Firstly the Crocs - Dragons game (91 - 89). Looking at the numbers, its unfortunate my boy JR failed to bounce back (from an ordinary night in Adelaide) and finished with just 5 points on 2 of 10 shooting. Trying too hard John, need some home cooking? Homicide Williams top scored with 28 points (as well as 12 boards) and ex-Bullet Brad Williamson (holder of the worst nickname in the NBL, B-Rad ... I hate it) came good after a shaky start in his first game for the Crocs with 16 points (including 4 triples).
It looks like the Crocs caught the Dragons on a bad night with star import Cortez Groves fouling out with just 2 points and Joe Ingles (nickname I heard last night, Jingles ... don't mind it) shooting just 2 of 13 from the field. Mark Worthington was good with 20 points and 12 boards while another ex-Bullet Adam Gibson had 13 points, 8 boards, 3 assists and 0 turnovers. Can the Dragons 36% shooting be credited to pressure defence from the Crocs? We'll have to wait till we hear more ...
Now ... to the big upset, Breakers - Tigers (120 - 111). In a much higher scoring and free-flowing game, the Breakers are the first to claim the scalp of the NBL defending champs. In a balanced performance from the Kiwis, CJ Bruton (6 of 12 from downtown), Ronaldson (4 of 4 from downtown) and Forman (7 of 10 from downtown) all had 23 points while player of the week Kirk Penney chipped in with 20. The Breakers shot an outstanding 54% from deep compared to just 26% by the Tigers.
It wasn't that the Tigers played badly ... Anstey had 32 points and 9 boards, Ebi had 21 and Barlow had 17. They just couldn't stop the outside shooting of the Breakers and maybe had the tempo and style of play dicated to them, which you don't want NZ to do when they're hitting their shots and on their home floor.
From a personal point of view, with strong games from CJ, Gibbo and Williamson, its great to see the (ex) Bullets back-court doing so well.
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