Darling appeared to hurt a calf early in the illawarra game so it will be interesting to see if he hits the court as he didn't in Perth.

Is Fall out a plus for the Breakers?

If Goulding is out for United, do they have enough firepower to put enough points on the board?

Yes Mystro, agree, to many injuries and not enough bigs or even guards fit. Travel is starting to catch up with them. United by 15 but hoping for a miracle nz win.

Goulding is definitely out for a couple of weeks

Excellent first quarter by both teams, 28 to 24 united. Just can't see nz playing better and still trailing by four.

Mennenga has improved so much under Kop, real quality player. Nz got stop united offensive boards.

Has it ever been explained why NZ local retired from the Breakers only to join Melbourne?

^ Rob Loe*

Loe wasn't a Moar type defender. Game getting away from breakers.

PJC on three fouls after brain fade.

No Goulding, no Clark.....they cannot even compete lol

And the Breakers are 3rd?

How WEAK is the NBL

Jacket, the breakers are absolutely not the true 3rd best team

Breakers were very competitive in the first half, their injuries are killing them. Great first half though.

Everyone is talking about the Breakers injuries but no mention that United were MISSING there 2 most potent scorers LOL

As Goorj said, look at united bench, Olympic, WC players, it's apples and oranges.

Oh and there import centre Lee did not even play.

That is 3 very very good players missing and the Brakers got throttled at home.

But but but it is all about the Breakers injuries.

The United players that missed todays game are far far superior than the Breakers players that missed the game.

Oh look, Jacket's back. I didn't know the school holidays were already upon us.

Yes private schools are out, makes a lot sense now.

Screeningnick,
Loe wasn't favoured by Maor due to defensive limitations which were probably in part to his schemes and Loe was then offered a pittance to stay.
Needless to say he was insulted and other teams weren't calling his agent so he opted to retire. Melbourne had injury issues last season and Loe had a stellar NZNBL season and came in as injury cover.

His NZNBL season was incredible. Would've been MVP if not for Olbrich's ever so slightly better campaign

Loe has toughened up under Vickerman, like a lot of players develop under him, and showed the potential he always had. A shame it's come so late in his career.

I don’t think the Breskers played that badly, but it was clear they ran out of gas especially Mennenga.

Matt Walsh has a lot of explaining to do for Breakers fans if Fall doesn’t contribute positively against Sydney.

Do the Breakers have the best long term young team if they can keep it together? King, Bairstow, Darling, Mennenga, and Davison has been good too even if he hasn’t postered anyone yet which is what he’s known for.

Gillespie was so much more versatile & durable than Fall ever will be.
Such an idiotic move signing Tacko to 2years when he'll spend most of that injured and when he's fit he's almost unplayable.

Sam Menenga will likely get injured from being run into the ground and then NZ will have zero bigs.

Yeah def a lot of upside. A shame pjc won't stay too build around now Walsh has turned them into a circus act

They lost their way last night... came out with good movement off the ball and moving through a rotation of screens and cutting but soon turned static.

Trying to cover PG with mooney and bairstow hurts them and kop has clearly lost confidence in MM.

lol imagine getting bagged out for stating facts

They need Bolden back urgently, Mennenga has been great, a lot better than I thought possible, but he's not doing it on his own. Lopez is going to be a star, but still very young. Mccaron hasn’t been good for years and now carrying injury. PJC is the best but like Mennenga will be run into the ground. There bench is ok but inconsistent. They need help in one and four spot with Mennenga and Bolden in the five. After playing so well in games till the half they just run out petrol, plus it’s been an exhausting season for them already.

On the other side, United are a machine, even better than last season imo.

Totally dominant performance by United. Team to beat right now.

Loe scored like 15 points rolling to the basket against minimal rim protection, so Fall, Bolden, Pineau absence definitely helped but ultimately it wouldn't have changed anything. United too good across the board despite their own injuries with so many contributors. D throttled NZ and then good ball movement and execution at the other end.

Only downside from that victory is the NBL integrity unit is commencing a fresh investigation against United. Campbell Blogg played significant minutes and even fouled PJC on two occasions.

A fit Mitch McCarron would have been a good option paired with PJC, who started very well but was worn down by the United guards. I know McCarron has just returned from injury so hopefully that's the reason he wasn't utilised.

United's system is in great shape, you could see all the right plays taking shape even without the starting (or even second unit), while on defence it just didn't change.

And what of Mitch mccarron? Barely noticed him. Played 6 minutes apparently. NZ move not the new dawn he was hoping for.

JMS just noticed your post after I wrote mine. Maybe injury return is the reason for Mccarron under utilisation

In a game like that where kids like Lopez are being monster's by grown men Mccarron may have helped

Trawling the box score and noticed FOUR turnovers for United

What's the all time minimum?

I'm not sure fitness is the reason for MMs lack of minutes. His shooting at 31% FG and 10% 3pt is prob part of it though. That's horrendous and most have been when he's open too

But in terms of running point for the slowest team in the league I would've thought he's still breakers best backup option

MM has fallen out of the rotation because he got injured and Bairstow is very versatile, good fundamentals and doesn't make many mistakes.

MM hasn't been good since he left United, money making Mitch, must have an excellent agent.

To be fair, he looked OK in preseason and shot the ball from 3 OK.