Patty not starting :O

OK, yes he is. Commentator stuff-up due to number changes.

That livestats link isn't working for me. Anyone got anything else? It was the one from the basketball.org.nz link.

THis one is working for me:
http://www.fibalivestats.com/matches/151/08/71/70/896XOnZhe0J3w/

Thanks DD

LiveStats making for uncomfortable reading. Going to need to score off more than just free throws if we want to win.

Nice finish to the quarter by Broekhoff :)

Dante Exum looks the goods. Quick and long and looks confident with the ball.

5-from-9 3pt, bloody oath

Tall Blacks on top

Webster is playing quite a game here

Am I the only one who thinks this team would be better without mills and Anderson, or is that heresy?

Kiwis lead 39-32 at half time

Patty Jack is back!

Give Dante more minutes, stop brining gibson on and gives simmons some burn

Patty needs to put the 3 ball away and put the ball on the floor, don't know why he hasn't modelled his game on TP. our inside players are very soft and getting dominated by a 6ft4 MV. I want to see Simmons get a run in the 2nd half and please play Delly and Exum together. leave Gibbo on the pine

The Tall Blacks as is often the case playing way above their "on paper" ability. Vukona is very effective in the international level. Tall Blacks zone D getting it done for Vucinic.

Tall Blacks: FG 15/29, 3pt 5/9

Boomers: FG 10/32, 3pt 3/13


Remind me again which coach won the Boomers job?

There is no way this team is better without Mills, he's the only guy playing with confidence.

Great to see he and Webster renewing acquaintances, two great scorers who will be able to do anything when they put their whole games together.

Wonder if we've lost a dogged rebounder in leaving out Wortho? We don't have a Vukona who will play above his height, etc. Thought it could've been Petrie? No clean looks for shooters.

Not like any of this should be a surprise to Lemanis either - he'd be very familiar with most of the Kiwis.

I agree, Benno. My gut feel is that we need to shorten the rotation, cut down on the subs and give these guys some stability to establish themselves.

The problem with Mills is he can easily shoot you out of the game. I've always maintained he will become a lot better player if he improves his shot selection. Take less difficult threes take more midrange ect.

Mills is 1/7 3P in 15 minutes.

New Zealand making smart simple plays while we rely on the 3 or an individual move. Unfortunately I have seen this before.

Yep, Mills needs to be used better, no doubt.

3 fouls for vukona

Much better from Mills

mills is shooting very well inside the arc just terrible outside.

What an impact by Ben Simmons in his few couple minutes wow

and thats why you play ben simmons!! Now take this gibson flog off, does anyone else find neville extremely slow and useless??

anyone think Jarrod Kenney would look out of place on a NBL bench?
Played pretty well so far.

Simmons with instant impact.

No, Kenny would be fine, dependable backup who defends.

whoever was hating on big Dave Anderson eat your words, his killing it!! GO DA

Mills enjoying Kenny atm

Ill eat my words on Ando. seriously I don't want to see either 7ft Luke's in a boomers singlet. How good did Simmons look. like to see exum play more.

Delly's lifted a bit. Good stuff!

Smashing in this last quarter

NZ's lack of depth showing now. Aussies putting some really good pressure on to make the most of us. Will end up with the margin we would expect.

Our guys do look very much like a new team though, therell be plenty of improvement, and there would want to be!!

Wow, NZ stopped dead.

Coz he isn't any good?

Took until there was less than a minute in the quarter to score their third point - wow, what a turnaround.

Was really happy with Dellavedova tonight, his shot looks a lot more fluid than usual! DA was in fine form tonight. Nice glimpse into the future with Exum and Simmons.

I agree on Barlow. While he has been on the team for the last few major international events he has not contributed. On another note David Anderson has only played well for Australia the last few years and before that struggled at international level.

I imagine Exum and Simmons would've played more had the lead been 10+ earlier. Lemanis couldn't risk a loss first up, especially not with the players available and having seen what happened to Smyth.

18-2 points off turnovers.

Mills had a much better second half than first, it seemed.

Exum and Simmons point to a pretty exciting future. No succession problems for the Ingles and Newley generation.

Where was / or what has happened to Brad Newely?

@Gnome He is most likely sipping a few beers on the beach, watching the sunset.

Didn't know before tonight that Casey Frank and Dillon Boucher had done a job swap. I thought Casey Frank had retired as he has been commentating all year. Was he injured or just not playing NBL?

