Game being played in Hamilton too (about 1.5 hours drive south from Auckland). Interesting to see what the crowd will be.

It's great they are bringing the love to the other NZ cities.

The stadium in Hamilton is around the corner from where I live. Great central location.

I do think that NZB will bring more games around NZ especially as they are seeming to increasingly struggle with Auckland crowds.

NZ fans are fickle so we don't tend to go to too many events if we're saturated with it; i.e. if we have 14 or 15 opportunities to go throughout the year as Auckland do, chances are we"ll only go to a few. But as a country we love going to one-off events/novelty factor which is what a lot of these other cities get from moving games to the regions.

A regular season game will also be played in New Plymouth in Jan 2019.

Plus Wellington in March.

Not sure, think there's different packages available I think (i.e. all and any NZB home games, or you can get just 4-game packages for Spark Arena like they do for the NBA etc).

I suspect the cost of a membership is factored into the amount of away games from Auckland.

I actually think it probably helps membership numbers financially-speaking but that's just my opinion.

My own opinion is that people don't want to be paying $200 -$300 for season memberships - that's a lot of money in NZ that not many people in Auckland have lying around. People would IMO prefer lower cost, but fewer games memberships i.e. $55 for 4 or $100 for 7 etc- and I suspect that's why NZB and other teams have started to offer those 4 game packages.

Breakers due a win I think.

This is a banana skin for both teams. Winner gets hope, loser is toast. Pressure on Illawara, Breakers want to be the spoiler.
Battle of the defences. Both teams give up points too easily.
Field goal % and key plays down the stretch will decide this!

That is the second time in as many days I've heard 'banana skin' used as an adjective, after never having heard it before.

What in the world does it mean?

A game to slip up on!

Corey Webster out due to ankle injury.

Shit, remember the Akil Mitchell eye situation. Just remembered that was a thing

Moore should have gotten a tech for doing pushups with his legs over Grida there. Unsportsmanlike behaviour

Tough watch this. Never seen such a messy game.

It's messy, however big cash needs to go on the over.

Over 163.5 at half-time. You kidding? Five thousand down (one unit)

Hawks slipped on their own banana skin. Terrible effort. Breakers in charge of this one. Hard to see Hawks turning this around. Not impossible?

Hawks and Taipans will be the next 2 teams gone from the NBL.

Taipans had been struggling financially even when they were pretty strong on the court. Now that they are the laughing stck of the league, it will be next to impossible for them.

Hawks wont be too far behind them.

They will be replaced.

Hahaha, fantastic.

That's one hoops contributor I can't cop

A lot of stupid turnovers from NZ but they looked good pushing the ball.
NZ's zone with Armani Moore in the middle at the top was suffocating the Hawks, he read the passing lanes well and kept them closed.
Long seems to be finding his groove within the team and how the game is called.