GO BREAKERS!

The EPG may not be factoring in that DLS ends on Sunday in NZ, so that would mean only a 30 minute delay.

Right?

#confused

$3.20 seems high to me, though for my own irrational superstitious reasons I'm not planning to put my money where my mouth is.
On the other hand I think that NZ at -7.5 to pay $2.10 seems decent value. When the Cats lose they often lose big.

Who are the refs? Hope they call the game the same both ways thats all, if they do then perth will get it. Cj can just bump into some and get a call only thing he is good at is hitting the 3 ball from the car park when he want and when he needs 2. Just send jackson to the fouline for fresh air shots and the cats will be fine

Breakers fans should BOO Lisch from the tip off. Although he doesn't have a good shooting % anyway so it probably doesn't matter.

Be careful not to BAA or you'll distract some of the locals.

Dunkin' Dan, I wondered if the line was worth a look too. If Perth are down 3-4 towards the end and are fouling to claw back, they're just as likely to lose by 7-9?

Might go with a small bet on Perth head-to-head. They can generally cover defensively when any individual piece is missing.

Isaac, I like the line for NZ. I think they will win this first game by 6+

Love to see Breakers do this easy then clean it up in Perth.

But expecting a cracking GF series. Both fantastic sides.

The questions is , who's game is it to lose?

#BREAKERNATION

Wildcats by 10 points

^ wow

So what happened to the exciting new contract the NBL signed with Channel 10 that was to show a game live every Sunday at 2pm? We get the the most important game of the season and find the telecast buried on One

Last season when the league bowed to pressure to renegotiate the TV deal rather than hold the network to their original 5 year deal most lauded the decision as being the right thing to do and helping build the relationship with 10 - well that's worked out great hasn't it - 2 weeks ago we even had no arvo coverage of a game at all so channel 10 could show the same thing on 2 channels, and again nothing the NBL even says about it let alone actually taking action to hold the network to their contractual obligations!

It's high time the league grew some balls and stood up for itself when it's so called partners just do as they please to the detriment of the league!

Hammercrombie over Matty Knight WOW!

Dear perth,
Please stop shooting the three when you are hitting less than 30%

Dear Kev,
You should know me better by now. I don't have a Plan B.

Tough game, crowd was livid
Refs were abit touchy
Go the NZ BREAKERS!

Anon - They are the second worst shooting team in the league, ahead only of Townsville.

Their offensive rebounding has saved them all season but I've always felt that their offensive rebound numbers are very much inflated by the extra rebounding opportunities their poor shooting generates. However, NZ are better than every team in the league at making it hard to get the offensive rebounds, putting the pressure back on Perth's shooting.

Based on some estimates I did a few weeks ago, I reckon Perth's YTD field goal percentage at that stage was between 25% and 30% for their first shot in each offence. However, their shooting improved considerably in the last 3-4 weeks of the regular season, so they may have gotten above 30% by the end of the season.

The plan to give everard bartlett a green light from several feet beyond the three point line under full defensive coverage didnt really pay off...

Love Matt Knight's game but pretty scrappy otherwise from Perth. Why did they persist with Bartlett jacking threes at the end rather than playing Carter? Bartlett was rarely close.

In contrast, most of the Breakers played well or at least had their share of moments. They definitely get a lot of dunks. Webster seems a more mature player this season.

Jackson was very sour when fouled out at the end despite his team having a comfortable lead. Thought Noos was going to give him a dummy and his milk.

Good games from Abercrombie, Pledger and Vukona.

Breakers can sag off Robbins completely. Looks shaky coming back into the team and has even less of an interest than usual in putting up a shot.

Brad Robbins = the difference maker

The refs are fuckn disgrace!!! Hire offensive foul? Perth v NBL U perth cant beat nz when ayllen is in charge!!

Bartlett seemed like he wanted to make a point to his hometown and was trying too hard. I think Martin's halftime comments, about the team taking shots they haven't taken all season, would have been directed at Bartlett.

I liked Butler's comments about the replay- "i don't tell you to look at the replay when i'm right".

We were shooting like crap from outside, but all Bevo could come up with in the timeout was to instruct everyone to keep shooting, so that's what we did. And *shock* we kept on missing.

