R19 Preview: NZ Breakers v Adelaide 36ers

When: 5.30pm (AEST), Tuesday 25 May

Where: Christchurch Arena

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

The last time
New Zealand 93 (Delany 23, Abercrombie 19, Webster 15, Randolph 15) d Adelaide 77 (Johnson 20, Humphries 14, Crocker 13) – Round 15, The Silverdome Launceston

It was a month ago now when the teams last played in Tasmania and the Breakers were able to continue their good form in their adopted home away from home with the 16-point victory despite Josh Giddey racking up his first triple-double for the 36ers.

The Breakers got off to a flying start to lead 16-6 early in Tasmania. Even though Adelaide did fight back and got to within a point during the second period, from the time Daniel Johnson cut New Zealand's lead to 55-51 early in the third quarter, it was all New Zealand. From that moment the Breakers outscored the 36ers 38 points to 26 to end up winning comfortably by 16 on the back of another standout Finn Delany performance, but he had plenty of helpers too.

Delany's career-best season continued as he put the Breakers on his back to finish with 23 points, four assists and two rebounds on shooting 7/10 from the field, 3/5 from downtown and 6/7 from the free-throw line. On the night he equalled the legendary Mika Vukona on the New Zealand all-time games played list, Tom Abercrombie was tremendous as well for the Breakers with 19 points being aggressive to draw four fouls and hit 7/7 at the charity stripe.

Levi Randolph is warming to life with the Breakers nicely too with another 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals while Corey Webster enjoyed coming off the bench to produce 15 points. William McDowell-White ran the ship well too with 13 assists, four steals and four rebounds.

Josh Giddey has been threatening a triple-double all season with the 36ers and he broke through to achieve that on Monday night in Tasmania finishing the evening with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He shot well too going 5/6 from the field. Daniel Johnson fought hard again for Adelaide with 20 points while the signs were more than encouraging that Isaac Humphries will quickly get back to his early season form on return from a foot injury. 

In just his second game back after sitting out 11 with that complaint, he showed good signs with 14 points and two rebounds on 6/9 shooting and getting through almost 21 minutes of court time. Tony Crocker also had 13 points on 3/5 three-point shooting but Adelaide couldn’t overcome 15 turnovers and getting just 14 points on 4/19 shooting between Brandon Paul, Sunday Dech and Jack McVeigh.

The now

This is a fascinating game in a lot of ways as the travelling roadshow back in New Zealand continues for the Breakers as they head to Christchurch on Tuesday night to host a 36ers team also out of finals contention and down on stars.

After spending six months away from home and based in Australia, the Breakers returned home last week and celebrated their first home game in Auckland of #NBL21 in style beating the Sydney Kings in front of nearly 4000 fans. There was little time to enjoy the occasion for the team, though, as they travelled straight to New Plymouth for another clash with the Kings, and this time it was a defeat the end result.

Now again it's a short turnaround to play on Tuesday in Christchurch this time for the Breakers who come into the game with a 10-21 record with five games of their remarkably challenging season remaining.

Adelaide, meanwhile, played their last game at home at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for the season back on Sunday in a loss to the Perth Wildcats, but their local fans continued to turn out in droves with another terrific attendance of 6422 farewelling them for the season.

The Sixers now hit the road for their final three matches and that begins this Tuesday night in Christchurch at the Christchurch Arena against the Breakers. Following their final two home games this past weekend, the 36ers now sit on a 13-20 record on the season with the three road fixtures to go.

Neither team will be at full strength either with Breakers centre Rob Loe now sidelined for the rest of the season due to a knee injury he suffered during Thursday's win over the Kings. He joins captain Tom Abercrombie who remains out with a hamstring complaint.

Adelaide will still be without Josh Giddey and Isaac Humphries for the rest of the season too taking away their starting point guard and imposing centre. Giddey is preparing for the NBA Draft while Humphries is nursing a foot complaint.

The stats

- The Breakers have enjoyed playing the 36ers in recent times. Their two biggest wins this season have been against Adelaide including a 44-point thumping at the NBL Cup that is a franchise record. Last time they played in New Zealand in Round 18 last season was also a 113-89 victory for the Breakers as they connected on 20/37 three-pointers.

- The 36ers were making a run to stay in finals contention up until this current four-game losing streak. Over the last two rounds, the Sixers are the lowest scoring team in the league at 70.5 points a game and shooting just 38.8 per cent. However, they are going at 31.3 per cent from three-point land which is the best over the past two weeks of any team.

