‘We beat ourselves... That’s frustrating’
TOM Abercrombie summed up a sloppy Australian NBL season opener for the Breakers perfectly. ‘‘It’s always frustrating when you feel like you’ve beaten yourself,’’ reflected the veteran small forward.
That was an unconvincing first step on their problematic 2021 pathway in a nutshell. The Breakers had all the reasons in the world to fail on Friday night at the Adelaide 36ers, found a way to put themselves in a position to win and ultimately ran out of gas, and decent basketball plays, en route to a 94-91 overtime defeat that leaves the Kiwi outfit with a long list of fixes ahead of a rematch in just five days’ time.
It had been 343 days since the Breakers, seemingly destined to play all of this season on the road, had last played an NBL game proper when they ran out at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Friday evening. And, frankly, it looked it.
Finn Delany (16 points, 9 rebounds) was able to play just 27 minutes in a shortened rotation because of severe cramps that sidelined him for the business end of the game. Tai Webster, who announced his return to the league in emphatic fashion with a 34-point, 31-shot offensive explosion, also had to come out for a short period late in the piece with cramp.
Imports Lamar Patterson (16 points and 7 turnovers) and Colton Iverson (1 point on a single shot in 10 minutes, with a +/- of -19) also looked seriously
out of shape. Rob Loe, who shook off a knee injury to start at centre, was a non-factor with just 4 points and 3 boards in 32 minutes on court.
At least they were able to go. The Breakers were also down two rotation players with Corey Webster still waiting on his hand to mend and new Aussie big Daniel Trist ruled out (and placed in 14-day isolation) because of a breach of Covid protocols that was, in effect, the club’s fault.
For all that, the Kiwi outfit somehow dug themselves out of an early 22-8 hole, built a doubledigit lead in the third quarter and were up three inside the final minute of regulation when two major mistakes ended up costing them the game.
When 2013 development player Tai Webster, whose 34 points matched the record firstup haul of Carlos Powell back in 2006, hit a triple with 52 seconds left to put the Breakers up 82-79, then Sunday Dech missed a layup, the game looked in the bag for the Kiwi outfit.
But with 13 seconds left Patterson turned the ball over when a foul by Sixers import
Donald Sloan was missed by the referees. Then, at 10 seconds, Webster made a major defensive error by leaving Sloan to doubleteam Daniel Johnson in the post and paid the price when the American slotted the open trifecta to force the extra period.
From there the home side did just enough to scramble victory as both Loe and Webster fouled out in the extra period and turnovers and bad decisions continued to haunt the New Zealand side.
‘‘We were our own worst enemy, both mentally and physically towards the end of that game. There were too many mistakes which cost us and we weren’t able to punish them when we should have,’’ noted Abercrombie (11 points on seven shots) who never found his rhythm after taking an early spill on the slippery decals that have become an unwelcome feature of the Adelaide home court.
‘‘That’s the frustrating bit as a player to feel like you weren’t beaten, but you beat yourself. We have to learn from that and move on. The good thing is we get to play these guys again in five days’ time. Hopefully we can right some wrongs, make a few changes and get guys fresh and ready to go again.’’
Breakers coach Dan Shamir afterwards put his side’s shortcomings down to rust but
privately he would have been concerned by the sub-par first-up effort of Iverson, fitness levels and the serious lack of offensive fluency. ‘‘At the end of the game a lot of players fell off their legs. They were gassed and had cramps,’’ he said. ‘‘It was not about too much basketball. We had to dig in, and it was very tough to get a shot. Sometimes it’s just hard to simulate a game and to get game conditions … it’s why we’re moving on.
‘‘We made a big mistake late in the game. We’ve got an experienced team, we should know that, up three, you just force a contested shot, and live with the result. We gave up an open [3-point] shot off a defensive mistake … it had a lot to do with being ready. We’re not all ready to play a 45-minute game.’’
The reality is the Breakers would have been a distant second without Webster’s offensive explosion. He got to the rim seemingly at will and even starting knocking down his triples later in the game, converting five of nine from deep. He also had 7 boards, 6 assists and 5 turnovers.
But Shamir still had his reservations about a ‘‘far from perfect’’ display, chief among them the requirement for his point guard to put up 31 shots – a club record number of shot attempts .
‘‘When we came back and built a lead of 10 or 11 points, Tai was huge. He made the right plays. He dominated. But he had to do a lot and under normal circumstances, when we also have Corey, we will be able to share the responsibilities a little more and he won’t have to take too much on himself.’’
The Breakers have a lot to fix in just five days – getting Webster some more help is paramount – before Wednesday night’s rematch in Adelaide.