By Louis Anderson-Rich
Hello and welcome to Vector Arena where we have two-time defending champions the New Zealand Breakers taking on the Adelaide 36ers in the second game of the Australian NBL 2012/2013 season.
The beloved Breakers got their campaign off to a lacklustre start with a loss to last year’s grand final series opponents the Perth Wildcats last weekend.
But the three-peat dream hasn’t been derailed after just one game and they come up against an Adelaide side with a coach who has never beaten the Breakers.
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LIVE COMMENTARY: Breakers 73 – 59 36ers
Tom Abercrombie goes for a big three to end the game but the buzzer goes! Breakers win!
10.1 Secs: Less than 10 to go and Vector Arena are on the feet and we are about to witness the Breakers first win of the season.
1.17 Min: Fast break from Adelaide and Johnson gives the ball up early to Gibson who gets the two.
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2.28 Min: Alex Pledger gets up to smack away a Gibson shot. Great work from the 7 footer…
3.08 Min: Adelaide look like they’re starting to run out of gas a little as the Breakers begin to pull away.
4.35 Min: Johnson sinks 2 for Adelaide.
4.41 Min: Jackson with a huge dunk! Breakers on an 11 point scoring run.
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5.37 Min: Another 3 from Jackson! He’s on fire!
6 Min: Cedric Jackson lands a three now and gee’s up the crowd as well. Vector Arena starting to come out of it’s shell.
6.58 Min: Gibson in the corner bangs in a two.
8.07 Min: …and Abercrombie looks to drive into the paint and draws a foul…Abercrombie lands both the free-throws…Bruton with a steal and a three-pointer off the back of that!
8.18 Min: Cedric Jackson gets a great steal…
9 Min: And now Bruton with a deep two. Doesn’t go. Pledger commits the foul on the rebound.
10 Min: Both teams go for early buckets but miss them. Alex Pledger steps up with a simple lay-up to put the Breakers back in front.
Heading into the final quarter and the Breakers down by one…
50.1 Secs: Pledger goes back down the other end and sinks his lay-up. Breakers then intercept the ball and Corletto puts up a 2 point jump shot which won’t go, Adelaide back down the other end and get a bucket.
1.03 Min: Creek with a great intercept for the 36ers. Sets up Cadee who lays up a nice 2. Adelaide take the lead.
1.26 Min: Pledger draws a foul from Johnson. Lands the second free-throw putting the Breakers in the league.
2.10 Min: Another break for Petrie but Webster gets back brilliantly to get the block in.
2.39 Min: Petrie gets the steal and has open court ahead of him. Gets the lay-up.
3 Min: Gibson in the key with a lay-up good work from the Adelaide point guard.
5 Min: Bruton with the ball at the top of the key to Corletto who drives inside, steps back and sinks a lovely two.
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7 Min: Cadee with an enormous 3 pointer from way deep! Huge!
8 Min: Abercrombie tries a jump shot from the free-throw line. Can’t convert it and Gibson goes down the other end to land a two.
8.29 Min: Cadee holding a part of his body that’s south of the equator. Abercrombie seemed to fall on it. Ouch.
9 Min: Cedric tries a jumper which doesn’t go and now Weigh goes back down the other end to slot a simple 2.
10 Min: Thomas Abercrombie gets the first points of the second half.
3rd quarter
Players back out on the court. Second half very close to getting underway.
Half-time report from Huw Beynon: “Feels like the Breakers should be up by more, superior team but need to cut out the turnovers. Hudson and Pledger doing the work down low.”
5.4 Secs: Jackson tries to weave his way through the Adelaide defence, pulls up with a jumper which won’t go and that’s the end of the first half.
41.0 Secs: Into the final minute of the quarter…Cadee with a three-point attempt. Doesn’t go.
1.17 Min: Vukona picks up a foul for unsportsmanly conduct against him. Two free-throws. He lands one ball back with the Breakers.
1.46 Min: Gibson shoots it from very deep, won’t go. Rebound picked up by Jackson finds Pledger down the other end who puts in a simple lay-up.
2.18 Min: Pledger makes up for the earlier mistake and blocks out Johnson nicely.
2.41 Min: Pledger travels straight off the back of the timeout. Not what Andre had in mind…
2.48 Min: Timeout for the Breakers.
5 Min: Jackson with a big three from the top of the key. Keeping up that form from last week.
6 Min: Adelaide close it to one after Petrie throws a three with plenty of time from the top of the key.
7.14 Min: Adelaide breaks and Gibson throws the long pass to Cadee who is swallowed up by Mika Vukona who is called up for the foul.
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8.31 Min: Massive three-pointer from Weigh. He’s riding a bit of a hot hand at the moment.
9 Min: Cadee finds Schenscher in the key with a great pass but Vukona takes the ball away from him with some aggressive defending and Webster is away down the other end to sink a bucket.
10 Min: Webster drives to the basket, shoots, doesn’t go Vukona with the rebound and back to Corletto with a floater but he can’t land it.
