Breakers produce an upset against the Kings

The New Zealand Breakers have produced the biggest upset of the NBL season defeating the Sydney Kings 115-104 to deny the home side what would have been a record equalling 20th straight win at the Kingdome.

Sydney were in trouble before the game even began with star guard CJ Bruton and big man Ian Crosswhite being ruled out with injuries and with the Kings undermanned and undersized the Breakers took full advantage to register their first ever win at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

“That’s another very pleasing win,” said an ecstatic Breakers coach Andre Lemanis.

“I only wish it happened a little earlier because I don’t think anyone would want to play us right now in the playoffs.”

The Breakers import pairing of Rich Melzer and Brian Green were the standouts for the visitors. Melzer bagged himself an impressive double double (27 points and 11 rebounds), while Green also impressed with 27 points hitting a wide variety of shots that the Kings had no answer for.

Sydney got another strong effort from Sedric Webber with the new import scoring a team high 19 points, while captain Jason Smith tried hard all night long for his 16 points and seven rebounds.

In the opening stages of the game it looked like the Kings were set for yet another walk in the park at the Kingdome as they raced to an early five point lead, but that advantage didn’t last long with Aaron Olson and Ben Thompson nailing triples to send the Breakers into quarter time ahead 29-25.

Sydney gave their loyal fans renewed hope in the second period quickly drawing level with New Zealand at 33-33 on the back of six quick points from Mark Worthington, but once again the visitors were able to stave off the Kings advances heading into half time courtesy of solid contributions from Paul Henare and Mika Vikona (57-52).

The third quarter belonged to Green with the American shooting guard catching fire to score 16 points for the period and in the process helped the Breakers extend their lead to 14 points heading into the final term (92-78).

The Kings tried valiantly to reel in the large deficit over the last 12 minutes getting to within eight points of the Breakers with four minutes to play, but in the end they ran out of time meaning their impressive run of victories at home would finish at 19.

Sydney coach Brian Goorjian was obviously a disappointed man after the game, but felt it was imperative for his team to move on quickly from this loss.

“A real important emphasis is we can’t be where we are now and get low. I think it would be really bad timing to feel down or disappointed.”

“We’re not invincible and we do have our issue, and we do need to get better for the playoffs.”

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