R19 Preview: NZ Breakers vs SE Melbourne Phoenix

When: 1pm (AEDT), Sunday 10 April 2022

Where: Bendigo Basketball Stadium

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; 10 Peach; 10 Play; Sky Sport NZ

 

Who won last time?

South East Melbourne 95 (Creek 36, Munford 17, Adnam 16) d New Zealand 88 (Besson 26, Delany 23, Wetzell 18) - Round 2, John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Already missing inspirational skipper Tom Abercrombie, the Breakers were dealt a savage blow during the week with import guard Jeremiah Martin ruled out with an ankle injury sustained in training. If that wasn't bad enough, the battling Breakers then lost fellow import Peyton Siva to a hamstring complaint early in the first quarter.

After being belted by 24 points by the Phoenix a week earlier to open the season, few would have given the Breakers a chance here. But through sheer determination, New Zealand fought back from a 13-point deficit to level the scores in the final quarter. In the end, they just ran out of legs.

Creek was at his influential best in the win, stuffing the stat sheet with a career-high 36 points including 6/7 from the three-point line. Xavier Munford (17 points, six assists) delivered key plays in the final quarter to halt the Breakers resistance, while captain Kyle Adnam (16 points, three assists) provided plenty of support off the bench with points, rebounds and assists.

Hugo Besson (26 points, eight rebounds), Finn Delany (23 points, including five triples) and Yanni Wetzell (18 points, four rebounds) were huge contributors for the Breakers.

 

What happened last start?

Both teams come into this game in Bendigo on Sunday afternoon in some tough losing form with the Breakers looking for a win that could help them avoid the wooden spoon while the Phoenix are just looking to get that winning feeling again with finals now out of reach.

The Breakers are now in the middle of quite the hectic schedule having played in Perth on Thursday night where they lost to the Wildcats 89-80 in a competitive performance.

However, again it wasn’t quite enough for the win and now New Zealand has lost their past six matches. The Breakers' last win came back on March 12 in Adelaide against the 36ers. Prior to that they last won back on February 14 against the Cairns Taipans.

That means they have only won twice in their previous 12 matches, but given they have had about a month in between, they might be just about due for another victory when they take on the Phoenix in Bendigo on Sunday.

Against the Wildcats out west back on Thursday night, the Breakers did plenty right with Yanni Wetzell putting up 22 points and 10 rebounds, Hugo Besson 15 points and four assists, Peyton Siva 12 points and six assists, and Ousmane Dieng 11 points and three rebounds, but shooting 7/28 from downtown made things tough as did the 17 turnovers.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix suffered a cruel blow against Melbourne United in the Throwdown on Thursday night to mean that they slip out of the playoff race despite for a lot of the season putting themselves in a position where they were seen as genuine championship threats.

That loss to United means the Phoenix have now lost their past three matches and seven of their previous eight to now sit on a 12-12 record having at one point been knocking on the front door at 11-5.

It has been quite the dramatic fall out of playoff contention from South East Melbourne and it will be a difficult pill to swallow, but you can't help but also acknowledge it has coincided with Ryan Broekhoff who was setting the tone for them in so many ways with his energy, hustle and rebounding.

On Thursday night against Melbourne, again the Phoenix did so much right and put themselves in a position to win, but just couldn’t quite close it out. Coach Simon Mitchell pointed to giving up 16 offensive rebounds for 25 second chance points, and 14 turnovers from which they conceded 16 points as their two biggest areas that let them down in the eventual 90-88 defeat.

Mitch Creek put up another solid game with 20 points and four rebounds with Zhou Qi producing 17 points and seven boards, Xavier Munford 14 points and three assists, Kyle Adnam 12 points, and Reuben Te Rangi 10 points and six rebounds.

Now for so many reasons it's going to be fascinating to see whether it's the Breakers or Phoenix or get back on the winner's list in their first meeting with one another since way back on December 10.

 

Who’s in form?

Yanni Wetzell – The Big Pretzel is having quite the fine season despite all the challenges the Breakers have been facing. He was a key piece on the Phoenix team last year that reached the semi finals and now this is his first chance to play his former team since way back in Round 2 on December 10 last year. He had 18 points and four rebounds in that game, and now over the season he is putting up 17.7 points, 8.3 boards, 1.7 steals, 1.4 assists and 1.1 blocks. He's also shooting at 58.7 per cent from the field and is coming off 22 points, 10 boards, three assists and two blocks against Perth on Thursday where he shot 10/15. Everything should be going through him with the form he is in.

Zhou Qi – The Chinese star has adjusted to life in the NBL nicely and is figuring some things out to be an impactful presence. It's not going to be enough to help the Phoenix reach finals, but he is still playing well and has the chance to make a few more statements before the season is over. He had another 17 points, seven rebounds and two blocks on 8/9 shooting against United in Thursday's Throwdown. He is averaging 11.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks for the season, and for the Phoenix to succeed in Bendigo on Sunday, he needs to have a significant impact.

 

Who needs to be?

Peyton Siva – So much of what the Breakers do runs through him. As the point guard and leader, he sets the tempo and controls a lot of the energy they play at so a lot rests on his shoulders. Not only that, but they need him to score too and be aggressive to look for his shot and to take it to the rack, and not just settle on being the facilitator. He sets the pace they play at and their energy on defence too. When he's up and going, the Breakers look a tough team to beat. When he's a little more passive, that flows through the whole team. He was solid in Perth on Thursday with 12 points, six rebounds and six assists. They do need a bit more from him if they are going to get back to winning.

