Breakers

The Breakers are two wins away from their fifth Australian NBL Championship title after they upset the defending champion Sydney Kings 95-87 in Sydney on ...

Guard Justin Simon lead the Kings scoring with 18 points and bench player Jordan Hunt was one of the surprises of the opening game of the finals series pouring in a season high 15 points in his 16 minutes on court. Cramp got the best of Kings guard Derrick Walton Jr in the fourth quarter, but before he was forced to leaving the court withering in pain, he scored 12 points and made six assists. McDowell-White was the equal leading scorer with 19 points and added nine rebounds and nine assists to his player of the game performance.

When the do-it-all Aussie point guard went all-in on Mody Maor for a third season with the Kiwi NBL club, not even he expected a run to the grand final.

Xavier Cooks v Jarrell Brantley: The best all-round players on their teams will have a big say in this series. A string of opposition coaches have labelled him a key for the Kiwis as he initiates their offence off the high on-ball and is such an effective decision-maker. Time for McDowell-White to go out and get those watching clubs even more excited. But these are two explosive types who could win a game on their own. We’ve shown we can win in different ways, and they can as well, They’re just as deep, just as talented. As for league MVP Cooks, with his Inspector Gadget arms and staggering dexterity, McDowell White says: “You can never shut down Xave – you’ve just got to win that first bump. But McDowell-White has mad respect for Xavier Cooks and his own solid supporting cast at the Kings. It shapes as a captivating matchup between two deep, talented and well-matched rosters and a pair of teams who, to say the least, embrace contrasting styles. And the talented playmaker is also just weeks from a free-agent bidding frenzy that is set to pay him handsomely It's last season’s champs against the outright chumps who went 5-23 on the road trip from hell and very nearly imploded. I’d say I’m not the only one getting this attention.” “We feel like we have some mismatches we can exploit, and they would be the same.

Superstar duo Xavier Cooks and Derrick Walton Jr have suffered match-ending leg injuries as the New Zealand Breakers drew first blood in the best-of-five ...

The margin swelled to 14 points before Sydney's league-best offence finally started to click against the Breakers' competition-best defence. Justin Simon (18 points) led the charge for the banged-up Kings, who were forced to play catch-up for much of the evening. McDowell-White's expert penetration and facilitation continued to hurt the hosts who were outplayed in the second stanza.

The NZ Breakers went from finishing dead last with a 5-23 record last season to now being three games away from an NBL title. Coach Mody Maor explains how ...

We're going against the best team in the league with a group of people that you really want to go to battle with. If I need to describe his personality, I will use the word bubbly," Maor says with a smile. It's a skill you need with the amount of switching defences you see today. After a two-week FIBA break delay, Maor has had plenty of time to think about the possibilities. All of these things are extremely valued, and all of these things contribute to winning." "It's difficult all the time. "I'm happy that we were able to create an environment where everybody feels valued and all of their sacrifices come towards the common good. He's an emotional character who has evidently hit the right notes more often than not, but in a season that has brought so much joy back to New Zealand basketball, the stress of the job is not lost on the first-year head coach. It was really clear early that this group of people was about all the right things. You need to prove it through challenges, through competing against the best and I don't believe in championships on paper. Once you make the playoffs, anything is possible." I conducted an anonymous poll of coaches around the league, asking them to predict who would win the championship excluding their own club.

It has been 12 days since they qualified for the NBL Championship Series and now on Friday night (7.30pm AEDT) the Sydney Kings and New Zealand Breakers ...

“Obviously Game 1 is really important and you want to come out and set the tone for the series, and play the right way. I know what it takes to get over the line and I know how much effort it takes to get over the line. The Kings have Jordan Hunter to back up Tim Soares while Kouat Noi and Jaylin Galloway are versatile enough to give a chop out in either forward spots and then there’s the experience and quality of Angus Glover an Shaun Bruce in the guard spots. Jordan Hunter/Kouat Noi/Jaylin Galloway/Angus Glover/Shaun Bruce v Rob Loe/Tom Vodanovich/Cam Gliddon/Rayan Rupert/Izayah Le’afa – A big reason why these two teams are in the Championship Series is because of their depth and the fact they don’t lose anything going into their bench, and indeed receive a punch. He was named to the All-First Team averaging 16.5 points and 6.3 assists a game on 47.3 per cent field goal shooting and 36.4 per cent from deep. Then you have Pardon at the Breakers and he deserves to be called the best genuine centre in the NBL. Vasiljevic has had an up and down season but is averaging 14.0 points on 41.2 per cent shooting and 36.9 from downtown, but he did have 42 points and 10 threes against the Phoenix. He can play with physicality, with athleticism and is a terrific defensive presence and a great all-round offensive threat with moves around the basket and shooting ability. The New Zealand Breakers hadn’t take part in an NBL finals series since 2018 but it quickly emerged they would be a force to be reckoned with in NBL23. Sydney prevailed in Game 1 at home 95-87 but it was a different story in Game 2 in Cairns with the Taipans winning 93-82. Throw in the last two years where they were ravaged and homeless thanks to COVID, and it was very much a start again process coming into NBL23. Justin Simon has been the standout NBL defender this season and a bundle of energy at both ends with Tim Soares holding his own in the centre position.

Sydney Kings duo Xavier Cooks and Derrick Walton Jr sustain game-ending leg injuries as the New Zealand Breakers draw first blood in the best-of-five NBL ...

