Both quality teams, compared to the game we just watched this is basketball, not street ball.

Some crap basketball being played atm.

Brown what's the go

had a gut full of Creek wanting a foul call every time he goes the rim.... put your big boy pants on

Alex McNaught the DP playing some nice defence for the Breakers. Didn't believe he could play at this level to be honest.

Nice game, to many soft touch fouls called by the refs per normal. Zhouqi still missing open lay ups. NZ much better under this coach.

Clean block, oh my.

Pineau is a better player than Zouqi

SEM being destroyed on the high screens. Qi's weakness last year.

Home cooking is deplorable.

Yep. I know it's early but seriously how can you have Melbourne players admitting they’re not fit to play? Really embarrassing

Phoenix coach can talk all he likes. Defend better & drive the hoop. As simple as that

Does anyone else think these NBL rims are dodgy? Why not make them all NBA standard...

Jesus Christ NBL refs are terrible. Either that or they've got serious money on the Phoenix trying to get them back in the game.

And to no suprise Simon Mitchell remains the biggest flog in the league.

I shake my head at the so inconsistent calls, most favouring SEM. Creek and Adnam complain on every call they don't get.

Gosh there's some soft calls going against the Breakers.

Zhou Qi cannot play defence in the NBL.

Phoenix suck balls

Mitchell should spend less time moaning and more time considering how to defend the high pick. Le'afa has 10 assists and WMW has so much time he’s confusing himself he has so many options.

Unless SEM makes the semifinals, Mitchell MUST be gone.

He's been out coached big time this game. How he survived this long confuses me.

Players should be able to work out what's goi g wrong on the court & make adjustments themselves. If not they’re unprofessional. As for Mitchell he seems clueless most nights & constantly whinges about what’s happening on court.

Explain why Williams only played 15 minutes nfi

SE Melbourne - shit coach

SEM keep making the same mistakes, there was no need to bring Zhou back, they pick pedestrian imports. There offence is stagnant.
Leafa was very good tonight, WMW is a great point guard, just always looks he's got lots time, coach has team humming.

NZ put up more threes than SEM. Good coaching.

Breakers, Taipans and Jackjumpers all not particularly strong on paper as individuals but play very well as teams.

NZ have great chemistry and trust each other, played great defense and had good scoring spread.
WMW makes everything look easy, the guy us such an under-rated talent. If he actually looked to score, her easily average big numbers, but he's a balanced player and great facilitator.
He should have a guaranteed invite to boomers training camp.

SEM...... it's not pretty when they're that stagnant and fail to execute- like last season.
Did Williams even play the 3rd quarter?
Man, they need to get out together quickly

Get it together ^

Continue to be impressed by NZ's imports

Common domino is the lack of quality ref's.... I calling it out.. it's not a coincident. It's too many games. Needs major senate on the way forward.. hurting the game...whistle blowers must admit struggles..

Was at the game.
Referees had a shocker. Realise mistakes are made but they were really noticeable tonight.

For the Breakers...
They came ready to play and ground down SEM all over the floor. Their front line is huge, particularly Brantley who looks like an NFL linebacker. Pardon didn't have a great first half but toiled away and played better than his stat line suggested. Surprisingly Loe was excellent. He shot well from the perimeter and regularly got in behind the SEM front line for plays at the rim. Great to see him back playing good basketball after his personal struggles during Covid. Really liked Rupert’s game too. He’s big and defends as advertised. He was much better offensively than I expected. Will McDowell-White looks like he’s primed for a big season. He got wherever he wanted and controlled play every time he was on the floor. Leafa played well too but didn’t shoot efficiently. It’s clear the Breakers have chosen to reset themselves as a team that won’t be pushed around and will grind out wins with toughness and physicality. Playing that brand of basketball will certainly endear themselves to the NZ fans. They thoroughly deserved the win.

As for the Phoenix…
The final score certainly flattered what was an awful performance. They clearly didn’t come ready to play.
The spotlight on Mitchell’s head must surely be growing brighter by the day. He just isn’t getting them prepared. You could see it in the way they warmed up with zero intensity. Nor is he making in game adjustments to rectify issues. But it’s not just Mitchell’s fault. The players level of effort just isn’t good enough at NBL level. Breakers won almost every effort play. Sure they had some players coming back into the lineup, but they constantly blew defensive rotations and close outs, missed layups and instead of taking open shots, regularly dribbled to defence forcing garbage over bigger defenders. Bottom line, they sucked. Yes the season is still young and acknowledge they’ve had considerable injuries, but they need to have a strong look at how they prepare and maintain intensity or it’s going to be a long season.

As a Breakers fan I'm super happy with that effort on the road. Defensively very good across the court but shout out to McNaught for his hustle climbing over ball screens and making life tough for the Phoenix guards.
NZ have shared the scoring the first 3 rounds but everyone has played defence.
Pardon and Brantley have been a good fit with NZ’s local pieces and when playing Brown Jnr gives them an extra punch at both ends.

Phoenix have huge problems and its not just the coach. Greer hasn't put a great team on paper either. Some very strange choices for imports, if i was the owners i'd move on from Greer and Mitchell.

Kell's overseas numbers aren't really that good and Greer was going on like they'd signed LeBron. Kell looks average.

The coach and the players are to close, coaches now days can't be tyrants but you have to have distance, authority. Mitchell and Creek are like best mates, it doesn’t work. I’m not convinced that Adnam is the ideal choice as captain, yes he’s a much improved player but SEM need a leader that gets in the trenches.
Zhou isn’t the answer, defensively a liability, misses to many lay ups, same as last season and yet they bring him back and talk him up as a world beater, yes he will have games that are good but to inconsistent. Give me Pineau any day, even if undersized he competes.
Is Creek mvp material, yes very good but not winning the league mvp, he’s overpaid if you believe what is said and it hurts the team balance.

Browne hasn't played. Kell has played one game. Broekhoff has played one game. Qi has played one game. We won't know what this team is capable of for another 2-3 weeks at least.

Well, we won't know for sure. But it’s certainly not looking good for SEM fans. The Breakers were without 3 key players, including their best scorer, and played an unknown DP extended minutes. Kell didn’t look like he belonged out there out at all. And it didn’t take long for Williams and Qi to be found out. Defensively they looked best with Pineau out there, but he seems to be on the outer. This is the worst SEM team I have seen.

Agree mystro, they seem to be playing well as a unit and not just jacking up threes like last year. A dramatic change in a few months but I guess basically a revamped squad. Although I think the jury is still out on brantley. Clearly capable but for some reason seems to drift out of games. Rupert looks very smooth, massive upside so will be interesting how much of that they can extract this year.

As long as they keep competing hard that's all I'm hoping for from them this year to be honest!