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The Adelaide 36ers handed the New Zealand Breakers another loss on Saturday, coming away the winners by 10 points on their home court.
Final score
Adelaide 36ers 102
New Zealand Breakers 92
The Adelaide 36ers will be out to continue their impressive run of form in the NBL on Saturday evening with captain Mitch Creek back on the floor when they take on the New Zealand Breakers, desperate to put some life into their stuttering season.
Adelaide were in dismal shape just a few weeks ago sitting bottom of the table and in a fight for their season, with pressure building by the day.
It’s been an incredible turnaround for the South Australian club though, who have now won three matches on the trot to now sit just outside the top four.
Despite being outside the top four, the 36ers are equal with the Cairns Taipans who are directly ahead of them on the ladder and as is the case with all the teams, no one is off the pace by much due to how close the ladder is.
Making their position a little more impressive is the fact they have been without captain Mitch Creek, who is due to return this evening.
Given the wins they have had in the last fortnight have come against some very strong teams including the Sydney Kings and Brisbane Bullets their form has been quite strong.
It has all been sparked by a resurgence to form from import guard Jerome Randle, who has managed to keep himself out of foul trouble and player bigger minutes, allowing him to run the offence and have a much larger production.
His shooting, particularly on the pull up jump shot from the high post has been locked in, and with fellow guards Nathan Sobey and Brendan Teys firing, Adelaide have been close to unstoppable on offence.
Even though their defence is still leaking over 95 points per game, their offence has been good enough and of course, they haven’t let in over 90 points during any of their last three wins.
As for the Breakers, their finals hopes are starting to slip by the week with loss after loss. Before they played the Brisbane Bullets on Thursday they had lost four straight and turning it around looked like being a long way off.
Sitting bottom of the table, their home match against the Bullets on Thursday had a few more impressive signs as they held on for what was an unconvincing seven-point victory.
Ever since their point guard Ben Woodside got injured they simply haven’t looked to be the same team on offence as what they were when the season started and despite the job David Stockton has done it’s looked weak.
The biggest problem for the Auckland-based club seems to be their heavy reliance on the three-point shot to generage their offence, instead of playing out high quality sets and looking for open shots close to the net.
Without that extra ball movement, and with only Kirk Penney, Robert Loe and Corey Webster firing – albeit a little inconsistently it’s not hard to see why the Breakers are down the bottom end of the table, although that win moved them to sixth.
Prediction
The 36ers have been playing strongly and back at home will rightfully be favourites to pick up another win. Their were some promising signs for the Breakers in their win on Thursday, but realistically it’s hard to see them grabbing another win on the road.
36ers by 12.
Key game information
Tip-off: 5:30pm (AEDT) – 5pm (local)
Venue: Titanium Security Arena, Adelaide
TV: Live, Fox Sports 503
Online: NBL.TV
Betting: 36ers $1.58, Breakers $2.45
Last meeting: Round 4, Breakers 119 defeat 36ers 93 at Vector ArenaAdelaide 36ers (expected)
Point guard: Jerome Randle
Shooting guard: Nathan Sobey
Small forward: Terrance Ferguson
Power forward: Daniel Johnson
Centre: Matt Hodgson
Bench: Brendan Teys, Eric Jacobsen, Majok Deng, Adam Doyle, Anthony Drmic, Nick LarkinsNew Zealand Breakers (expected)
Point guard: David Stockton
Shooting guard: Kirk Penney
Small forward: Thomas Abercrombie
Power forward: Mika Vukona
Centre: Alex Pledger
Bench: Finn Delany, Rob Loe, Akil Mitchell, Shea Ili, Jordan Ngatai, Ethan Rusbatch
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde