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This is the first of two meetings this week between the Illawarra Hawks and the New Zealand Breakers, at the Win Entertainment Centre in Illawarra. Follow the action with The Roar live from 7:25pm (AEDT).
The Hawks enter Round 15 as the hottest team in the NBL, having won eight of their last 10 contests, to charge up to third on the NBL ladder.
Coach Rob Beveridge has his team’s offence firing on all cylinders, as their deadly trio of Kevin Lisch, Kirk Penny and AJ Ogilvy have all found form at the right time, making Illawarra a machine on the offensive end of the floor.
Inconsistent form has plagued the defending champion Breakers’ season. After a very good November and December, New Zealand stumbled into the New Year, losing their last two games and falling to fourth on the NBL ladder with an 11-8 record. If the Breakers lose and the Adelaide 36ers defeat the Townsville Crocodiles, New Zealand risk dropping out of the top four.
This match-up features the league’s best offensive team, Illawarra, facing the league’s best defensive team. The Hawks have scored 101.5 points per game against the Breakers this season, but New Zealand hasn’t allowed any other team to score 90 points or more against them this season.
If the Breakers have any hope, it starts and ends with shutting down Penny, who is the reigning NBL player of the week, his second of the season. Penny was unstoppable in Round 14, averaging 24.5 points, while shooting a red-hot 52 per cent from the field and draining 9 three-pointers in just two games.
Against the Breakers this season, Penny has been even better. In two Hawks wins, Penny has put up 63 points in just 56 minutes. Penny is shooting a ridiculous 10-of-16 from three-point range against the Breakers this season, which helps account for his 48 per cent shooting percentage from downtown.
While the Hawks have had no issues scoring baskets, it hasn’t been the same story for the Breakers, especially in their recent two-game skid, averaging just 73 points per game.
“We’ve just got to share the basketball,” Mika Vukona said, concerning the Breakers recent offensive struggles.
“When we move it and everybody’s getting their touches everybody’s enjoying it, but when it just sticks it’s quite easy to defend. We know the formula, we’ve just got to go out and do it. It’s there, it’s worked in the past and as a playing unit we just need to look at ourselves and say what we’re doing’s not working.”
Sharing the basketball will be a key in getting the Breakers attack back to where it needs to be, and breaking Corey Webster’s shooting slump will also be a major help.
Webster, the NBL’s leading scorer this season at 23.07 points per game, has struggled finding his rhythm over the last two games. Against the 36ers, Webster went 5-of-20 from the field, and the game before, against the Cairns Taipans, he wasn’t much better, going 9-of-24. The Hawks have their star Penny shooting the ball at a very effective clip lately, and the Breakers need Webster to do the same thing.
Preview
This has all the makings of a thriller, with storylines aplenty heading into the contest.
Unfortunately for the Breakers, their recent slide will continue, with the Hawks’ offensive firepower too much for New Zealand to handle.
Hawks by 8 points.
Will the Breakers break out of their recent slump with a win against the red-hot Hawks? Follow along live with The Roar from 7:25pm (AEDT).
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