- This is the 145th match of the NBL season and it's the first game that is going to have no impact whatsoever on anything happening with the top four with both teams well out of playoff contention 

The key men

Colton Iverson – He has been an imposing presence at times in his first season in the NBL but perhaps not had the complete impact that the Breakers were hoping for. With his size and power, it's understandable coach Dan Shamir might have thought he could have games and periods of matches where he takes over and can completely dominate similar to what Nate Jawai is still doing in Cairns, but it hasn't quite happened. It still could, though, on Tuesday with the 36ers missing Isaac Humphries and his role to increase with the Breakers minus Rob Loe. In the 12 previous games Loe missed, Iverson was putting up 11.8 points and 10.1 rebounds while he's going at 7.1 points and 7.2 boards with Loe playing.

Brandon Paul – He does look every bit the type of player who can take over games, be a big time scorer and playmaker, a strong all-round contributor and match-winner on a consistent basis for the 36ers. He has all the tools to look as though he could be one of the true stars in the NBL, but so far that remains more potential than actual consistent production. If he wants the 36ers to see him as someone to bring back next season, he needs to show why in these remaining games and improve on his month of May so far where his numbers are down from his rest of the season at 13.1 points a game, 6.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and shooting 39.2 per cent from the field and 30.8 per cent from downtown.

The quotes

Breakers coach Dan Shamir is glad for his team to be back in their home country, but acknowledges they aren’t really getting to savour it through their hectic schedule of taking the games right around New Zealand.

"It's a very unusual situation, we are playing seven games in 16 days and partially some of it is already showing. We had a few players who had an amazing performance in our first game back and then in this one it's already showing and the load is going to be like that," Shamir said.

"For the players I think it's fun to play instead of playing once a week and having the practice, but the guys know what to do and it's all about recovery and preparation. Our loading between the game is going to be minimal, we're also going to be travelling a lot and we are going to play the games, and hopefully we'll enjoy all of them."

Adelaide coach Conner Henry is now hoping for nothing but full effort and commitment in these last three home games from his team, and is confident some wins can come their way provided they give that.

"Just like in all games, we're going in these last three to win them. We are going to New Zealand now and we're out on the road for these last three so I told the fellas to back this effort up when we go there," Henry said.

"I also told them to enjoy ourselves and stick together, and see a little bit of the country if we can and have time. But then it's a quick turnaround where we head straight home and then back out on the road. 

"The season has been a challenging one both from a logistics point and of course with injuries, and trying to develop the club in general in a couple of systems we'd like to play out of. We've made strides but have suffered some disappointing losses and had some big wins. We're very optimistic about next season."

The 36ers put in a disappointing showing back on Friday night at home against the Illawarra Hawks with the final scoreline perhaps a little flattering towards them. But the effort was improved against the Perth Wildcats on Sunday, and Henry hopes to see that level of effort and energy maintained over these final three games.

"The effort was much better than the other night and I thought defensively we had a good game plan. Pearl (assistant coach Jamie Pearlman) does a great job on that end and we changed a few things up. I thought defensively we played hard and smart for the most part, and we kept them to a low offensive number," Henry said.

"We were physician and active, we just didn’t secure the ball and finish the defensive possession enough, and they got too many offensive rebounds. That's part of it but overall we lifted and played with a lot more energy than the other night. We did get some small contributions from the bench again, Brendan played a couple of quick minutes and Dill ran the point for us and did another pretty good job without Josh here. The effort was better."

Sixers guard Sunday Dech is taking positives from the season both in terms of the team and individually while fully acknowledging there's plenty of improvements still to be made, but he remains focused on a big finish over these last three games.

"First and foremost, we do have to take positivity out of this season with the knowledge that we can improve a lot. Coach, the rest of the team and the front office right down to the managers are excited by that opportunity in these last four games and the off-season. I think that's the start of it," Dech said.

"Personally I think it's been an up and down year, and there's definitely more room for improvement as well on my end. Obviously I've got the task of guarding the opposition's best player night in and night out, and sometimes I did well and sometimes I didn’t. It's a team effort at the end of the day and one person can't stop the opposition and collectively we've done well with what we've had at times.

"We just have to keep building on that and hopefully we finish out these last four games strong and can execute at a high level. I think it comes down to the possession game for us and that's been theme for the whole year, and we'll look to improve on that over these last four games and over the off-season as well."