- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The Perth Wildcats and Illawarra Hawks are gearing up for a tantalising Game 3 of their NBL semi-final series on Friday night. The New Zealand Breakers await in the final, back to their best and unbeaten in playoff series since 2009.
The Breakers finished the regular season in fourth position after a tough six-game losing run before steadying to win their last five heading into the finals series.
The champions of four of the last five NBL seasons then proved far too good for minor premiers Melbourne United, winning both semi-final matches last week in style. Their stars, physicality and championship experience proved far too much for the individually talented Melbourne.
That leaves the Breakers waiting to find out who they will face in their fifth NBL grand final in six years.
That will be decided at Perth Arena on Friday night when the Wildcats host the Hawks. Last week, the two teams split their first two games with the home team winning.
Perth’s expected dominance inside didn’t eventuate for the most part. The Hawks forced Wildcats big man Nate Jawai to be a non-factor and then despite being without MVP Kevin Lisch on Sunday, Illawarra got its game flowing, scored 104 points and won to force Friday’s decider.
With Lisch fighting through ankle ligament damage, he will line-up for the Hawks on Friday in an attempt to give them their first victory against the Wildcats, the team he previously won a title and went to two grand final series with.
The Hawks haven’t won in Perth since November 5, 2005, and have lost their last 23 visits, highlighting how big of a task it is. Perth are desperate to bounce back from Sunday to earn another crack against New Zealand.
The Wildcats have lost to the Breakers in the semi-finals of 2011, and grand finals of 2012 and 2013. However, that was with both Lisch and coach Rob Beveridge in the mix.
Whatever the result, there is no hiding from the fact of how difficult Perth or Illawarra will find trying to stop New Zealand winning a 10th straight playoff series to earn another championship, even without home court advantage.
Looking back to the semi-finals against Melbourne, Breakers coach Dean Vickerman couldn’t have been more proud of seeing how his team stretched their winning run to seven.
“I loved the way that we jumped out in Game 1 and it looked like we were the team ready for playoff basketball. Obviously they responded and got a lead, but the group just showed really good composure and didn’t get rattled by their comebacks,” Vickerman said.
“I guess that’s when you say the experience of years past really counted the most. Even in Game 2 over here, they made their run and got six up but we came back with another three-point shot or really good execution down the other end to never let them jump out to a significant lead.”
By the time New Zealand lost in Cairns to the Taipans on January 23, they looked anything but a championship contender and likely to miss the finals altogether after a sixth straight defeat.
However, a gritty home win over the Townsville Crocs, a big road win over Adelaide, good win at home over Cairns and then two victories over Melbourne before the playoffs saw them build momentum. Vickerman feels they’ve never looked back.
“We lost the six in a row and the Illawarra game really hurt where we felt we made an error in not fouling down the stretch,” he said.
“I thought we played really well up in the Cairns game but we just didn’t score in the last couple of minutes. So there was still a lot of belief from those two games even though we hadn’t got over the line. That was the frustrating part.
“Then going to Adelaide we just knew what we had to do and knew we had no more chances. Any time this team has been presented with that kind of challenge, there has been a quiet calmness about them in those situations and you felt that before that Adelaide game.
“Obviously that was huge for us to get the double-win with getting the margin as well. But getting healthy as well has been important. Ced [Jackson] was hurt for a number of that losing streak and others were as well, but they are warriors and fought through it.”
Vickerman is stepping down as Breakers coach after this season to allow Paul Henare to take over. While another title would be a dream exit, he’s not looking too far ahead yet.
“It was always the hope that you had one more opportunity to win a championship and I’ve achieved that part in terms of getting that opportunity to do it,” Vickerman said.
“Anything moving forward is an absolute bonus and I don’t really want to think about what it looks like at the end of it or how I would react or different things like that.
“We have a great group of guys who are playing well at the right time of the year and we are going to give ourselves every chance to get another title.”
Reigning NBL Coach of the Year Shawn Dennis also feels that the Breakers head into the grand final deservedly favourites despite having to win away.
As for who they will play, the Crocodiles coach who re-signed this week for two more seasons thinks Hawks big man AJ Ogilvy could be the deciding factor against the Wildcats.
“I do think the Breakers will be the favourites because they have that belief and hunger about them, it’s back. They are back at championship level and any time a team is playing like that they are hard to beat and they are going to be hard to beat no matter who they play,” Dennis said.
“I’ve always felt that for Illawarra to beat Perth they need AJ Ogilvy playing well in the middle. On Sunday, he played very well and that freed up some space on the perimeter and they knocked down some shots and scored 100 points.
“I still believe that’s going to be the key, is how well he does against the Perth frontline. When he does well Illawarra are very hard to beat so I think he holds the key personally.”
NBL semi-final (AEDT)
Friday, February 26 – Game 3
Perth Wildcats v Illawarra Hawks (Perth Arena) – Fox Sports 3, 9.30pm