Henare hails real Breakers Bilic backs bans
This was the Breakers team that Paul Henare built in the offseason, knocking down triples like they were going out of fashion and overwhelming opponents with their perimeter firepower.
Finally, at Vector Arena last night, in front of a season-best 5542 fans, and against an undermanned Adelaide 36ers outfit, the real Breakers showed up.
The result was an offensive masterclass as they overwhelmed Joey Wright’s Sixers 119-93 to improve to 2-3 for the Australian NBL season. It was the club’s highest score since February of 2011. The defeat drops Adelaide back to 3-3.
‘‘It feels agonisingly close and right around the corner,’’ veteran shooting guard Kirk Penney had declared through the week, lamenting a slow start personally, and by his team. How right he was. Penney led the charge with a welcome return to form, going seven of eight from deep, nine of 13 overall, and finishing with a team-high, and season-best, 27 points, as well as four dimes.
His fellow sharpshooter Corey Webster joined the party, too, also producing comfortably his best display of the season, pouring in 22 points (7/16 FG, 3/10 3PT) and six rebounds off the bench.
With KP and C-Web dropping buckets like this, these Breakers are so much tougher, and so much closer to the playoff mix.
Others found some rhythm too in a high-scoring and free-flowing encounter.
Tom Abercrombie contributed mightily to the early points explosion and finished with an efficient 15 points (4/8 FG, 2/4 3PT) and four boards, while power forward Akil Mitchell continued his nice patch of form with a double-double of 17 points (7/10 FG) and 11 rebounds, as well as five assists.
‘‘We’ve been a work in progress and the guys have been slowly finding out how to utilise their strength within our system and within our group,’’ said Henare afterwards.
‘‘I felt the group was starting to grow together, and we had a good week of practice. We’ve begun to find our identity, individually and collectively.’’
The 36ers were paced by 32 points, eight boards and five assists from the in-form Nathan Sobey and a slick 20 and five dimes from Jerome ‘Handle’ Randle, but just lacked the overall firepower to stay the course.
The Breakers shot 58 percent overall and a stunning 53 (17 of 32) from beyond the arc, while the Sixers were a much more modest 41 percent from the floor.
The home side also won the rebound count 48-34 and had 31 assists on their 44 made buckets.
‘‘When the ball goes through the hoop it makes the game a little bit easier,’’ Heanre added. ‘‘But I thought the quality of looks we got were really good. We weren’t just throwing the ball up from the perimeter, we were getting movement, and for Mika [Vukona] and Akil to have 10 assists [between them], it shows we’ve got variation in how we’re scoring.’’
Sixers coach Joey Wright made it clear he was unhappy with how Penney and Webster had been allowed to create the room they needed for their shots.
‘‘If they’re allowed to create distance like they did with their hands, they will get their games going,’’ he said.
‘‘They got away with a lot. You can’t create distance like that. we can’t put our hands on them to guard them and they shouldn’t be able to put their hands on us to create distance.’’
The Breakers could do little wrong through a first half where they made a dozen three-pointers (of 22 attempts, at a 55 percent clip) and shot 60 percent from the floor overall. Football: Manager Slaven Bilic has backed West Ham’s zero tolerance policy on the hooligans who shamed the English Premier League club against Chelsea on Thursday. The Hammers intend to ban 200 fans who were involved in the crowd trouble which marred their 2-1 League Cup win at the London Stadium. Coins, seats and plastic bottles were thrown between home and away supporters and stewards and police had to intervene to prevent rival fans clashing. Hammers boss Bilic, like many, felt such shocking scenes were a thing of the past – in England at least – and admits it needs stamping out. ‘‘Don’t get me wrong but I’ve been in those environments before, unfortunately. Whether that’s in Turkey, or even at home, a few times even in Russia,’’ said the Croatian. ‘‘But I didn’t expect it here to be fair. England was so far clear of it. It should be stopped from the beginning.’’