The series moves to Auckland for the second game on Sunday. Breakers back-court duo Will McDowell-White (19 points, nine rebounds and nine assists) and Barry Brown Jr (19 points off the bench) took turns in silencing the 13,145-strong crowd in Sydney on Friday night. - Will McDowell-White and Barry Brown Jr were solid for the Breakers with 19 points each

Behind 19 points apiece from Barry Brown Jr and their Aussie point guard the Breakers drew first blood in the Aussie hoops league's showpiece series.

The Kings had a lot to thank Simon’s 13 first-half points for as they battled to stay in the contest. “To hold them to 87 when they average close to 100, it was good defence by the boys.” Most importantly the league-best Breakers defence kept league MVP Xavier Cooks to just 8 points on 2-of-10 shooting, while all-NBL point guard Derrick Walton Jr managed just 12 points and 6 assists. They also stuck to their scout superbly to shackle most of the home threats. But there’s a reason his home-town Brisbane Bullets, the deep-pocketed Perth Wildcats and well-resourced South East Melbourne Phoenix are all in the market for free-agent-to-be McDowell-White. And where there’s a Will McDowell-White there is a 1-0 lead in the Australian NBL’s championship series.

Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, we looked at why the first gay All Black was so groundbreaking, the clash over ...

Madison Hamill is a book editor and author of the award-winning essay collection 'Specimen'. "The worst one we saw was last year - there was a rumour going around that got shared in lots of schools across the country, that schools had the authority to inject your children with the vaccine ... [How the Breakers got back to winning ways duration 23:23](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018880159/how-the-breakers-got-back-to-winning-ways) [Download](https://podcast.radionz.co.nz/thedetail/thedetail-20230303-0500-how_the_breakers_got_back_to_winning_ways-128.mp3) [How the Breakers got back to winning ways](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018880159/how-the-breakers-got-back-to-winning-ways) [The Detail's Long Read: Roald Dahl and the Big Fat Fuss duration 20:36](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018880284/the-detail-s-long-read-roald-dahl-and-the-big-fat-fuss) [Download](https://podcast.radionz.co.nz/thedetail/thedetail-20230304-0500-the_details_long_read_roald_dahl_and_the_big_fat_fuss-128.mp3) [The Detail's Long Read: Roald Dahl and the Big Fat Fuss](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018880284/the-detail-s-long-read-roald-dahl-and-the-big-fat-fuss) The sadness is in the memory of his mother, who spent much of her life locked up in a mental health unit. [Keeping kids in school duration 20:14](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879988/keeping-kids-in-school) [Keeping kids in school](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879988/keeping-kids-in-school) [How the Breakers got back to winning ways](https://www.newsroom.co.nz/podcast-the-detail/how-the-breakers-got-back-to-winning-ways) we can't underestimate the value of role models and other people walking before us to make it easier for us to engage in our own personal choices about how we present ourselves," he says. [Gangs unite to speak up on abuse in care duration 23:10](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879819/gangs-unite-to-speak-up-on-abuse-in-care) [Gangs unite to speak up on abuse in care](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879819/gangs-unite-to-speak-up-on-abuse-in-care) [Keeping kids in school](https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879988/keeping-kids-in-school) [The strippers fighting for better work rights duration 23:04](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879636/the-strippers-fighting-for-better-work-rights) [Download](https://podcast.radionz.co.nz/thedetail/thedetail-20230228-0500-the_strippers_fighting_for_better_work_rights-128.mp3) [The strippers fighting for better work rights](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879636/the-strippers-fighting-for-better-work-rights) [Gangs unite to speak up on abuse in care](https://www.newsroom.co.nz/podcast-the-detail/gangs-unite-to-speak-up-on-abuse-in-care) [Diversity in sport: Why the first openly gay All Black matters duration 23:32](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879333/diversity-in-sport-why-the-first-openly-gay-all-black-matters) [Download](https://podcast.radionz.co.nz/thedetail/thedetail-20230227-0500-why_the_first_openly_gay_all_black_matters-128.mp3) [Diversity in sport: Why the first openly gay All Black matters](/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879333/diversity-in-sport-why-the-first-openly-gay-all-black-matters) [The strippers fighting for better work rights](https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018879636/the-strippers-fighting-for-better-work-rights) [$74 million school attendance package](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/484553/minister-announces-74m-for-new-school-attendance-officers) will bring in 82 new 'attendance officers', who'll work with children and their whānau to get them back into the classroom regularly, after [years of troubling truancy rates](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/483840/spike-in-truancy-at-schools-in-2021-driven-by-covid-19-restrictions-some-principals-say). [Diversity in sport: Why the first openly gay All Black matters](https://www.newsroom.co.nz/podcast-the-detail/diversity-in-sport-why-the-first-openly-gay-all-black-matters)

They've gone from wooden spooners to grand finalists in the space of just one season, but that's not the only thing making the Breakers famous. The pizzazz of ...

It's two or three steps down the thought chain than most of our New Zealand sports run at." The team's gone from zero to hero, and back again, many times over. After several dismal seasons, The Detail finds out how the team has turned things around. "He could see that New Zealand needed showtime. What also impressed Rarere, when the team was struggling to get to the top of the league, was when the then-owners - Liz and Paul Blackwell - called for season ticket holders' opinions on how to improve the team. They returned to home ground last year.