R19 Preview: New Zealand Breakers v Sydney Kings

When: 5.30pm (AEST), Saturday 22 May

Where: TSB Stadium, New Plymouth

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


The last time
New Zealand 89 (Delany 28, Randolph 13, McDowell-White 12) d Sydney 81 (Ware 20, Martin 18, Cooks 15), Round 19, Trusts Arena, Auckland

This was a crazy old night in Auckland’s west, with Finn Delany the undisputed star. Sydney started fast, but seven New Zealand triples in 12 minutes put the game on their terms as they exploited the Kings’ matador-like defence. The game looked done when NZ led by 20 with nine minutes to play, but Casper Ware turned the contest with his aggression and the visitors were back within five. To cap this unpredictable night, both teams then combined for just three points in the final 2:45 to send the rabid Trusts Stadium crowd home happy.  


The now
Now the Breakers will be hungry for more, the tale of their season captured brilliantly in Colton Iverson’s reaction to Finn Delany’s fourth triple that put NZ 21 ahead and seemingly sealed the contest, the well-travelled big man soaking up the sheer energy of the deafening home fans. On Saturday it’s New Plymouth’s turn, and if the supporters in that vintage stadium can bring the same noise, Delany and Co will be mighty hard to stop once again.

It’s a challenge the Kings simply must overcome, however, as a loss will leave them 1.5 games behind the fourth-placed Hawks with just four contests remaining, the next two of which are against Perth and Melbourne. With Illawarra looking ahead to home games against Adelaide and Cairns, a loss in New Plymouth could leave Sydney praying for miracles, but what they can control is a far more proactive defensive performance.


The stats

 - Across the teams’ first two meetings, Sydney forced the Breakers into 25 long two-point attempts from outside the key. On Thursday in Auckland they forced them into just 6

 - On Thursday, both teams hit the same number of free throws and field goals, Sydney with eight more two-pointers and New Zealand with eight more trifectas

 - The Breakers hit 14 triples at 51 per cent after entering the game ranked 9^th at 33 per cent. Only three other times this season have they landed more than 11 triples or converted at better than 41 per cent

 - New Zealand's starters made 12-of-23 from the three-point line, compared to their Kings counterparts' wayward 2-of-15 from the arc


The key men

Casper Ware – When Casper has taken seven or more triples and made less than 30 per cent, the Kings are a woeful 1-8. Last season they were 9-8 on those nights, compared to 14-3 the rest of the way. It’s quite simple, Casper knows it, the Kings know it, when their point guard tries to shoot his way out of a slump from the arc the team suffers. On Thursday he went 2-of-10 despite facing some mediocre interior D, against which he shot 6-of-9 from inside and Jarell Martin 7-of-10. Casper the driver and facilitator is needed in the return bout.

Finn Delany – On paper, the Kings have two solid match-ups for Delany in Xavier Cooks and Craig Moller, but on Thursday they had no answer as the Flying Finn delivered 28 points on 5-of-9 inside, 4-of-7 outside while also dropping 4 dimes. The reality was Sydney out-schemed themselves, trying so many different defensive ploys before finally backing their defence in in the final term and locking the Breakers down. It doesn’t take Einstein to tell you if they give Delany that much space again, the brilliant Kiwi will deliver the same result.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">?? FINN DIESEL = HIGHLY FLAMMABLE ?<a href="https://twitter.com/finndelany?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@finndelany</a> leads all scorers with 26 points.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/dJDCD9xlHh">pic.twitter.com/dJDCD9xlHh</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1395305337796714497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The quotes

It was a loaded question and an easy one for Breakers coach Dan Shamir to answer – should Finn Delany be in the MVP and All-NBL First Team conversation.

“I agree,” he said frankly.

“This season was frustrating, personally. It didn’t really feel like we’re achieving a lot. I'm used to highs and lows in the business, but importantly I enjoy the process of seeing the team come together and playing better and better and good process is happening.

“We didn’t really have that, with the exception of this guy. This is the real joy of this season for me is to see how he plays.

“Unbelievable stuff today but not only today, I spoke about him a lot during a lot of press conferences, it’s not about what he does in a single night, it’s his attitude to the business.

“This is exactly the type of player I like to work with, serious people who ae all in, invested.”

