NBL Final up soon on OneHD

NBL Finale hours away….

The 2010/2011 NBL basketball season will conclude this afternoon/evening when Cairns faces off against the New Zealand 

Breakers in game three of the Championship series.

The Breakers blew Cairns off the floor in game one before a double overtime thriller went the way of the Snakes to send the championship into today’s decider.

The Breakers were strong all season with three regular season wins over cairns and an easy win in Game One of the finals before the epic that was Game Two.

Ultimately though look for New Zealand to be too strong for Cairns in Auckland. Expect C.J. Bruton, Kirk Penney and crew to defend the home court with vigour.

I think earlier in the week I picked the Breakers by 10 or 12 points….I’ll stick with that.

Catch the action in Australia on OneHD from 1730 AEST.

Around the courts.....

Quick Catch up

Back to regular life and the sports world after a break for Bluesfest.

On the local scene, the Australian National Basketball League finals are underway. The New Zealand Breakers and Cairns Taipans are deadlocked at one game each in the best of three series with the decider set for Friday night in Auckland. The top seeded Breakers took game one easily 85-67. Game two in Cairns turned out to be as the Snakes forced a decider with an 85-81 double overtime win. Friday night’s action kicks off at 1930 at the North Shore Events Centre. I will go with CJ Bruton to lead a Breakers victory by 12.

NBA Playoffs

Some of my picks for the first round of the NBA Finals have fallen flat….there will be no NY Knicks upset of Boston in the first round!! The rest of my initial picks are here: http://cdstarrbblog.blogspot.com/2011_04_10_archive.html

Eastern Conference:

Chicago vs. Indiana

The Bulls hold a 3-1 edge and should easily clinch this series and move on.

Orlando vs. Atlanta

The Hawks are poised to reverse last year’s result against Orlando and lead the series 3-1.

Miami vs. Philadelphia

The Heat hit a road block in their quest to match Boston’s first round sweep but should clinch the series 4-1 after in the next game.

Western Conference:

San Antonio vs. Memphis

The top seeded Spurs are on the verge of elimination trialling 3-1. They may win another game or two but will find it tough to win three in a row…Memphis moves on.

Oklahoma City vs. Denver

The Thunder is on the verge of clinching with a 3-1 lead in this one.

Dallas vs. Portland

Dallas is up 3-2 but Portland has proven to be difficult for the Mavs. Can the Mavs survive the age test?

Los Angeles vs. New Orleans

The epic of Round 1, this one is delicately poised at 2-2. The Lakers are struggling and the Hornets are without David West….interesting few games coming up!! What’s your pick???

Ok, back in a few days with updates…..

Breakers "even" with Tigers after big home win

The New Zealand Breakers avenged last weeks loss to the Melbourne Tigers with a 79-74 win on home turf last night.

In the absence of Kirk Penney, C.J. Bruton stepped to the fore and carried the NZ attack with 32 points. The Breakers actually trailed for the majority of the contest but relentless defence headed by Tony Ronaldson and Thomas Abercrombie kept them close. Melbourne led at every change, holding a 21-16 edge after one that was stretched to a 39-30 advantage by halftime before it was cut to 54-52 with three quarters done.

Early in the fourth term Bruton connected on two bombs from behind the arc, giving New Zealand an advantage it did not relinquish in a scrappy finish to the match.

Rick Rickert had a 16 point, 8 rebound, 4 assist night in support of Bruton. Ronaldson had 8 points and 4 rebounds to go with his tough post defence while Abercrombie grabbed 5 boards to go with his 8 points.

Sam Mackinnon and Daryl Corletto paced the Tigers with 13 points each and Mark Worthington added 11 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists to the total.

More NBL action is up on the weekend, be sure to have a look.

Tigers ambush the Breakers in Melbourne

Mark Worthington put any worries of health issues aside to lead the Melbourne Tigers to an upset of the visiting New Zealand Breakers in Wednesday nights NBL action.

Worthington tossed in 17 points and snared 9 rebounds as the won the match by a score of 86-81. The match was a game of streaks as the Breakers broke out to an early advantage and led 29-22 at quarter time before a Tiger fight back that closed the gap to a single point by half time.

Melbourne took its first lead of the game early in the second half and held a three point edge at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth stanza, Melbourne stretched the lead to five before The Breakers made a run of their own to lead by one. Later, around half way through the final quarter with the scores knotted at 70 points apiece, Melbourne put together a seven point run to gain control of the match and held on for the final buzzer.

In support of Worthington, Luke Kendall provided 14 points, Nathan Crosswell andDaryl Corletto had 13 points each, Sam Mackinnon had 10 points and Ben Knight snared 9 rebounds.

Tony Ronaldson paced the Breakers with 21 points while Kirk Penney added 16 points and 6 rebounds. Additional support came from Rick Rickert with 12 points and 10 points/9rebounds from Awvee Storey. Reigning Player of the week C.J. Bruton was held to 8 points but did grab 5 boards.

The teams meet again in New Zealand a week from tonight, it should be another classic.

C.J. Player of the week for Week one, Week two kicks off tonight

New Zealand Breaker C.J. Bruton has been awarded the player of the week for his sizzling week one shooting performance against the Cairns Taipans. For the game C.J. shot 10 of 11 from the field highlighted by a phenomenal 8 from 9 from the land of threes.
Congrats on the big night C.J.

Tonight Bruton will lead the Breakers into Melbourne for a clash with the Tigers. New Zealand could not muster a win from three encounters with the Melbourne crew last season so they will be hungry.

The game tips off at 0730 on Fox Sports so tune in for what should be a barn burner.

From my first prediction of the week, I'll go with the Breakers by 7 or less in a close on.

Tomorrow we will take a look at the rest of Week 2 and the start of the WNBL season.

Breakers spank Snakes to open NBL season

Pre season favourites the New Zealand Breakers opened the season with a comprehensive 95-75 thrashing of the Cairns Taipans.

The area behind the three point arc proved to be the proverbial "land of plenty" indeed or maybe the "land of Penny and Bruton" as Kirk Penny connected on 8 of 11 shots from long range on his way to a team high 32 points and C.J. Bruton put in a near perfect 8 from 9 three pointers in scoring 28 points for the match. Overall the New Zealand out fit shot an amazing 58% from deep.

The Breakers ran into early foul trouble on their way to a narrow 22-18 quarter time lead but steadily pulled away from there.

In the end Cairns shot a paltry 39 percent from the field and from three point land while New Zealand shot 53% from the field in addition to their scorching outside total.

In support of the Penny/Bruton show, Thomas Abercrombie chipped in with 11 points. Dillon Boucher was a solid if not spectacular contributor with 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Former Breaker Phil Jones led the Snakes with 24 points while Julien mills chipped in with 16 points/6rebounds and Richard Melzer added 12.

Cairns returns home to face the Adelaide 36ers on Saturday night with hopes for a better result.