Modest Ili’s star on the rise
With every passing game, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the New Zealand Breakers have something special on their hands in back-up point guard Shea Ili.
The 25-year-old continued his breakout season against Adelaide on Thursday night, backing up a career-best effort in Brisbane last week with a nerveless display to quell a late 36ers fightback at the North Shore Events Centre.
With the visitors storming home to reduce the deficit to just two points in the final minute, after the Breakers had led comfortably for most of the contest, Ili showed tremendous composure under fire to drain five clutch free throws and secure a 92-88 win.
It capped another productive performance from Ili, who finished with 13 points and five assists in 20 minutes on court while forming a deadly one-two punch with starting point guard Edgar Sosa, who scored a game-high 24 points.
Indeed, he has played a key role in the Breakers’ hot start to the Australian National Basketball League ( ANBL) season, with Thursday’s victory their fifth on the trot to give them the outright lead in the standings ahead of secondplaced Perth’s game against Sydney last night.
Not that the modest playmaker was getting carried away with his impressive form, preferring instead to put the limelight back on his team-mates.
‘‘The boys have given me their trust and the confidence to go out there and play my game and I try to do it the best I can,’’ he told Stuff.
As for his heroics down the stretch, Ili said he treated the high-pressure situation exactly as he would in the gym.
‘‘I just tried to block everything out. I shoot free throws every day so I just tried to block everything out and focus on my form and I was lucky to get them in.’’
Luck, it would seem, has little to do with it.
There were several signs that Ili, who first joined the Breakers as a development player in 2014, was ready to make his mark in the ANBL.
After a strong domestic campaign with the Wellington Saints, the Auckland-born guard carried that form into the Tall Blacks at the Fiba Asia Cup in August, where he was named in the All-Star Five.
Breakers coach Paul Henare - also the Tall Blacks coach - has seen all the hours of work Ili puts in outside of team training.
And were it not for a stress fracture in his back that ruined his season last year, Henare believes we would have been talking about Ili’s impact much earlier.
‘‘The stress fracture probably set him back 12 months and we’re just seeing the outcome of how hard the kid works his butt off,’’ Henare said at training this week.
‘‘He’s consistently putting extra work in outside of team hours and it’s the old adage of hard work pays off and he’s put the hard work in.’’
Ili and his team-mates had little time to celebrate the Adelaide result as they went straight into recovery mode ahead of a long flight to Cairns, who they play tonight.
While the Taipans (3-4) suffered a heavy loss in Melbourne on Thursday night, they have had the Breakers’ number in recent times, winning the last five meetings between the teams including last month’s season opener - the only blemish on the club’s record.
That, combined with the travel factor makes for an extremely difficult task for Henare’s men.
‘‘With a quick turnaround you can’t get too creative, you’ve got to keep things really simple and that’s where you fall back on your core foundation and your team rules rather than trying to get too tricky with the scout,’’ the coach said.
‘‘It’s about all the little things that we can do between now and tip-off up in Cairns in terms of taking care of the bodies.’’
The Snakepit can be an intimidating place to play but if there is one thing the Breakers won’t lack it’s confidence.
And is there is certainly a feeling amongst the squad that they owe the Taipans one.
‘‘We definitely do,’’ Ili said. ‘‘They got us four times last year, we didn’t beat them, so we’re looking to get one over there in their house.’’