Delany is a man of action – as his 28 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists on Thursday showed – but he keeps his words to a premium.

“I'm just trying to play free, play in the moment and try to get wins ultimately,” Delany said.

“I've been put in situations on the court to be successful, and trying to grow into an all-around player, that’s about it.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">New ? angles in New Zealand ?<a href="https://twitter.com/skysportnz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@skysportnz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/5UsutMiUId">pic.twitter.com/5UsutMiUId</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1395291012583411714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It’s that newly-developed all-court ability that now makes New Zealand tough to guard.

The Kings made it harder than it needed to be on Thursday. Having had some success with pressing defences in the two previous games they rolled it out from tip-off but without any real conviction. The Breakers were ready and turned those soft schemes into open threes.

“We tried extending it a little bit, we were too high up in our front line, too far back in our second line, so they just picked us apart there,” coach Adam Forde said.

That softness then extended to their half-court D.

Known for their aggressive shows on ball-screens, Sydney’s bigs were slow and hesitant, rarely testing William McDowell-White or Tai Webster with any significant pressure, instead making the simple pass to the short roll from where the Kings reactive rotations had little impact.

“We tried hard showing on the on-balls and then they just made the short pass for the extra, they hit shooters in the corner because we were late to rotate there,” Forde said.

“In no way was it a case of these guys hitting tough shots, we let them shoot their shot and they did well to capitalise on it.”

Forde tried switching schemes to inject some energy into the defence, but all that did was gift the Breakers mismatches, and the listless Kings were in no mood to get down in their stance and defend.

“A lot of breakdowns, our rotations were sloppy,” Forde said.

“To counter that we started switching the on-balls and then our sloppiness (was) in just defending the straight line drive.”

For a team ranked fourth in the NBL in defensive rating heading into a contest with serious playoff implications, it was as poor a performance as Kings fans could imagine until they finally clicked into gear after 30 minutes.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">? MARKS THE BLOCK.<a href="https://twitter.com/xaviercooks9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@xaviercooks9</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/roszg8a0zX">pic.twitter.com/roszg8a0zX</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1395308806557425667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

They have a lot to ponder at the other end too.

When they kept offence simple around the ball-screen, the Breakers were pre-occupied with the rollers in Jarell Martin and Jordy Hunter, allowing their penetration to be highly-effective, especially in the final quarter where Casper was in attack mode.

With their lack of guards sans DJ Vasiljevic and Didi Louzada, too much ball movement usually results in non-playmakers having to make plays, whereas Ware can create shots for himself and others when aggressive.

“You can definitely put your finger on a few things, not having those (two) guys is part of it, but the reality is that can’t be an excuse for us moving forward,” Forde said.

“If we’re going to give ourselves a chance of trying to stay in the top four, they're not coming back tomorrow, it’s got to get done now with the guys that we've got and we've got to do a better job of finding the looks and the scores that are going to get it done.”

Expect plenty more two-man basketball in Saturday’s rematch, and they simply must find more than two shots for Hunter, whom New Zealand have struggled to guard around the basket, especially with Rob Loe sidelined.

Nailing some early open looks off penetration will help open up their big men inside, but most of all they need to generate points from their defence.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NO* L?KS C?KS <br><br>*OK maybe just a sneaky peek <a href="https://twitter.com/xaviercooks9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@xaviercooks9</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/1GtniGBgi6">pic.twitter.com/1GtniGBgi6</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1395307144086384642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

As it was, Delany and Co were the ones that brought the energy on Thursday, and they turned TSB Stadium into a cauldron that far exceeded any Xs and Os.

“We really needed that today. Coming into a game like that, you’re coming here knowing everybody wants to win, everybody wants to have a few good games, but it can go the other way, you can get embarrassed in front of your home crowd, and you need people that really know how to show up, and Finn showed up big time today,” Shamir said.

“Last year we played in New Plymouth, it was a great game versus Sydney and we like doing that anyway, to play in front of Breakers fans all over the country, they don’t get the chance to see the Breakers play every day, and for us it’s still great, the atmosphere was phenomenal.

“After five months of a lot of difficulties and some frustrations we’ll just enjoy this time and hopefully play some good basketball and inspire the crowd and the crowd will inspire us.”