Breakers upstaged by classy Randle
One step forward, one backwards.
The New Zealand Breakers continue to frustrate this Australian NBL campaign with their inconsistency, their fallibility and their creampuff defence.
Following Thursday’s quality home win over Brisbane, Paul Henare’s Breakers returned to their bad old ways with a 102-92 defeat at the Adelaide 36ers that drops them to a concerning 7-9.
Once again the Kiwi club’s defence was suspect as they coughed up too many easy baskets and another big night for star 36ers point guard Jerome Randle who went 15 of 19 from the floor, knocked down his only triple attempt and made six of seven free-throws for a game-high 37 points to go with four assists.
Joey Wright’s Sixers climb above .500 to 7-6, and to second on the table with their fourth straight victory. They looked a much more complete outfit, too, with Mitch Creek back on court, the returning star contributing 14 points (on five-of-11 shooting), three boards and a trio of steals.
The Breakers shot a solid 50 percent from the floor (35/69 FG) and 41 from beyond the arc (10 of 24) but just couldn’t get the stops as the Sixers shot 54 percent themselves (35/64 FG) and took 34 freethrows (to 23) and won the points off turnovers 19-10.
Kirk Penney paced the Breakers with 25 points on nine-of-14 shooting but, Mika Vukona aside, had too little in the way of substantial support.
Vukona stayed in attack mode and was rewarded with 16 points (7/11 FG) and five boards as the Adelaide interior defence struggled to cope with his footspeed.
Akil Mitchell added 13 points, nine rebounds and three assists, but again struggled with his freethrows (one of five from the line) and couldn’t quite establish himself inside as much as he wanted to.
Tom Abercrombie added 12 points, but Corey Webster (eight points on three-of eight shooting), Rob Loe (six points) and Alex Pledger (five points) all struggled to get going.
David Stockton’s problems continued, with the import point guard, and son of NBA legend John, fouling out with just five points (2/3 FG), three rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes.
The Breakers have some real issues at the position, given the quality that abounds around the league among the playmakers. Shea Ili’s return from injury remains problematic, with the backup one guard going zero-forfive for just a single point and no assists.
The Breakers produced a real mixed bag through the first two quarters to find themselves trailing by two (49-47) at halftime, after leading by as many as a dozen.
The visitors sprung out to an early 17-6 lead, with Abercrombie, Penney and Loe keeping the score ticking over, saw the 36ers climb back with a 12-2 run before Webster poured in seven of the last nine points for the period to give them a 28-20 edge at the first break.
That advantage expanded to 34-22 after little more than a minute when Mitchell sprung free inside to score six quick points, before Adelaide took control to dominate the second term 29-19. Randle contributed a dozen firsthalf points for the home side and the growing number of defensive breakdowns and turnovers (nine at the half) would have been chief among the concerns for Breakers coach Henare.
The game stayed tight through the third term, but a 15-point quarter from Randle and a fast finish from the little wizard saw the home side take a 74-70 advantage into the final break.
From there the Sixers kept their distance well, riding home on the back of Randle’s wizadry and Breakers defence that, frankly, never really tested them.