Ando was very good with his back to the basket and def his style more then pick and roll, maybe pick and pop. still cant wait to see Jawai, Baynes, Bogut in the front court. even AJ would be better then our current front court. Delly played ok, joe played ok, patty was great inside the arc, but to see exum and simmons was great and hope they may see more time in game 2 instead of Gibbo, petrie/barstow

Andersen, Petrie and Mills the best for mine - when Mills shoots from mid-range he is deadly. Delly not a bad game and made some nice reads in the second half but struggled to contain Webster.

Loved seeing the athleticism of Simmons and Exum, both still very raw but four steals between them in 10mins tells you what we have to look forward to! Simmons' foul/block on Abercrombie was pretty exciting.

For NZ obviously Vukona and Webster were exceptional in the first half but dropped away later. You could see Abercrombie and Pledger were lacking condition, they faded away badly.

It would have been nice to see more of the NZ young guys, sure they wanted to win but I think not playing them more hurt them in the end because their starters couldnt carry the load anymore.

Mills was the difference between the two teams. Had a great 2nd half and ate Kenny for dinner. Abercrombie forced a few shots and Pledger drifted in and out of the the game. I thought Frank played well, Webster had a great game and Vukona was Vukona.

A pretty good display by the Tall Blacks against a fairly star studded Boomers team.

I know Lemanis was trying to get all his guys game time but some of his guys were getting pulled after a couple of minutes and couldnt get any rhythm.

Chris I agree, this seems to happen often at international bball. I don't mind seeing our top 7 guys playing the majority of the minutes

That's what happened tonight. Five played 25+, seven played 17+ (Andersen, Petrie, Ingles, Mills, Dellavedova, Nevill, Gibson) with no one else over 10.

some of those guys paul can sit on the pine. gibbo was given about 19 minutes too long. yeh but add those 7 minutes from another 3 or 4 guys that was given other then the top 7 you said and that's at least 21 mins the top few guys should b out there. im with Chris on this one

Not on any side right now, just pointing out the top seven played 177/200 minutes tonight.

The boomers needed more muscle for mine. Any one of the following players would have helped on both ends to bang away, get small NZ into foul trouble and bully them - Bogut, Baynes, Jawai or Maric (in that order) ... Yes even Maric, Frankenstein beat up on them a series or two back and was solid. He can't do it as well against people he's size though as we've seen in London when he was average. Petrie and Bairstow didn't have enough for me in this one.

Shame one of them wasn't available

None of those guys would really take Petrie or Bairstow's spot for big minutes, they would spend most of their time at C.

I think Webster's going to go off in the NBL this season.

Finally people are starting to see just how good an offensive player he is. So many moves.
Dellys an outstanding defender but Webster managed to get open shots and find holes simple enough.

People are starting to scout Abo out. He struggles to create his own shot and benefited so much from playing off the ball with a player like Ced.
Webster deserves a greater focus in the Breakers offense. Abo's ceiling isn't too high to be fair.

Abercrombie's done plenty without Jackson, but can he get back to his best form from prior to his injury? He will never be a go-to scorer though, that's not his game.

Nevill changes shots and gets rebounds. We all know he can shoot well but he plays the role required of him by the coach. I want to see more of him.

Mills pressure was finally too much for a tired Jarrod Kenney.
I wouldn't say Mills destroyed him, just showed why he's in the NBA and why Jarrod's in the NZNBL.

Abercrombie and Pledger def lacked conditioning.

Exum and Simmons were very impressive and look to have the right bodies to play NBA

As funny as it sounds, the Boomers managed to get the ball out of Vukona's hands and make someone else play the point!!

I agree with you Paul that the Boomers top 7 played quite a few minutes but sitting courtside there were subs going in and out so rapidly that it seemed tough for the Boomers to get any flow and rhythm.

That didnt bother me in the slightest as I am a Kiwi.....I am sure Lemanis was just wanting to play all his guys and they will be better for it in Canberra but I believe it did have an impact.

Barlow tweaked his back prior to the game, but should be ok to play in Canberra.

If the Boomers get off to a fast start in game 2, and can quickly extend their current 11 point lead, I would expect Exum and Simmons to play more than five minutes, with the majority of their minutes likely to come in the second half. It was great to see that these guys were not intimated by the moment, making their senior international debuts on foreign soil.

Ben Simmons just looks incredible. It's amazing that two guys have made their debuts, one of which (Exum) is being projected as a top-3 pick in next years NBA draft, which in itself is absolutely amazing, but him and Simmons are on the floor together, you just can't take your eyes off Benny.

nice to see Benny Anthony pick Gibson up off the pine especially as they are team mates now and Ingles & Vukona look like they still get along well since their Souths Dragons days

Think someone else may have mentioned it, but Simmons is long, listed at 203cm, think it needs to be updated, massive kid. Both he and Exum showed some class when on court, confident players. Exciting times.

