Round 10 Game Preview v BNZ Breakers

Round 10 – New Zealand Breakers v Tasmania JackJumpers

NBL DC Multiverse Round

Saturday 9 December, 5.30pm tip-off AEDT

Spark Arena

Watch LIVE on ESPN via Kayo and Foxtel

State of Play

Tasmania will be well rested after a 6-day break since they trampled the 36ers in front of a packed house at MyState Bank Arena last Saturday which saw the JackJumpers finish the round in 2^nd – the highest ever finish to a round for the expansion franchise.

Their systems will be tested without star import Milton Doyle, who will miss the game after returning to the U.S. to mourn the recent passing of his father.

Replacing the NBL23 All NBL 5 star is no easy feat and as with everything at the JackJumpers, it’ll be done by committee, but it’s like Scott Roth will lean heavily on emerging talent Sean Macdonald, a development player who Roth has hailed as Tasmania’s equivalent of a Next Star.

New Zealand has had a rocky first half of NBL24, with their 4 wins from 12 games seeing them languishing in 8^th in the standings which maybe isn’t reflective of their potential nor performances so far.

However one of those wins came from last time they met the JackJumpers, where the Breakers out-muscled the home side.

They’ve had further upheaval this week with head coach Mody Maor received a $500 fine for his post-game comments about the referees in Round 9. His comments were seen to have broken the Basketball Australia Code of Conduct.

Last time they met  

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8, November 18 – Launceston Silverdome

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 92 (Magnay 20, Doyle 17, Crawford 13)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 97 (Lamb 24, Jackson-Cartwright 22, Delany 11)

Anthony Lamb and Parker Jackson-Cartwright led the New Zealand Breakers to a bounceback 97-92 victory against the Tasmania JackJumpers.

The New Zealand Breakers have breathed life back into their NBL season holding out a flying finish from the Tasmania JackJumpers for the 97-92 win in Launceston.

The Breakers were in control for much of the evening at The Silverdome with Anthony Lamb producing a 20-point first half.

New Zealand was still up nine with two and-a-half minutes to go when Izayah Le'afa (11 points, five steals) drained a three ball, but the JackJumpers have been the masters of late comebacks, and almost pulled it off again.

Will Magnay was playing just his second game of the season but came up huge at both ends with dunks and blocked shots to inspire Tasmania to an 8-0 run to close the deficit to one with a minute to go.

However, the Breakers iced the game on the back of a still at midcourt from Le'afa, who went up to lay it in. New Zealand scored the crucial five-point win to improve them to a 3-6 record.

Form Guides

New Zealand
79-90 loss to South East Melbourne
96-83 win over Adelaide
65-69 loss to Illawarra

Tasmania
94-59 win over Adelaide
90-87 win over Cairns
92-97 loss to New Zealand

SRT Logistics Coaches’ take

Head Coach Scott Roth said “we've watched the (last) game a couple times, and from beginning to end there's a lot of uncharacteristic errors and gambles that led to a lot of breakdowns that put us on the back foot. They're quite physical and good and tough minded, they get after you. It should be an interesting game there, we didn't play very well on both ends of the floor there, and those self-inflicted wounds are hard to recover from on any given night.

“Anthony Lamb is one of the best players in the league. He's done quite well. We’ve only played them once, and he obviously had a very good quarter against us, which really exploded and put us on the back foot, but he's done that to some other teams as well. But ultimately, he didn't beat us. We beat ourselves up in in Launceston with some really poor decisions. Our big concern is the other guys on the roster, Le’afa and the Delaney, the guys that will get involved in the game that will also add to that.

Ins & outs 

Tasmania JackJumpers: Milton Doyle will miss the game as he has travelled to the US to be with family following the death of his father.  

New Zealand Breakers: Justinian Jessup (pelvis) (TBC), Zylan Cheatham (foot), Will McDowell-White (leg) will miss for the Breakers.

Opponents on the Radar 

Mantas Rubstavicius - Injuries have restricted the ability for Next Star Mantas Rubstavicius to really impact games this season but his ability to make a high percentage of his shots from deep is one of the most draftable aspects of Rubstavicius’ game and follows the trend of highly fundamentally skilled European players making the leap to the NBA.