Brandon Ashley – The former Breaker might not have quite had the overall impact he was hoping when joining the Phoenix this season, but when he plays well, it does make them a very tough team to beat. The last game South East Melbourne won was when he had his NBL career high of 25 points and four rebounds against the Cairns Taipans. He has had trouble staying on the court for long period too thanks to foul trouble and being able to play him alongside Zhou Qi has been a work in progress. He only played 11 minutes in Thursday's Throwdown for seven points and four rebounds, but the more he plays and bigger impact he has, the better chance for a Phoenix victory.

 

Who’s statting up?

 - Yanni Wetzell is leading the NBL scoring over the past few rounds going at 22.5 points over his last four games. He has led the Breakers in scoring their past five matches which is the best streak of any player at any club
 
 - The Breakers are attempting to avoid a seventh consecutive defeat. Should they suffer that fate, it would be a first time it's happened to them since they lost 10 straight over December 2006 and January 2007

 - The Phoenix have now lost seven of their past eight matches as well but only by an average of 5.3 points, and all seven defeats have been by eight points or fewer

 

Who’s matching up?

Finn Delany v Mitch Creek – This is a marquee match up of power forwards if ever there was one and both were battling one another for a spot in the All-First Team a year ago. Creek has maintained that form this season and maybe even built on it and while Delany hasn’t quite had the same impact for the Breakers in #NBL22, he's still more than capable and this challenge might just be the thing to light a fire under him. The numbers aren’t really comparable this season with Creek putting up 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists, and Delany 9.9 points, 5.5 boards and 1.7 assists. But they are just such a natural match up for one another with so many similar strengths and characteristic that this should be a match up to light a fire underneath each of them.

 

Who’s talking the talk?

Breakers coach Dan Shamir is confident that his team will put aside how they are feeling emotionally with everything they've been through to focus on the job at hand and play well on Sunday in Bendigo.

"You all know that it's been a tough season, and it's been a tough two seasons and everything is kind of accumulating. There are a lot of emotions for everybody but my focus and I think everybody's focus is, is to use every second of everything we do to do it the right way," Shamir said.

"I think we did that in this game even though it didn’t end with the W, but we did that with the process after playing three days ago and had one day to prepare. We did this work and we can demand more from ourselves even in that regard of getting more details from everybody. 

"That's what everybody needs to do and that's what we'll do. I don’t want to walk off the floor in any game feeling like we are just beaten, and we don’t have it. We are playing good teams and a lot of teams that are rolling who are playing well and are confident, and we're not. 

"But every game like that is an opportunity to do something good so for us it would mean a lot to win this next game. Anything we should do we'll do to get that done."

Shamir knows by now that this team is never going to be the best defensively, but he just hopes they do enough of what he asks of them well to put in a strong showing now on Sunday against the Phoenix.

"Analysing our team right now, we're not a great defensive team. Even when we put in all the effort and whatever scheme we put together in the last few games, we still gave up 90 points," Shamir said. 

"When you give up 90 points, with all the effort and everything that you're trying to do then obviously you need to win with a few more offensive possessions. Overall we solved issues during the game and we gave it everything we got, but of course it's always about some of the little things that we gave up on the defensive end. 

"We didn’t have any one big aspect of the game that was the big difference and once again to win the game we have to be a little bit better with a few less turnovers and we didn’t take any bad shots, we took open shots within our spectrum but obviously we can shoot a little bit less and drive a little bit more. 

"But these are decisions that happen in the game and as long as we are invested and we play with passion, and play with communication and we're all in it, then that's all I can ask."

South East Melbourne coach Simon Mitchell turned his focus quickly to getting ready to play the Breakers after losing Thursday night's Throwdown and he is making no secret that their motivation levels remain high.

"Obviously we're done with Melbourne for the year now so we will focus more on New Zealand. They are contrasting teams with Melbourne being an up and down team trying to hit you early in the shot clock while New Zealand are a little bit more trying to execute their half court sets," Mitchell said.

"So for us there's a huge contrast so we probably can't spend too much time on Melbourne because a lot of what happened in this game won't be of too much relevance for our game on Sunday. We have a lot to play for though. We've not won more than one game for eight games now and we're in every one of them, all of them we've been in. 

"So for us there's clearly motivation to continue to get better, and to try and arrest the issues that we face and move forward. We've got a ton of motivation and this isn’t a situation where all is lost and we've thrown in the kit bag and said that's enough for us. 

"We're fighting our tails off at practice and I thought we fought pretty hard in this game, but the underlying issues of giving up points off turnovers and giving up second chance points continue to harm us. 

"We gave up 21 points again off turnovers and 25 second chance points. That's 46 points and comparatively we're 18 points so that's a whooping we're getting in those two areas. Every other area in the game we're probably looking relatively solid."

While the Phoenix haven’t now played the Breakers in five months, he is confident they know them well enough but he can't help but be impressed by the development and growth of NBA bound pair Ousmane Dieng and Hugo Besson.

"We saw quite a bit of them in the pre-season and when we played New Zealand early we saw a bit of those kids so we should be familiar with them. As far as their performances go, those kids are great and I love them," Mitchell said.

"I love what they've been able to do and again the league has shown that this is a great place for young kids to come in and really put the stamp on the start of their professional career. I think those two kids have done it and all the credit to Dan and their coaching staff for what they've been able to achieve on that front."