The New Zealand Breakers are in the NBL grand finals against the Sydney Kings after an intense and physical 92-77 victory over the Tasmanian JackJumpers at Auckland’s Spark Arena tonight.
It is their first time in a grand finals series since 2016. They last won the title the year before that.
As ever, the Breakers did not have it easy in the sudden death match against a gritty side in only their second season in the competition.
They were behind early – by as many as 11 points in the first quarter, and they were cold all game from the perimeter, but, roared on by a loud crowd, their defensive pressure – particularly their outstanding rebounding - brought them back into it.
They were also helped immensely by their accuracy from the line; they shot a perfect 24 from 24 free throws, with Barry Brown Junior, the star of the show for the Breakers, hitting 10 of them.
Brown Jr, injected early to add some offensive spark, finished with a game-high 32 points. Archetypal Aussie battler Jack McVeigh was the best for the JackJumpers with 22 points.
The upshot is the Breakers, dead last last season and second after the regular season this year, will face the No.1-ranked Kings in a best-of-five finals series starting in Sydney a week on Friday.
The JackJumpers, who lost by 20 points in game one a week ago in Auckland, out-muscled and out-hustled the Breakers in Hobart in game two but the positions were reversed here.
The Breakers were down 21-25 at the end of the first quarter, but riding a wave of emotion from the crowd and a valuable injection from big man Rob Loe early, the Breakers battled back to take a 49-42 halftime lead.
The JackJumpers, who battled back from a 0-1 deficit last year against Melbourne United to make the grand finals, stayed in the game and forced the Breakers into foul trouble, with Jarrell Brantley fouled out at 4min 43sec to go in the fourth quarter.
The visitors came back to 67-64 at the end of the third quarter but from there their offence went cold in the face of their opponents' unrelenting pressure.
It remained tense inside the stadium but a huge Brown Jr three-pointer with 3.42 left extended the Breakers’ lead to 84-72 and effectively made it safe.
“I’m very happy,” coach Mody Maor said afterwards.
Asked about the crowd’s support, he said: “We worked all year to get home court and it was worth every penny.”
Dererk Pardon played a valuable supporting role with 15 points and 14 rebounds for the Breakers, with Brantley scoring 14 points and pulling in seven rebounds and Loe scoring 11 points and grabbing eight boards – many of them on the offensive glass.
They also did a brilliant job in containing JackJumpers' danger man Milton Doyle - limiting him to 12 points.
If they could fix only one thing, it would be their shooting from the outside. They made only six from 26 from the perimeter – 23 per cent. It will need to be better against the Kings.
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