Breakers banking on Webster to thwart threat of 36ers
Corey Webster returns with a spring in his step for the New Zealand Breakers’ extended visit to Adelaide, and coach Kevin Braswell figures they will need everything they can get from their fit-again world class shooting guard.
Joey Wright’s 36ers opened up round 11 with arguably their most impressive display of the season, knocking off Dean Vickerman’s defending champions 103-101 in the open-air Boxing Day extravaganza in front of 10,300 fans at Melbourne Arena.
That was Adelaide’s third straight Australian NBL victory and a statement performance that got them back to 8-8 for the season in an increasingly tight league.
There are now just three losses between first (Sydney at 10-5) and seventh (the 6-8 Breakers).
The Breakers head to Adelaide for a matchup tomorrow and will remain in South Australia for the New Year to follow up with a rematch against the Sixers at Titanium Security Arena on January 4.
Coach Braswell reminded his players of how tight the league is shaping at practice this week when he spoke about his first year as an import at the Breakers when he came in late to spark a 6-1 finish but missed the playoffs by just one result not falling their way in the last round.
‘‘I said don’t be that team in a position four-five weeks from now hoping someone loses.
‘‘You have to take advantage of the chances you get. We’ve got a chance to go over there, steal this first one Sunday, and then we stay over there.
‘‘We don’t want to be away from our families at New Year, so we have got to go over there and accomplish something.
‘‘They bought in and training was unbelievable today,’’ Braswell told Stuff yesterday.
To that end he is rapt to have Webster back with a definite bounce after he sat out the 96-79 victory over Illawarra in Hamilton with ankle and hip problems that had sent him into a shooting slump.
Braswell liked the look of his Tall Blacks ace as they slipped in three post-Christmas practices before the Adelaide trip. ‘‘He’s looked great this week . . . back to how he looked in the pre-season game with Phoenix. When he’s like that, we’re that much better.
‘‘He’s still finding his rhythm, and I hope these next two games will be good for that.
‘‘He’s that missing ingredient we need to start beating these top teams.’’
Braswell will decide on game day whether to start Webster or Patrick Richard, but admitted he had got more production earlier in the season when the Kiwi ran out and Richard came off the bench.
The Breakers, in search of their first three-game winning streak of the season, tickled up the Sixers 114-94 in their only previous meeting of the season in Auckland on October 28. It remains Adelaide’s biggest defeat this campaign.
But Braswell says this is a different Sixers beast now, with Ramone Moore fit again and handling point guard duties and third import Demetrius Conger added since to beef them up at small forward.
All five starters posted between 13 and 18 points and Majok Deng added a dozen off the bench in Melbourne as the Sixers shot 59 per cent from the floor and 41 from deep.
Moore, Conger and third import Jacob Wiley combined to make 20 of their 27 shots and Wright’s men scored 25 points off the fast-break.
‘‘That whole team is playing the way Adelaide loves to play,’’ added Braswell of a Sixers side that has won three of its last four at home.