2nd quarter
First quarter one-liner sum up from Huw Beynon “Hudson looking promising while the Breakers play ten times better than last week but Abercrombie needs to step up on Weigh who is Adelaide’s dangerman.”
00.1 Secs: Hudson comes up with a buzzer-beating lay-up to extend the deficit.
10.0 Secs: Weigh cuts the gap to 2 with a great three-pointer.
50.1 Secs: Inside the last minute…Vukona tries to find Crletto with a low pass, Adelaide intercept go down the other end, miss a shot and the Breakers turn to counter. Hudson gives away a foul.
1.18 Min: Corey Webster with a very strong lay-up. Good stuff from the youngster.
2.02 Min: Dylan Boucher almost links up brilliantly with Cedric Jackson who was stampeding into the paint but Jackson’s lay-up doesn’t go. Wins a pair of free-throws though…misses them both.
3.08 Min: Hudson with the dunk! Boom!
3.44 Min: Jackson with a couple of free-throws. Lands one, misses the other and Boucher cleans up the rebound, puts it up and Hudson gets a tip.
4.12 Min: Nice jump shot from Cadee. Lands the 2.
4.29 Min: First timeout of the night goes to the Breakers. Andrej Lemanis trying to get his message to his team of the blaring sounds of Gangnam Style…
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6.36 Min: Vukona’s drop shot no good and Adelaide bring it back down court…Gibson fakes, puts it up, falls to Schenscher who is blocked brilliantly by Pledger.
7.28 Min: Breakers with the ball on the baseline…Abercrombie with the 3. It goes!
8.18 Min: Vukona with the drive, and the basket! First points on the board for the Breakers.
9 Min: Daniel Johnson for the 36ers gets the first basket and draws the foul Pledger. Johnson makes the free-throw.
9.12 Min: Pledger with a big block on Schenscher, we’re still waiting for the first basket…Abercrombie misses the lay up and here is Pledger with a rebound. Doesn’t go.
10 Min: 36ers win the tip-off and we have an offensive foul on Weight. Early foul Breakers with the ball…Corletto to Abercrombie spits it out to Jackson who steps out.
Bit of a stat attack for you:
New Zealand has won 11 of their last 12 home games against Adelaide and are unbeaten at home against the Sixers since November 2008.
The Breakers played the 36ers in their very first ever NBL match, and also registered their first win in the same game with a 111-110 victory on 1 October 2003.
New Zealand has won 6-from-7 at Vector Arena at an average winning margin of 14.8ppg. The only loss was a 17-point defeat in the Semi Finals to Townsville.
36ers
Adelaide have won 3-from-3 matches played at Trusts Stadium in Auckland against NZ but have won 1-from-13 at all other venues. September 2004 was the last season that Adelaide won their first road game of the year and that was against the Breakers at Trusts 106-94.
Adelaide will be playing their first game at Vector Arena but it will not be a foreign environment for all their players with Luke Schenscher a part of the last visiting team to win on that floor when he played for the Crocs in last year’s Semi Finals.
Mitch Creek will be playing his 50th NBL game. All have been with the 36ers.
Entering his 3rd season as an NBL coach, New Zealand is one of only 2 teams that Marty Clarke is yet to record a win against. He has lost all 8 games against New Zealand (he is also winless in 6 games against Cairns).
Tip-off isn't far away, in the meantime watch the latest episode of In The Paint with Huw Beynon.
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Starting five:
Breakers: Jackson, Corletto, Abercrombie, Vukona, Pledger
36ers: Cadee, Gibson, Weigh, Johnson, Schenscher
Pregame Banter:
Expect much more aggression in rebounding from the New Zealand Breakers when they take on the Adelaide 36ers in Auckland.
The Breakers looked anything but a team who have won the last two Australian NBL titles in their season opener against Perth last Friday, being out-hustled and regularly beaten to rebounds by the hungry Wildcats.
Centre Alex Pledger was singled out by coach Andrej Lemanis after the game after failing to get a single rebound in his 20 minutes on the court, but Lemanis says he's not seeking any particular number of rebounds from the 2.13m centre.
"It's a function of how well the team's playing, how many missed shots are available," he says.
"Sometimes if you box them out and the team comes up with team defensive rebounds, that's doing your job as well. There's never a set number, but zero isn't very good."
Mika Vukona, the Breakers' leading rebounder, says determination is the main thing the team needs to improve its rebounding.
"Perth got all the 50-50 balls going out there. Most of the time you create that if you're aggressive enough and we just weren't."
There's little let-up for the Breakers against Adelaide, who were 84-61 winners over the Melbourne Tigers in round one.
Lemanis said the 36ers had benefited more than most from the demise of the Gold Coast Blaze and were well-led by guards Adam Gibson and Jason Cadee.
"They're a good group, they're very deep, they can really shoot the basketball, they've got scorers all over the floor and that presents a challenge."
Their dedication is also not lacking, as was shown in an all-in brawl during the third quarter.
"That's certainly the edge that we were missing on Friday night, that desperation, the willingness to put yourself on the line," Lemanis says.
3 News/NZN