnam (NRP)
SG: Harvey / Narkle
SF: Swaka Lo Buluk / Grida (out) / Blanchfield / Patterson (IP/NRP)
PF: Martin (IP) / Days (IP) / A.Doyle (DP) / McGregor (DP)
C: Froling / Peatling / Macdonald (DP)

Missing in action

New Zealand
Josiah-Jordan James - Hamstring - Round 5-7
Preston Le Gassick - Ankle - TBC

Illawarra
Dan Grida - Calf - TBC

>> View full injury list

Talking points

Battle of the Sams
Sam Mennenga is poised to have an even bigger season than he did in NBL26 and the Breakers need their star big man to do just that.

After a strong off-season, the Kiwi local is ready to further establish himself as one of the stars of the competition.

On the other side, he battles Sam Froling, who made an inspirational comeback from an Achilles injury last season and looks fit and firing ahead of Round 1.

Hickey relishing the floor
The Hawks look to have returned to their championship core from two seasons ago and a big part of their success in that run was that Will Hickey became a spark plug off the bench.

This is a guy who is more than capable of starting on any team in the league, however the Hawks found they could best utilise him off the bench and have him dominate the box score once he gets on the floor.