Would like to be proven wrong, but I think the Hawks will get a wake-up in this one. Top offensive rebounding team against the bottom defensive rebounding team could make for a big advantage favouring the Breakers.

How the refs call it will have a big influence as well. Sometimes NZ live or die by the leniency of the refs.

I agree with you Isaac, I think the hawks will lose in this one by a bit. The bookies also agree with Breakers @ $1.30 and Hawks @ $3.60. The line is 7.5. I am surprised they are giving hawks no chance of winning with those odds since they are both equal first.

Another Surprise is Adelaide is at $3.70 for the win against both Cairns and Townsville whom are $1.28 for the win. You would think/hope/pray that Adelaide could win one of those more likely the first against Cairns. The line is also 7.5 for both games. Hopefully they will lose by under 8 to cover any bets going for the win

good points Isaac on the #1 offensive rebounding team Vs worst defensive and the reffing playing a big part.
Got my Lowrider Clubs 10th birthday this weekend down in Rotorua (Old Skool Rydz CC) so gonna flag watching this game live and watch it at home with some beers

Cant wait for this game and the ervin and braswell match up two good scores. Breakers by 12

Once again hawks prove you idiots wrong and rightfully claim #1 position .. Sixers looking like complete fools for letting Foreman go

yeh and then Abercrombie did the same and missed it. Guess oscar will have other highlights from this game including the win against the odds whilst Breakers will be start soul searching and second guessing themselves.

Hawks will sleep better tonight.

Sixers or Breakers? Breakers had Forman last season...

Forman played a great game. Got this one wrong...not a good way to start the round.

I put $150 on NZ. Don't I feel stupid...

Breakers just flat out sucked.

^^^^
you come across very jealous and insecure in your forum post anon

I don't get it, where are the sack NZ coach and imports posts.
I was impressed with Handsome Lee's comment blaming the sixers for letting Foreman go.
Come on posters do what you do best bag the shit out of NZ now!

Could anon ^^^^ above Isaac be Lemanis?

Hawks once again, on all but a shoestring budget show they are the class of the league.. even with that traitor Treageargghhhghh leaving they just keep on rolling.

Lemanis shifted him on for Vukona but would not talk about Oscar like that. Just a hater I guess. Missed a dunk because he was tired but had he made it, would've been a 23 and 11 game, on the road against a top team and his former team at that. I think the Hawks will just be happy about the win.

I think Lemanis needs to trust Pledger a little bit more, sure he's young and he's not going to be perfect out there. But he couldn't possibly be any worse than wilkinson was tonight!!!

Well done Hawks, especially Oscar (I've given him enough stick in the past). Took control of the game once they established a lead. Saville superb, played the half court game to precision. So many assists.
Breakers woeful. No inside game, not even a pretence of a post up, except Heanare posting up the midget, ONCE!!!!!
What role is Wilkinson supposed to play??
Hawks exposed the switching mismatch and he couldn't stay with his man.
Maybe we are finding our true level..... Sixers and us could be in a dog fight for top of the bottom 4.

come on bill, no need for negativity- adelaide are way below our standards. agreed that g def does not to lift, he has been woeful in the last 2 games. kirk was average tonight as well. braswell looked good too.

the hawks played okay but we were poor. 73 points defensively is very good, 57 offensively is shocking. drej will sort it out, don't anyone worry!!!

Stonne we were poor, but we kept playing that same poor game from half way through the second period and it got worse.
We have gone from penthouse to cellar in two weeks. That drubbing we took over in Perth should have been our wake up call and we should have performed better, not worse.
Hawks got out on our perimeter shooters and we had no plan B.
Sure Penney, Abercrombie won't shoot that badly again, but, it's the type of shots we were taking and the bricksville result that is worrying.
Also Hawks played without Gruber tonight, so they were understrength.

"loved when oscar foreman went for the dunk and missed it- sucked in!!!!"

Loved when the crowd went nuts at that point despite the facts that they were getting smashed and Oscar was the main reason for that.

Shocking game. Shocking officiating. Shocking Wilkinson. Dude looks like a cloned mix of Rosie O'Donnell, Cameron Ling and an infant. Pretty much how he's been playing too.

Would've been ugly for NZ if Ervin hit his FTs.

Stonne your faith in Lemanis is misplaced. Abercrombie, Penney, Braswell and CJ went 12 for 47 (they are at least 3/4 of our offence).
And what is embarassing about that stat is that they shot at that clip, 1 out of 4 for the entire game.
Surely a coach has to recognise what is not working and change things.
I would have happily seen Henare post up the dwarf for the entire 3rd quarter even if the result had been no different.
But to continue launching up perimeter bricks when the game is slipping away is irresponsible.
This is a veteran team and fans deserve better. Wilkinson looks like he has a nice stroke from outside but apart from trying to body block opponents into submission he is limited. Dribble drives are not his go, defensively he has no foot speed. I don't understand what is expected from him!

Wilkinson looked very dangerous when penetrating earlier in the season in one game.

I don't think it's wrong for Lemanis to expect at least 1-2 very strong players to shoot out of a bad patch they just couldn't do it. Were any of the others doing much better?Looked like the whole team had lost it somehow.

Lemanis used the Clark playbook. 1st play of the game pulled 4 players high and isolated Henare & Ervin at the rim. I thought to myself, helo the lights finally switched on. Drew an early foul on Ervin and went to the line. Did anyone notice it being used again, because I dont recall seeing it attempted. Also the Breakers should never have Boucher and Henare on together. The Hawks were just sitting so far off those two as they have zero outside game.Gordie's game plan were just far too good for NZ.

Breakers played poorly last night. Terrible offensive display and their trans D was awful in patches. On multiple occassions, Ervin was able to go coast to coast and make the basket or get fouled, or both.

Im not making excuses for the loss, but this was the Breakers 3rd game in 7 days. Add in the 7/8 hour flight to Perth and there's some tired bodies. I noticed alot of their shots were well short; always coming off the front of the rim. The travel had an effect on veterans such as Bruton, Boucher and possibly even Braswell who were well below their best. Add in Penney who has just been in Europe and would be pretty exhausted--He looked fatigued last night as well.

Travel should not be seen as an excuse however and the Hawks thoroughly deserved the victory.

Well done to Oscar, great game - one of the commentators said he "had a chip on his shoulder", but tbh he doesn't strike me as that kind of person. He was in two-minds on the dunk, it happens - whoever bagged him for it needs to get off the sour grapes.

Does anyone else think the NZ court surface looks extremely amateur? I've seen better quality ghetto social courts.

The Breakers know this, they wanted to buy the court from the FIBA U19 World Championship but it was just too expensive apparently.

I should add that there are preliminary plans in place to build a new stadium on the North Shore. Not sure what stage it is at though.

Agree Hereschenes

Oscar is really looking the goods, and is now an all around offesive threat from the perimeter, off the dribble and from the low post. And great to see him getting on the boards too. I was very impressed.

Geordie is really getting the best out of him and giving him the confidence he needs. If he continues this form all year, he could well be back on the Boomers radar.

The only area of his game that could still use some work is his on ball defence, although that is vastly improved from his Sixers days.

Oh, and the Hawks are legit yet again. So many underrated players who play the NBL's best team basketball. They somehow do it every year.

The Stuff.co.nz reporter is very quick to stick the boot into the Breakers and especially Penney:

The way Penney played on Friday night you'd think he might be lucky to spell NBA, let alone play in it.