The New Zealand Breakers and Perth Wildcats are about to do battle again in the NBL grand final, as they did in two of the previous four seasons on top of a semi-final battle in 2011.
The two teams have shared the last six NBL championships and played some of the more remarkable regular season games in that time.
But to call it a rivalry gives a false representation of what has happened between the two teams. Only a Wildcats victory in this grand final series – in Perth on Wednesday, Auckland on Friday and back in Perth on Sunday if required – can change that.
While the regular season battles have been relatively even the last six campaigns, with the Breakers leading 12-10, the one semi-final meeting and two grand finals have been one sided.
The Breakers won all three series and six of the eight games, including six of the last seven after the Wildcats won Game 1 of the semi-finals in 2011 in Auckland.
Since then, the Breakers won Game 2 of that series on the back of 38 points from Kirk Penney at Challenge Stadium and won the club’s first championship back at North Shore Events Centre days later.
The 2012 grand final series was one of the best ever with home-court advantage providing the victory again for the Breakers in three games that were never decided by more than six points.
But in 2013, the Breakers proved far too good, winning in two and claiming the championship three-peat at Perth Arena where they again needed to win at least once to claim a fifth title of the last seven NBL seasons.
So while New Zealand and Perth have split the last six championships and it will soon become seven, unless the Wildcats beat the Breakers for the first time in a finals series, New Zealand will reinforce that it’s no rivalry at all.
The Breakers have not lost a finals series since 2009, making it a run of nine straight with Perth’s two championships in 2010 in 2014 coming firstly before New Zealand broke through and then secondly when the Breakers were without Cedric Jackson for one season.
New Zealand is back to its dominant best form winning five straight games to end the regular season and dominating Melbourne in two games in the semi-finals.
With Jackson, Corey Webster, Tom Abercrombie, Mika Vukona and Alex Pledger all big pieces of the Breakers’ dominance in recent years, they not only know how to win grand finals but don’t know how to lose.
The emergence of Tai Wesley and the addition of Charles Jackson also give the Breakers a different look to the one that beat Perth in 2013.
The Wildcats have Damian Martin, Shawn Redhage, Jesse Wagstaff, Matt Knight and Greg Hire who bear scars from losses to the Breakers in the past, but Casey Prather and Jermaine Beal don’t.
And the best chance of the Wildcats stopping the Breakers’ dominance over them and the NBL is if Prather and Beal dominate.
Prather can do it through his sheer athleticism. He proved against the Illawarra Hawks in the semi-finals that he’s unstoppable in the open floor with his ability to get to the rim and throw it down. But there is much more to him than that and his match-up with Abercrombie will be pivotal.
And the Wildcats can’t win without Beal shooting well from the outside and being aggressive getting to the rim. His match-up scoring wise with Webster will be massive in deciding the championship.
Then you have the battle of powerhouse Knight and Vukona, the tantalising point guard match-up of Martin and Cedric Jackson, and the contests between the likes of Hire, Redhage and Wagstaff from Perth and Charles Jackson, Wesley and Vukona that will get confrontational.
There are all the makings of a terrific grand final series between the two best teams of the last seven seasons. But the Wildcats must win to officially turn it into a rivalry and captain Martin isn’t focusing on the hurt of the past.
“Obviously we’ve matched up with New Zealand in semi-finals and grand finals quite a few times over the past seven years I’ve been at the Wildcats, and they just go up a gear in the finals,” Martin said.
“Against Melbourne they were fantastic and Cedric really stepped up. He is knocking down threes now and he is the ultimate competitor and loves to win, and at times he can carry the team. I’m looking forward to match up with him but the game’s a lot bigger than the two of us.
“Corey’s fantastic, Mika’s gone to another level and Thomas Abercrombie is playing his best basketball this season. If we come out switched and execute our gameplan, I’m confident we can beat them but it’s going to be tough that’s for sure.”
Meanwhile, Breakers coach Dean Vickerman is letting himself think that his time in New Zealand is two wins away from a fairytale finish. But he’s not getting too far ahead of himself.
“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.”
NBL grand final fixtures (AEDT)
Wednesday: Game 1
Perth Wildcats v New Zealand Breakers (Perth Arena) – Fox Sports 3, 9.30pm
Friday: Game 2
New Zealand Breakers v Perth Wildcats (North Shore Events Centre) – Fox Sports 3 and 9GEM, 5.30pm
Sunday: Game 3 (if required)
Perth Wildcats v New Zealand Breakers (Perth Arena) – Fox Sports 3, 5.30pm
The Sydney Kings have successfully defended their NBL crown.
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