Preview: New Zealand v Adelaide (Round 7)

When: 2pm (AEDT), Sunday 20 November, 2022
Where: Trusts Arena, Auckland
Broadcast: 10 Peach; 10 Play; ESPN; Kayo; Foxtel, Sky NZ
LIVE SCORES & STATS

Who won last time?

New Zealand 99 (Brantley 22, Brown 22, Le’afa 15) d Adelaide 70 (Sotto 16, Cleveland 14, Franks 11, Randall 11) – Round 5 at Adelaide Entertainment Centre

Adelaide returned home from their barn-burning road win over Sydney but were soon brought back to earth by the relentless Breakers. The visitors unleashed a 50-28 burst over the middle quarters with Barry Brown and Jarell Brantley unstoppable and their pressure defence creating 35 points from turnovers as the Sixers self-destructed, with in-fighting soon turning into lacklustre effort on the floor as the Kiwis blew them away.

What happened last game?

The 36ers showed sterner stuff in Melbourne on Thursday, coming out after the interval and owning the paint at both ends to establish a 15-point lead. When challenged in the final quarter they held their nerve and closed out their first win over United in Café Central since 2018. The Breakers had an even tougher challenge in Tasmania, caught in a grind but for the third time this season they outlasted the previously ‘unoutlastable’ JackJumpers.

What’s working?

Fitness & fight – These Breakers have a strong belief that if they can hang in there and make the game a physical fight, they’ll wear opponents down in the end. There’s a good reason for that, New Zealand are +84 in their past five second halves, equating to an average of 16.8 points per 20 minutes. Mody Maor’s team has conceded just 34.4 points in those five halves, and then spring-boarded off their D to run up an average of 51.2 points themselves.

Owning the d-glass – Adelaide has pulled in an impressive 78 per cent of rebounds at their defensive end the past three games, with 5.7 Sixers pulling in at least three d-boards per night. In that stretch they have averaged 92ppg and opponents have managed just 6.7 second chance points. When New Zealand visited in Round 5, they racked up 18 second chance points and the 36ers, stuck in a half-court rut, scored a season-low 70 for the game.

What needs stopping?

Pardon the free throws – The Breakers have remarkably averaged 29.3 free throws the past three games, up from 17.6 in their first seven. Dererk Pardon incredibly shot 17 by himself against the JackJumpers, mostly coming from dump-offs and o-boards, and with Kai Sotto not in uniform on Sunday a big load falls onto Daniel Johnson’s defence. Expect Adelaide to tag the roller early and challenge Izayah Le’afa and Will McDowell-White to make shots.

Robert Franks – Don’t be surprised to see Adelaide go to small ball with Franks at centre alongside the likes of Antonius Cleveland, Anthony Drmic, Sunday Dech and Mitch McCarron when DJ spells. Franks scored 18 of his 21 points on Thursday from ‘ones and twos’ but his threat from the perimeter as a five-man could open some serious lanes for Cleveland and Robo himself, who’s averaged 23.3ppg at 71 per cent on twos in his past three outings.

Who’s matching up?

Barry Brown v Antonius Cleveland – This is a high-quality athletic matchup, and although Brown is coming off a quiet night in Launceston, where the JJs keyed their defence on him, he averaged 23ppg at 56 per cent and 10/23 from deep in his previous four. To defend New Zealand’s bench star you need length, athleticism and defensive instincts. In other words, you need Cleveland, who will be smarting after Rayjon Tucker got the better of him on Thursday.

Jarell Brantley v Robert Franks – Perth had success going at Franks defensively, exploiting his tendency to sag to get Brady Manek firing. With Brantley shooting a sneaky 41 per cent from deep, and proving deadly on his controlled drives, expect plenty of pick-and-pop action and corner feeds to test Robo’s defensive reads. At the other end, JB is one power forward with the combination of strength and mobility to match the Sixers’ athletic import.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jarrell starting strong ?<br><br>Live on Sky Sport 1 and Prime.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNBREAKABLE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UNBREAKABLE</a> <a href="https://t.co/uEt7zkRSG2">pic.twitter.com/uEt7zkRSG2</a></p>&mdash; Sky Sport New Zealand Breakers (@NZBreakers) <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers/status/1593528880329273346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who’s saying what?

