Breakers Dominate New-Look, Shorthanded Bullets

A horror week didn’t get any better for the Brisbane Bullets at Spark Arena on Sunday with the defensive-minded New Zealand Breakers exploding offensively with 65 opening half points on the way to the 116-79 victory.

The Breakers continued to defy a horror travel schedule having come back from winning in Cairns on Friday night to play in Auckland on Sunday afternoon. They were in no mood for leniency on a Bullets team licking their wounds though.

Brisbane parted ways with coach James Duncan during the week with Australian basketball legend Sam Mackinnon taking over temporarily. 

They also arrived without key big men Aron Baynes and Ty Harrison while still searching for Devondrick Walker's import replacement, and they were quickly blown out of the water.

For the first 17 minutes of the game, the Breakers delivered the most clinical first half performance of the season and the Bullets likely the most disjointed looking half.

New Zealand hadn’t scored more than 47 points in a first half so far this season, but put up 65 on Sunday to lead by as many as 30 in the opening half on the back of a career-best 21 points with four triples from Izayah Le'afa.

To Brisbane's credit they closed the opening half with 15 of the last 18 points to at least bring the half-time deficit to just 18.

The Breakers took back control, though, to lead by as much as 39 early in the fourth on the way to winning by 37 to make it four straight at 10-3. Brisbane is now 3-7.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dererk Pardon has no manners with that ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/xsz1hK4WJJ">pic.twitter.com/xsz1hK4WJJ</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1596726418431348737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Breakers not only produced the highest score of NBL23 but also delivered the biggest win with the 37-point margin on the back of shooting 60 per cent from the field, nailing 17/33 from three-point land and outrebounding the Bullets 43 to 27 to go with 52 points in the paint to 28.

Le'afa was instrumental in setting up the win with 21 first half points and also finished with five assists, four rebounds and three steals. Brantley had his best game of the season too with 29 points, eight rebounds and five assists on 13/19 shooting.

Barry Brown Jr scored another 17 points with Dererk Pardon adding 16 points and four rebounds, Tom Abercrombie nine points, and Cam Gliddon nine points and five assists.

It was a happy enough Breakers coach Mody Maor afterwards, but still not satisfied.

"I liked the way we defended in the second half. Losing is a challenge and winning comes with its own challenges, and we need to learn how to be great when we win," Maor said.

"I did not like that second quarter, we gave up 47 points in the first half and that is not our team, this is not how we play and I don’t care what the score is. 

"I'm very proud of how the guys responded and it shows me that they understand who we are, and who we need to be. It doesn’t matter who was on the floor in the second half, we defended and with that, I'm very happy."

If you're looking for positives from the Bullets, they got to the foul line 40 times and made 28. Tanner Krebs top-scored with 19 points with Nathan Sobey adding 14 points and 10 assists, Tyler Johnosn 12 points, and Harry Froling 10 points.

Caretaker Bullets coach Sam Mackinnon is just glad now to put the past week behind him and the team.

"It was a tough week and anytime you go through the coach change, you'd hope for a better performance than that," he said.

"I think defensively where we'd been all year was really good but whether or not just the change and a different voice or whatever it was, we just got sort of bullied tonight and it's really disappointing."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dererk Pardon is drop-stepping his way to a highlight jam ?<br><br>Catch the action live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/yKCjSzC3NX">pic.twitter.com/yKCjSzC3NX</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1596704677797588992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It took almost two minutes for the first score of the game which was a Bullets three to Jason Cadee. The Breakers took almost three minutes for their first field goal which was to Jarrell Brantley.

Brisbane did lead 10-7 after a Tyler Johnson and-one, but then the Breakers put their foot down and the Bullets could do nothing about it.

It started with a 7-0 run topped off by a Brantley three-pointer. Johnson steadied things briefly with a three of his own, Brantley then made an and-one, Izayah Le'afa hit his first three and then Tom Vodanovich and Will McDowell-White hit from deep put the home team up 30-21.

The Breakers went on a 12-0 run early in the second term including triples from Barry Brown Jr and Tom Abercrombie, and a thunderous slam to Sam Timmins.

It was the Brantley and Le'afa show from there with the former doing as he pleased in the paint, and the latter hitting three more triples for the half to go to 21 points with the New Zealand lead growing to 30 at 59-29.

Brisbane did fight back to close the half with a couple of threes to Tanner Krebs, another to Harry Froling and then a 9-0 run to close it out to cut the New Zealand lead to 65-47 at the break.

The 65 points was the Breakers' best first half of the season by 18 points with 13 points off the nine Bullets turnovers as they shot 63 per cent from the floor and made 10/15 threes. 

However, the Bullets did well getting to the foul line 22 times and with Johnson and Krebs combining for 24 points.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">That&#39;s a MAN&#39;S JAM Sam Timmins ?<br><br>Catch the action live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/4IW0F2a2Ax">pic.twitter.com/4IW0F2a2Ax</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1596710794040774657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

There would be no sign of a Bullets miraculous fightback, though, with the Breakers pushing their lead back out to 24 by three quarter-time.

The Breakers then made sure of a thumping win with the opening eight points of the fourth term before winning by 37.

The Breakers now head to Christchurch to host the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Thursday night to open Round 9 while the Bullets will be at home later that evening hosting the Perth Wildcats.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 116 (Brantley 29, Le'afa 21, Brown Jr 17)

BRISBANE BULLETS 79 (Krebs 19, Sobey 14, Johnson 12) 

BOX SCORE