At Spark Arena, Auckland: NZ Breakers 94 (Barry Brown Jr 24, Dererk Pardon 15, Will McDowell-White 13, Jarrell Brantley 11, Tom Vodanovich 10), Tasmania JackJumpers 62 (Milton Doyle 22, Jack McVeigh 11). 1Q: 17-15; HT: 33-25; 3Q: 64-50.
A little bit of ‘Downtown’ Barry Brown magic and a lot of their trademark defensive toughness was more than enough to propel the red-hot New Zealand Breakers to another Australian NBL victory at home against the Tasmania JackJumpers on Sunday.
Mody Maor’s Breakers made it six wins in their last seven as they put the squeeze on the visitors from Tasmania pretty much from the off, keeping them to just 25 first-half points and a 33% shooting clip for the game to complete a dominant weekend in round 5. They towelled up the 36ers 99-70 on Friday night in Adelaide, and spent a good chunk of Saturday travelling back.
The all-the-way win improves the Breakers to 6-2 for the season, equal top with defending champs the Sydney Kings, and is their third on the bounce on the back of a couple of quality road results at the Cairns Taipans and Adelaide. The JJs fall back to 4-4, with their second defeat to the Kiwi club at Spark snapping a four-game win streak by last year’s beaten finalists.
It is the best start to a season by the Kiwi outfit since 2017-18, when they opened 9-1, and another dominant victory underlines their early status as genuine championship contenders behind an all-in defensive mindset that is making them very tough opponents indeed.
On an afternoon when scoring was at a premium early on, Barry Brown Jr’s creativity and spark was vital for the Breakers as he paced them off the bench with 24 points in 25 minutes on a super-efficient 9-of-11 shooting (4 of 5 from deep). It was the slick guard’s fourth haul of 20-plus in five outings this season as he finds a promising form groove.
There was also an outstanding shift put in by blue collar big man Dererk Pardon as he worked the paint with a menace for a quality double-double of 15 points (5/10 FG) and 14 rebounds. The Jackies had no answer to his activity inside.
Will McDowell-White got things rolling nicely, too, to add 13 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists, while the consistent Jarrell Brantley chipped in with 11 points and 8 rebounds, and Tom Vodanovich came off the bench to knock down a pair of triples in his 10 points and 5 boards.
The Breakers did it all, too, with key backup big man Rob Loe limited to just 54 first-quarter seconds before departing the game with a head knock. His team-mates barely missed a beat in his absence.
Import guard Milton Doyle paced the JackJumpers with 22 points at a 9 of 18 clip, but the visitors simply had no answer to the swarming defence of Maor’s dialled-in Breakers.
The first half was the low-scoring, grind-out affair you might have expected from the league’s two best defensive units, with the Breakers eking out a 33-25 lead by the major break, iced by Brown’s late triple that took the slashing guard to 11 points for the first two periods
The Kiwi outfit found their shooting groove in the third period to edge out to a 14-point advantage, and then things really started humming over the run home as the shots dropped, and the visitors’ heads with it.
Next up are the Sydney Kings next Sunday back at Spark in a scintillating showdown between the league’s top two clubs.