Australia could (if appropriate) start 5 nba players in next few years Bogut/ Baynes/ Simmons/ Mills/ Exum. Solid.

Still think, regardless of the fact that Baynes/ Jawai or Maric might have played mostly at the 5, you team one of them in the frontcourt with either Anderson/ Nevill last night, or even better played any of them togther, they would have been to strong for NZ and bullied them. We lacked muscle. Having said that, credit to NZ for continuing to play good bball and compete. Guys like Webster and Vukona always punch well above their weight

There is no way known that Simmons is only 203cm. He looks almost as tall as Andersen who is listed at 212cm. So one of their heights definitely needs to be adjusted because there is definitely not 9cm between them.

Simmons looks 6 9

Full replay of Boomers and Opals games now available on ABC iview;

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/41670

Simmons has grown up and out a lot since the U17s last year. He nearly ate the ring on that fastbreak dunk.

"Still think, regardless of the fact that Baynes/ Jawai or Maric might have played mostly at the 5, you team one of them in the frontcourt with either Anderson/ Nevill last night, or even better played any of them togther, they would have been to strong for NZ and bullied them. We lacked muscle. Having said that, credit to NZ for continuing to play good bball and compete. Guys like Webster and Vukona always punch well above their weight"

too slow for Mika and BJ who are just as strong if not stronger

Having seen him play a few times recently, I'm left wondering how much Simmons would have dominated the recent under-19 worlds.

Mystro, one of Anthony's moves (left side of the broadcast, close to the TB's bench) was lightning. Not unhappy to have him with the 36ers at all.

Replay available? Bit hard to watch live from the other side of the earth...

Anthony has re-dedicated himself since losing his spot at the Breakers. It shows in his frame, he's just as strong as he ever was but way faster up and down the floor and his 3point shooting will surprise a few people (he won't lead the league but I wouldn't leave him alone out there for too long).

He has a shot at the NBL Most Improved award this season if he can carry his Tall Blacks and NZNBL form into his season with the Sixers.

Anthony is a nice player.

Would have loved to see him back at the Breakers but the only spot they needed to get was center and Anthony is undersized for even the PF spot.

If BJ was 2-3 inches taller, god only knows how far he could have gone.

Great pickup for the 36ers.

Mills had Kenny right where he wanted him. To be fair though theres current NBL games which would struggle with that defensive pressure anyway.

I like DA's game. I think he could flourish with Delly in there, especially in pick and pop situations.

Speaking of terrible reporting on the game, tell me if that's really Delly in the photo in what's supposed to be a flagship newspaper.
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-sport/nz-rue-late-basketball-lapse-v-boomers-20130814-2rwum.html

No wonder we're struggling when we don't have anyone with a clue about the game on the sports desk.

(Wonder if BA has complained to them yet - you can correct mistakes in electronic documents immediately, can't you?)

Anon,

People kept going on about how superior the Boomers were on paper but are our starting 4 and 5s, Petrie and Nevill, better than Vukona and Pledger? Some might argue depending on what traits you're looking at that the Tall Blacks are slightly better at those positions.

Delly has Aged a bit in that pic ;)

I must have been distracted by the terribly amateur website.

Speaking of terrible reporting on the game, tell me if that's really Delly in the photo in what's supposed to be a flagship newspaper.

'too slow for Mika and BJ who are just as strong if not stronger'

Did NZ win last night?

Yes these two are quicker and yes the NZ team always punch above their weight and play well. But they could be exposed against these bigger guys over 40 mins, playing for mismatches with small players can work but more often than not you get found out. Note the less definitive way that I write, as it's difficult to be so certain about these things.

Apart from maybe Charles Barkley, how many 6'5 power forwards have dominated Basketball at the 4 spot in the last 20 years? One or two? Bigger athletes tend to do better at these spots, yes Baynes/Jawai/Maric are slower but I think the length and strength of these guys would fair pretty well. The mismatches work both ways. I’m more than happy to admit that this isn’t an ideal scenario for either team, they are different kinds of players, but I’d give it a go if I was the Boomers. They looked good last night at one point with Anderson and Nevill on at the same time, these two aren’t that powerful, Mika struggled at times, BJ didn’t really feature in that, not to say he isn’t a very good player

I agree Mika and Anthony are strong good players, they play well above their weight, but let’s not get too carried away. I guess I could be wrong and bias and these two superheroes will very soon be rushed off to the Knicks or maybe Barcelona to dominate and become all stars and feature on MTV cribs and which time I will apologise

I look forward to a brief and condescending reply

"They looked good last night at one point with Anderson and Nevill on at the same time"

late in the game when Vukona was in foul trouble and the rest of the NZ front line was fairly flogged, yes.
You didn't happen to select the Tigers team a couple of seasons ago? How'd that go again?