I thought NZ's defence was superb. That's what won them the game.
They knew exactly what they would let us have and what they wouldn't. They made life very hard for Knight & Lisch, and challenged the rest of the team to beat them. They weren't up to it. Cats don't face that level of intensity very often from an opponent, and frankly we do not deal with it very well (not helped of course by Martin being out).

Great cameo from Corletto too.

Based on the attendance of 9,330 at the Vector Arena, I reckon the NBL would be privately hoping that the Wildcats win Game 2 in Perth and force a 3rd game. I'll be surprised if the game at the Perth Arena isn't a sellout, and a 3rd game in Auckland would probably see another capacity crowd.

Perth perth perth, stfu!
The breakers outplayed y'all tonight
Stop blaming your teams lack of performance
Acknowledge the team that won and left it all on the floor
Tired of these excuses
The refs aren't perfect

Agreed with HoldenV8. I'd be very surprised if the Cats lose game 2.

Aylen didn't call the offensive foul on Hire so its for nothing to do with him. There were some bad calls but nothing too outrageous. Perth need to address their scoring problem before next season, they can't rely on just the two guys all the time.

Any Wildact fan blaming the ref's is way off. We lost the game on our own by continually jacking up 3 pointers, when it was quite clear we couldn't hit the water if we fell out of the boat. Terrible shooting effort cosy us.

Well outside of Lisch and Knight, there isn't really anyone on Perth's side who I would say plays with "great skill". They get by on their hustle and system.

New Zealand was just a class act. Their defense and passing were a level above Perth. The whole team played unselfishly and played aggressive.

Funny how a team at their best is viewed one way, and after a loss another way. During the season, how many were talking down the Perth players?

I would have gotten Matty Knight a touch on every possesion and tried to get Pledger and Hudson more fouls before resorting to bombing away from deep. Especially as Pledger has historically struggled to guard him due to his physical strength and skill set.

IMO Pledger did a fantastic job at both ends against the best Big in the league currently and it should give him some confidence heading into game 2.
I also like Corletto's D on Lisch, not that Websters was bad it just that Darryls was better.

FWIW Isaac, after the Townsville-Perth game in Perth I put the view that it was surprising to see a team with Perth's poor shooting in the top 2 on the NBL and that it's something that I'd not expect to see in other leagues around the world. Mind you, that game was diabolical and one of the worst displays of shooting the NBL had seen from 2 teams in the same game.

For those expecting Perth to shoot a lot better in the next game, don't hold your breath. While they had a lot of missed 3 pointers deflating their overall shooting percentage, they only hit 38% of their 2 point shots as well. That's normal for them. They rely on offensive rebounding - it provided 1 out of every 6 points for them yesterday, compared to NZ's 1 of 16. I don't expect that to change greatly in Game 2 as it hasn't all year.

They have to work on bringing NZ's shooting down a level - probably by forcing them to shoot from further out. In saying this, I note that NZ had more turnovers than Perth and will probably fix that in game 2.

I don't think that conceding 79 points is too bad. Scoring only 67 is where the big issue is.
I don't magically expect our shooting percentage to skyrocket next game, but yesterday was unusually poor even by our low standards.

Bevo & the guys need to come up with more effective ways of running the offence in the face of NZ's pressure. Whichever way you look at it, hitting some outside shots is a necessary part of that equation. We also need to not be so fussy from mid range. Guys like Knight, Redhage & Hire can hit those, and need to be less fussy. I think we've been too predictable in passing up those looks but too often it ends with a drive and a kick-out to someone on the perimeter who is not a good shooter.
It definitely hurt us not having Damo to get the offence started in a timely manner as well. We were rushed by shot clock pressure a lot more yesterday than we are used to, and that obviously doesn't help with creating good looks. NZ pressed very effectively and we were poor at getting through it. Normally we would attack it and generate some easy scores as a result. Yesterday we were too willing to give up the initiative to the Breakers.

