Parker Jackson-Cartwright’s game-winning 34 points for the Breakers against the Sydney Kings last night was fuelled by a sense of injustice at being ranked only the seventh best player in the NBL by commentator Derek Rucker, who was part of the broadcast team.
Immediately after the play-in game won 83-76 by the Breakers at Qudos Bank Arena, which ended the defending champions’ season and sent the New Zealand side into another sudden-death play-off, Jackson-Cartwright confronted a stunned Rucker at courtside.
Pundit Rucker, an American-Australian former NBL player, ranked point guard Jackson-Cartwright, the Breakers’ regular season MVP, behind Bryce Cotton, fellow Breakers import Anthony Lamb, Chris Goulding, Jaylen Adams, Mitch Creek and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr.
“We don’t care what nobody’s saying, it’s about Breakers’ basketball, it’s about Breakers’ family… we did it together,” Jackson-Cartwright said in an interview immediately after giving Rucker a verbal spray which was not picked up by the broadcast.
The little dynamo, who has quickly become a fan favourite in his first season in Auckland and was named in the All-NBL first team, was close to unstoppable.
His haul of 34 was easily the best of the night and helped send the Breakers into another play-in match against the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong on Monday night. The winner of that will play the top-seeded Melbourne United in a three-game semifinal series.
“Parker is Parker, man, he doesn’t really change,” coach Mody Maor said. “But I am grateful to Derek and the way he ranked the players. I think Parker had something to prove.
“I mean, I don’t think he played so good,” added Maor with tongue in cheek. “I think we need to poke the bear again to see what can get in the next one.”
Forward Zylan Cheatham, warming to the theme, added: “He played horrible.”
The Breakers will remain in Sydney ahead of Monday’s game, with Mody, who saw Will McDowell-White play through the pain of a long-standing shoulder injury, and Cheatham with a rolled ankle suffered near the end of the first half, joking they would take it easy in the meantime.
“We’re going to Bondi Beach for two days to chill. No practice.”
In reality, the Breakers will be planning on continuing a momentum which has seen them recover from a near hopeless place on the points table despite the injury toll, including the season-ender to Lamb.
“These guys are so tough,” Maor said. “They care about the right things, they care about each other. And they’re battle tested because this season has been tough.
“Once I walked into the locker room at halftime I knew we were winning the game because there was no sign of anything but determination and being focused on the task.
“There was a real difference on the boards in the second half and a real difference on the amount of ball pressure which really turned the game.”
The Breakers were down 47-38 at halftime and were trailing by as many as 13 but things were bound to change once they found their range from the perimeter. They scored only two from 10 three-point attempts in the first period.
The defensive pressure, which resulted in 15 points from 19 turnovers was also too much for a Kings team who played the final quarter in front of a very subdued home crowd.
Maor said he didn’t want Cheatham to play in the second half, but the American had other ideas.
“Right now I still have a little bit of adrenaline so I can’t gauge it too well,” Cheatham said of his injury. “Obviously it was a painful thing. I haven’t rolled an ankle since probably high school. I’m confident I’ll be all right.
“These guys are all fighters. Everyone in here is tough and competitive and if you’re going to send us home it’s not going to be easy and we’re going to keep that mentality going into the next one.”
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