New Zealand bullied the 36ers in Round 5 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, and coach Mody Maor loved the way they did it.

“We forced 12 deflections in the second quarter and that’s what we ran on in the third,” he said. 

“There were a lot of good things today, the intensity on the ball, the way we closed the paint, and we were good in the rebound area for most of the game.

“The foundation is always going to be the same for us. It’s the intensity, the ball pressure, the maximum efforts and the scrambling. That’s where it lies for us.”

The ability of defenders to invade an offensive player’s space is a unique feature of the NBL which creates a highly-combative style rather than a highly-technical one, and Sixers coach CJ Bruton was disappointed with how his team handled that against the Breakers.

“Like any team that crawls in, you set the tone at different times, but I thought we were very careless, and at any age group getting open and making strong leads, delivering a pass, being strong with the ball,” Bruton said.

“The referees allow for certain things to play, they let them play, but I don’t want change the script if you start the game a certain way, keep it the same way.”

Change appears to be afoot, however, and it could impact the Breakers.

Over the opening month the NBL was on track for a record-low number of fouls per game, with the average hovering around the mid thirties.

Come Round 7 though, and that number has skyrocketed to 42.4 whistles per night, with perhaps last season’s mid-season crackdown coming early in NBL23.

It meant the New Zealand-Tasmania clash between the league’s most physical teams became a stop-start affair – with 48 fouls and 57 free throws – and will leave coach Maor’s crew privately assessing whether it is time to make adjustments.

The public message to his team is to keep applying the screws but use “a lot of maturity” as they did on Friday night in Launceston.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">DP controlling the paint as he gets another double-double!<br><br>19pts/10reb/1blk<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNBREAKABLE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UNBREAKABLE</a> <a href="https://t.co/SKsbMmPMAS">pic.twitter.com/SKsbMmPMAS</a></p>&mdash; Sky Sport New Zealand Breakers (@NZBreakers) <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers/status/1593709310995238912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Knowing how to play with fouls is very important,” Maor said.

“You don’t try and avoid your fifth, you just try and avoid the cheap ones. It’s important to keep playing the game aggressively. When you try to avoid stuff you will pick up a cheap one.

“Our guys hung in there and played extremely hard with the fouls, and I think a big part of it is they trust the next man up.”

Adelaide made the most of the new approach in Melbourne, attacking the paint relentlessly to get to the foul line 29 times and destroy United 76-44 on scoring from ‘ones and twos’.

It was a very different 36ers team with Robert Franks the focal point and no Craig Randall isolation plays on the perimeter.

“We thought the best way to attack early was to keep the ball hopping and play through (Franks),” coach CJ Bruton said.

“He made some good decisions, good plays and we kept the floor open. It opened up a few more open shots and Drim got going. Definitely playing a bit more patient and moving the ball more helped.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mitch McC???ron. ??<br><br>? - <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> + <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> <a href="https://t.co/frkmeXNnWN">pic.twitter.com/frkmeXNnWN</a></p>&mdash; Adelaide 36ers (@Adelaide36ers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers/status/1593180805970657281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

For Franks, his recent success has been via the team finally buying into Bruton’s vision, with Mitch McCarron able to run the show en route to five assists without a single turnover.

“Mac played a superb game running the show,” Franks said.

“That’s what coach is trying to instill in all of us, moving the ball and at the end of the day it’s going to find who it needs to find at the right time.”

New Zealand’s defence is a very different challenge to Melbourne’s at this point, however, and Sunday will be a big test of their ability to move the ball through physicality.

“When you’re trying to still find your identity or continue to build on what you see your vision as being for an identity, we’re nowhere near a finished product and I'm glad we were able to grind this one out on the road,” Bruton said.

As the Breakers showed on Friday, they're more than happy to make their games a survival of the fittest, and that will test the class and athleticism of Franks, Cleveland Co.

“We have no problem being in a dogfight, we actually enjoy it,” coach Maor smiled.

That style of game might have been enough to intimidate the 36ers a few weeks ago, but their coach saw a different team on Thursday.

“I saw resilience,” he said.

“We've been in some tough spots in the early parts of this year and to see us dig ourselves (out), when we were challenged this week we were able to maintain it and find a way to execute and dig down deep and get some stops that we needed to get.”