Why do wildcats fans have no respect for the breakers?
They are the champs, they played like champs and won like champs. This GF series is the breakers to lose , Lemanis has done a great job the last 5 years. Especially the last 2seasons taking home the championship. Perth have dominated this league for so long , anchoring themselves as team alpha but can't shoot. NZ couldn't rebound a few years back, let alone play defence. Is the league better because they have won championships?
Maybe this is a rebuilding phase , talent wise for the rest of the league. But the 2 best teams are in the final, well deserving of them. The real winners are the fans, wether the stadiums big or small, teams winning or not. But showing up is only half the game, getting buckets gets the W. Expect nz to go for it on Friday night. #3peat

Relying on rebounds works against a team like Wollongong, but not so much NZ?

Perth have capable shooters in Lisch, Redhage, Knight, Hire, Wagstaff, etc. But some of them looked pretty flat yesterday. If it were Adelaide denying Lisch and Knight, we'd get burnt badly by Redhage and co. For NZ, the strategy was a masterstroke.

Piss poor effort for a grand final! Only keep knight lisch and redhage at this stage from that team.

Rebounding works against NZ too, just not if you shoot 28%!!

Perth go very close to winning that game even if they shoot 38%, which is well below their road average this season. That's the positive theyll take out of that game if they make it to a G3.

Is Casey Frank the most biased 'commentator' on TV ? Surprised he didn't pull out the pom poms. I would say Eddie McGuire is a distant second.

Pikachu, we are discussing facets of the game. I know its foreign to kiwis but there is more to following sport than yelling "go breakers woo!!" as loud and often as possible.

I think its quite obvious to all viewers of the game that the Cats shot themselves out of it. What else needs to be said?

"Why do wildcats fans have no respect for the breakers?"

Why are breakers fans all illiterate dicks?
Oh wait, they're not. Guess I shouldn't paint an entire group of tens of thousands of people with one brush based on one or two posts huh. That'd be kinda stupid and pointless wouldn't it.

You'd be close though.

"You'd be close though."


unlike the Cats?

Nice to see the form team of the comp win Game 1. Hopefully can close it out and win again.
Nothing like seeing the wildcats gain the status of 'bridesmaids again'

Shot 28% in a grand final away from home and only lost by 12. Why credit the other team when u lost the game ureself. Sick of every time nz get a foul called they just coplain! How cj still gets bullshit calls is just embbarasing

"Quite obvious the Breakers defence forced the Wildcats into jacking up a thousand three pointers."

The Wildcats don't need to be forced to shoot a shitload of threes. Its been their gameplan for the past 4 seasons.

Almost every player in the team has got the green light to shoot if they're open. Try watching games instead of reading boxscores.

I find it hilarious when Wildcats fans complain about refs being biased towards the OTHER team...

Yeah nice one Casey aka annon769

Paint the town blue, perth did great considering they shot 100+ shots not including free throws!
Shoot another 50 next time? At your own goal to make sure it goes in!
Now if game 2 is a different game and perth win, nobody will be baggin them shooting nearly 40 3pointers in game 1
The story will be all perfect and smiles all around , fairytale game 3 blah blah blah

Getting buckets isn't a "facest" of the game?

They shot 74 shots.

Missed 53 of them

Cool, but they didn't shoot 100+

Does it matter now? I still got my moneys worth from Tom Waterhouse

What was the go with Vukona's 'grab' off the ring from a wildcat free throw?

I thought it was fine, and I thought that was legal, although I could swear that I saw a very similar incident in a recent NBL game whistled as a goal tend so I was no longer sure if it was still kosher to do it.

Yer, commentators didn't say anything, none of the players remonstrated so I thought it was all okay. But, and I'm not sure if it was before or after this play, that Pledger was called for a goal tend on Knight. I thought of the ball was in the 'cylinder' then it wa a goal tend?

^anon you are correct, it was the pledger block where the ball had hit the backboard. Interesting to find out more about the cylinder ruling.... On the topic of free throws, the breakers have been off for the last few games, namely game 2 v Sydney and this last game just gone!

"lachie Reid is the number one ticket holder for the wildcats and was the court side announcer for years.. i think there's reason why he comes across as bias.."



Casey Frank was a Breaker and played with most of the Breakers for the Tall Blacks, thats the reason he comes across as bias..

breakers by 6 come Friday night?