What a profound statement normally true for every basketball game
Breakers by 10

Sobey to head-butt Gillespie?

SEM have been unimpressive but also have a very tough fixture to start

One true home game in their first 7 games.

That first 7 includes 1 in Perth vs Perth, 2 in NZ, 2 throwdowns, 1 in Adelaide.

And the sole true home game- their 5th game of the season. Home vs Bris.

Breakers will struggle to contain them but hopefully put the effort in at least to get the crowd going. Should be a good atmosphere. Looking forward to it

SEM have too many scoring options and variation. To win by 8-10 I reckon

Like all I'm liking SEM here, to much fire power, SEM have shown some good patches in games, Hunter has been great. While Sobey has very average, he can turn up and scorch opponents. Looking forward to see what nz can bring, just can’t see them defensively holding SEM. SEM by 15 plus.

Aussie commentary for the NZ Breakers home game, RIP

Yes, give me the nz commentary, Damien Lowry is horrible.

Not a good first quarter by either team.

Standard seems below other games.

Sobey's woes continuing. Couple nice plays but lots of rubbish.

Maybe the virus that swept through NZ team is to blame for their performance

Neither thaese will be in premiership calculations, SEM far better than nz though, have the a good chance of finals, just got defend better.

bottom 2 sides in the league right here

Lowry is hot garbage, get him off.

Also hot garbage, Nathan Dopey again. Does he not watch game film to learn from previous mistakes?

SEM needs to run more plays for Hurt. He will flat out "Hurt" teams (pun intended). A more efficient scorer than Sobey

Camera zoomed in on Kelly talking to Sobey on the bench, Sobey not listening.

They can't guard Sobey.

So, the NBL no longer have a deal with Sky Sport NZ (got a deal with TVNZ for Breakers games instead and ESPN shows every game), therefore the NBL has taken over production from Melbourne.

Is that right? I just assumed Aussie commentary being used because it's a 10 Bold game.

@ Zodiac - exactly what Sobey thinks every time he has the rock.

Ben, yeah I know. Sobey's such a conundrum. Unguardable can score whenever he likes but just not a team player at all, Joey Wright says hi, and keeps jacking when they're not falling.

If he realised every game isn't the Nathan Sobey show and took it to the hole more like he did when he was younger he would still be a very good player. But he's a knucklehead so he's just the NBL's Westbrook.

Wieskamp is the better than Hurt, better defender and equally as good scoring. Hurt looks like a five man playing four. SEM would be happy that they have played some D. Breakers like Brisbane look like they are trying to save money with more budget players that top end. Long season for nz coming up.

Damon Lowery is best suited to Overtime he's got no business commentating games.

Unguardable.

3QT

Breakers 60
Sobeys 59

Sobey is either unstoppable or unbelievably horrendous. There's no in between with his game.

Lowery agreed is not a commentator. Go it Walton jnr in the time out. As per every other season, no defender in SEM.

Wow both teams so shite down the stretch. NZ giving up the o board off the missed free throw. SEM taking an eternity to foul. NZ with a 5 second violation on the inbound. Sobey missed layup could prove costly...

It wasn't pretty but it's a W

A very unconvincing 2-0, but 2-0 nonetheless

Both teams will be bottom 4 in the league

Who put this team together, Hurt can score but is slow and can't defend a statue and played 36 minutes, Hunter 25. One of Sobeys better games but still a loss. Walton jnr doesn’t look fit and while a very good point guard is poor at the defensive end.

Good win by nz, Mccaron looking the best since his united days. PJC is a gun. Not certain how they won that but made shots when they counted.

All going to plan for Tommy Greer. A few more losses and Kelly will get the knife and replaced by Tommy's mate Sammy Mac.

Tommy Greer just needs to slot his GM that built the team with him in as new HC

Who decided on the SEM coaches and the key players this year?

Sobey is terrible, won't get other players involved & just takes bad shots. Walton Jn is lost at the moment & by what I see him & Sobey don’t fit together. Wieskamp, Glover don’t get anything on the wing with Sobey & there is hardly anything played for the bigs . Kelly needs to reign in Sobey . With the potential of the roster they have put together it could be another wasted year if Sobey keeps doing what he is doing.
If nothing changes Kelly will be cut soon & possibly as early as next week if it is another loss against Adelaide

so who was the main driver wanting to recruit Sobey?

I heard an interview with Mitchell saying they chased Sobey when they started the club and when he became available this season they were so happy to get him. I thought it was a strange move when Sem recruited Mitchell , today Sobey, he certainly wasn't there worst. They ran last, ,last season but were second in December, I recall then Moller went down and they then started getting more injuries and fell away. Walton jnr is a very reasonable point guard Hunter been great, Glover and Foxwell are fine bench players, Vadonavic is tough but not much of an improvement on Vague. Ayre is very much like Sobey so they obviously don’t see him as required. I actually don’t mind Wieskamp, in the right situation he could be fine, long way convinced on Hurt, he seems to be high on there list but I don’t see it.
Greer oversees all this, sometimes the buck should stop at the top.

Someone should do a case study into how Tassie and SEM have gone on such different trajectories as expansion clubs

Some really strange subs from coach kop and it showed on their performance. Playing like strangers at times and resorting to the 3 ball.