The Tall Blacks are looking forward to Spain, Horvath or Bradshaw are not the future so didn't get invites.

Adams is in NZ with Brooke Lopez (Adidas sponsored) running a training camp for kids and is expected to make an announcement as to if and when he'll turn out for the Tall Blacks.
Hopefully Adams, Loe and Pledger are the immediate future for the Tall Blacks along with the Websters, TeRangi & Abercrombie etc.

Really skilled and exciting group going forward for NZ for mine. Hopefully Adams turns out for you guys, unlike Bogut for us. I guess injury has lots to do with it

I hope both teams get all their best players on the floor for Spain,
I'd be stoked if Aus got a medal and NZ secured a top 10 ranking internationally.

I don't really know anything about the tigers ... I barely watch the NBL at all which is a bit of a shame really, kings have me a bit excited about this year, but they are v young and will probably struggle

Really skilled and exciting group going forward for NZ for mine. Hopefully Adams turns out for you guys, unlike Bogut for us. I guess injury has lots to do with it

"I don't really know anything about the tigers ... I barely watch the NBL at all which is a bit of a shame really, kings have me a bit excited about this year, but they are v young and will probably struggle"

the Melbourne Tigers a couple of seasons ago tried to go big, it didn't work out well at all.

Don't agree about the two bigs theory. Most teams now play with a stretch four. Andersen can do that job while the others mentioned can't. Doesn't team USA play Anthony or even LeBron at the four a lot now. Trying to remember how Spain plays the Gasols. They might be an exception but both are very skilled passers with a bit of range.

Billo, I think "turns out" meant plays a lot for the national team in that context.

Andersen only really works as a stretch-four if you've got a centre who can pass well, especially out of the double-team. I would have loved to see Andersen and Bogut play together in 2008 for this very reason. Bogut would command the double down low, and Andersen could get easy looks as a result. Add in Delly's competency in the pick-and-roll, then you've got the pick-and-pop options as well.

Unfortunately I'm not sure we'll get to see Bogut and Andersen playing together in this manner.

BTW, check the height difference between Exum and Simmons in this photo:



Grantland were speaking of Exum as 6'6", but Simmons looks to have almost half a foot on him.

Mystro, Casey Frank doesn't exactly suggest a pure youth policy. That he's still suiting for the Tall Blacks and Bradshaw is missing speaks volumes of the missed opportunity with Bradshaw. Is he even still playing? He made an NBA camp at one point and averaged 12 PPG in the NBL.

How did he go in his last NZ NBL appearance? Was it 2012 or this season? Two teams in two years - mercenary or club's decision?

Yeah 'turns out' meaning he shows up and plays. Perhaps 'turns up' would have been better

I think Vucinic rewards those that commit to the program and play to his game plan. Don't, and you are outside of the circle of trust IMO.

Then there are people that maybe he just doesn't rate? Marcel Jones doesn't even get an invite to Tall Blacks try-outs despite being naturalized and skilled.

I think Bradshaw had his chance, was never that effective internationally and they moved on once his attitude came into play (my opinion only).

If Craig Bradshaw was "good people", he would have been involved with/picked up by the Breakers by now do you not think?
They've (the owners/management of the Breakers) have been patient with a number of NZ players over the years and made a real effort to include any Kiwi with skills in their program, except Bradshaw it would seem.
They openly speak of a "no dickheads" policy, maybe that is why? Maybe he just is greedy and wants Penney money for Leon Henry's numbers?

I had sort of forgotten about him up until his name was bought up in a thread on here not long ago.

We do have a bright future (the TBs).

In 4-5 years we could be looking at:

Tai Webster/ Maurihooho
Corey Webster
Te Rangi/ Abercrombie
Salt/Fotu
Adams/Pledger.

-Tai could be an NBA player by then. Certainly an upgrade on Kenny
-Corey will be a nice polished scorer in 4-5 years
-Te Rangi could be in Europe ( just 19 and backup SF for Breakera. Scary to think about what he will be able to do in a few years)
-Salt(fielding offers from UNC) and Fotu (Europe in his sights) are taller and longer PFs than Vukona and BJ
-Adams will be an upgrade on Pledger. Pledge will be great backup C!