Gillespie getting the treatment from refs which restricted his time oncourt (two calls were rubbish) but he plays a nice role with his screens and boards.

Unless they get bolden playing like a big man and rolling to the hoop then they're going to struggle relying on threes and pjc's individual class

Dopey and DWJ absolutely cannot co-exist. SEM perhaps hoping Sobey would change his spots, but this won't happen.

SEM won’t have both playing well at the same time, it’s either one or the other.

A shame as DWJ is a class player, but seems SEM won’t get the best from him in the manner the team is currently run. Would love to have seen him running the show for Brisbane.

Kelly to become the scapegoat once the losses start racking up.

NZ would be happy to be 2-0 with the preseason they had, but man they've done their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the final minutes.

Breakers will come good or at least much better than they are now. Everybody are learning in that team together with the coaches. Bolden needs to learn faster or he can get benched but no longer term issues in general compared to SEM.

"Is that right? I just assumed Aussie commentary being used because it's a 10 Bold game."

It doesn't matter what channel the NBL is on, in Australia/NZ there’s only ever been 1 broadcast that has been simulcast.

Sky Sport pulled a Fox Sports and did cost cutting, I don’t even think they have the NZ cricket anymore.

Anyhoo, they still get all NBL games including all Breakers games via ESPN so they still broadcast it. Why pay for rights when you get it anyway?

So the NBL did a deal with TVNZ which gets it on one of their free to air channels for Breakers games only.

This, I think, is the first time NZ don’t have a local commentary team let alone in-person commentary?

Abercrombie was in the stadium as a courtside reporter.

Shame that Casey Frank has been lost to NBL commentary I always enjoyed his excitable pro-NZB bias. I miss when we used to get their feeds on Maori TV I thnk it was and certain parts of the broadcast had to be done in maori, I used to really appreciate that.

Mulligan and Frank were both great commentators.

Breakers playing much better defence than they did last year. The team has significant upside if Bolden learns not to shoot a 3 on the first pass of a possession. The PJC, Mooney, McCarron, Bolden, Gillespie line up played some nice basketball at times.

Is the issue of scoring the real issue for Sobey and not the issue of sharing the ball? if so then is it upsetting for him to have such good scores as hurt and weiskamp in the team, because they take " his " shots?

Must be a real kick in the guts to NZ locals to have Mulligan and Frank replaced by Lowry :D

This entire thread and no comment about the most foul prone player in professional basketball fouling out in 16 minutes!

Seriously, Tend to agree both teams miss play-in. But it's very early days.

Gillespie may need to be looking over his shoulder, especially if Fall plays well in the NBA games

A lot of people have written off NZ yet had SEM in their top 6.
SEM are now 0-3 and NZ 2-0 which is great considering NZ weren't expected to really start putting it together until much further into the season.
NZ obviously have a long way to go but the early signs have been encouraging.
Offensively they need to figure things out as running that ball screen at the top over and over for Bolden to pop out for a 3 so early in the shot clock is a recipe for disaster.
Max Darling played some excellent defense but needs to put away the 3 ball, plenty of shooters on the team that he should differ to.
Who would have thought he would be in the rotation let alone starting?
He has stepped up to his credit and hasn't looked out of place.

SEM have a good roster. The problem is the DWJ and Sobey conflict. Sobey is surplus. Let DWJ control the team and find opportunities for everyone. You can really play some awesome offence with DWJ, Wieskamp, Hurt and Hunter.

The Breakers get written off every year. But I think Kop is already showing signs of being much more technically competent than Maor.

Darling has clearly showed something at practice to earn Kop's trust. Lopez didn’t look too bad either. And these two, together with Bolden, mean the Breakers have serious upside as the season goes on. The risk for them was making a bad start and then struggling to catch up.

Fouls aside, Gillespie looked pretty good. Last year the Breakers didn’t know how to rebound at all. However, Fall could be an interesting pick up because to maximise PJC you need someone to be a lob threat on the roll. Holden also needs to learn a pump fake, but at his percentages teams are probably going to let him shoot anyway.

Yeah I would like to see Bolden & Gillespie get on the rim a lot more

Between Blitz and yesterday that's 16 fouls in 82 minutes for Freddy in NZ colours

After averaging about 10 fouls per 40 minutes last year.

Obviously a lot more spacing in the NBA that makes it easier for bigs to attack the paint, but it's still crazy how much of a spot up shooter Bolden has become given the type of player he used to be. I kept waiting for it to reappear as last season went on, but it didn't. Not just offensively, he's not nearly the shot blocker I expected he would be.

I think as Boldens confidence grows he'll grow his offensive repertoire.
It's only his second season back after not player for a number of years.
His rebounding numbers are decent so there's that.

I like your optimism mystro but realistically the only other team breakers have plated is bottom of the table bullets while SEM have lost to cats and melbourne so much tougher teams. If we play like that we'll get beaten by those two soundly I think.

I don't have the confidence bolden will change either. If they did sign Fall I'd be more inclined to release bolden and keep gillespie than vice versa

But agree definitely upside with darling, Lopez and king should play better than that generally too

Bolden isn't an import, Kolzee.

Yeah true that!