NBL Fast Facts - Quarter Finals
There have been five previous seasons where the finals format has included sudden death Quarter Finals and no team has ever made it through them to win the Championship. The closest anyone has gotten was the West Sydney Razorbacks in 2004 – the first year of sudden death - and they made it to the Grand Final after finishing third, only to lose to the Kings in the first ever five-game Grand Final series.
15 of the 20 sudden death Quarter Finals under the current format have been won by the home team.
Last season, New Zealand was the only road team to win a Quarter Finals match when they defeated the Taipans in Cairns by 22. In 2007, every home team won the four knockout matches.
The first and second ranked teams have ended up playing off in the past four Grand Final series. In the 30 Championships that have been decided already, first and second seeded teams have taken the title 24 times with only one team ever winning the Championship from outside the top four. That was the Perth Wildcats who came from fifth to take the title in 1990 and win the club’s first ever Championship.
Ladder positions to end up Champion:
First – 13 times
Second – 11 times
Third – 3 times
Fourth – 2 times
Fifth – 1 time
Perth’s Conner Henry and Adelaide’s Scott Ninnis have both qualified for the playoffs in their debut seasons as coach in the NBL. Surprisingly, the last time the league had two rookie coaches make their playoff debuts in the same year was way back in 1993 when Don Monson was in charge at the Adelaide 36ers and Brett Brown coached North Melbourne, with both losing in the first round of finals.
Coaching playoff experience:
Brian Goorjian (Kings) 107 games, won 63, lost 44
Alan Westover (Tigers) 18 games, won 13, lost 5
Trevor Gleeson (Crocs) 4 games, won 2, lost 2
Andrej Lemanis (Breakers) 2 games, won 1, lost 1
Scott Ninnis (36ers) Debut season
Conner Henry (Wildcats) Debut season
Adelaide’s Brad Davidson is the most experienced player in this year’s finals that is yet to win a Championship with 392 games under his belt. Maybe his 13th season will be lucky for him. In 2009, the Gold Coast’s Scott McGregor was the active player with the most games without playing in a title winning team (413) with both players now in reach of the all-time league record holder in that category - 15-year veteran Andrew Goodwin on 431 matches. Davidson has played 245 matches since his Crocs lost the Grand Final to the Hawks in 2001 with just one playoff win in that time – a home win by his Taipans over the Wildcats in 2004.
Current most games without a Championship amongst players in this year’s Finals:
392 – Brad Davidson (Adelaide)
312 – Peter Crawford (Perth)
264 – David Cooper (Adelaide)
231 – Russell Hinder (Townsville)
188 – Matt Burston (South)
185 – Paul Henare (New Zealand)
162 – Rhys Carter (South)
159 – Adam Caporn (Perth)
147 – Shawn Redhage (Perth)
146 – Luke Kendall (Melbourne)
Tony Ronaldson begins his 19th post season as the second-oldest player in the NBL Finals and he hopes to celebrate with a trip to the Semi-Finals, which begin on his 37th birthday next Wednesday night.
Oldest players still in finals: (as at Feb 18)
37 years 3 months – John Rillie (Crocs)
36 years 11 months – Tony Ronaldson (Breakers)
35 years 10 months – Brett Maher (Sixers)
35 years 0 months – Phill Jones (Breakers)
34 years 9 months – Brad Davidson (Sixers)
34 years 1 month – Chris Anstey (Tigers)
33 years 11 months – Rosell Ellis (Crocs)
33 years 3 months – Stephen Hoare (Tigers)
PERTH WILDCATS VS TOWNSVILLE CROCODILES
Challenge Stadium
Wednesday February 18
All-Time: Wildcats 33, Crocs 17.
In Perth: Wildcats 19, Crocs 6
Perth have won their past six home games against Townsville dating back to 18/9/05
2009 meetings:
Round 3: 4/10/08 – Crocs 97 def Wildcats 80 at Townsville
Round 5: 17/10/08 – Wildcats 107 def Crocs 93 at Townsville
Round 8: 8/11/08 – Wildcats 115 def Crocs 78 at Perth
Round 15: 27/12/08 – Wildcats 97 def Crocs 76 at Perth
Previous finals meetings:
24/3/00 – Semi Final game 1 – Perth 104 def Townsville 101 at Challenge Stadium
31/3/00 – Semi Final game 2 – Townsville 101 def Perth 78 at the Swamp
2/4/00 – Semi Final game 3 – Perth 104 def Townsville 84 at the Swamp
22/2/08 – Quarter Finals – Perth 96 def Townsville 78 at Challenge Stadium
The Crocs have finished fifth for the third straight season under Trevor Gleeson with a record of 19-14 in 2007 and an identical 17-13 the past two years. In the past two seasons, Townsville have been eliminated on the road in the Quarter Finals. In 2000, Townsville made the playoffs for the first ever time and Perth were their opponents in the Semi-Finals after the Crocs automatically made it after finishing the year second. That year, three teams were equal on top of the ladder with 22-6 records. Townsville have qualified for the playoffs in seven of the last 10 years since.
Perth are the league’s most experienced playoff teams with this being their 23rd straight season in the finals. The Wildcats have played 95 finals, which is well ahead of Melbourne (84), Adelaide (72) and Brisbane (66). They have played five years without making the Grand Final which is nothing out of the ordinary for most clubs, but the worst run for Perth since their first five years in the competition. They have never had six straight years without playing in a Grand Final.
Townsville have a poor record away from ‘The Swamp’ in playoff games. In the last nine seasons since their playoff debut in 2000, the Crocs have played in 10 ‘away’ games for just the one victory. That was when they evened the 2003 Semi-Finals against the Kings 1-1 in Sydney, winning by a whopping 22 points (113-91).
There was a dramatic difference in the free-throw shooting for Perth in their series against the Crocs. In the first two games at The Swamp, the Wildcats had 17 and 16 attempts (average: 16.5), but back at Challenge Stadium they had their two games with the most trip to the charity stripe – 41 in game three and 46 in game four (average 43.5).
For the second year in a row, Crocs guard Corey Williams has led the league in free-throw attempts with 201 this year, just ahead of ‘Cats forward Shawn Redhage (197). Williams’ percentages from the stripe took a tumble at just 62.6% following 71.8% last year. Redhage on the other hand connected on 84.7% of his attempts, an improvement on the career 74.5% he started the year on.
Perth finished the year as the league’s best free-throw shooting team at 76.1% while Townsville were the league’s worst at 62.8%.
Townsville averaged 98.5 ppg over the season and scored 100 points or more in 14 of their 30 games but there was only one team they couldn’t score triple-figures against all year long – Perth. The Wildcats restricted the Crocs to just 86 ppg in their four meetings with only Wollongong (84.7) and Cairns (81.3) scoring less against the Westerners.
Despite playing four times this year, Perth only had one 20-point scorer against the Crocs this year, with Isiah Victor posting 23 in their final meeting. The Wildcats had six players average double-figures against the Crocs with Shawn Redhage the team leader at 15.5 ppg and Victor next highest on 14.8 ppg. Rosell Ellis was the best for the Crocs against Perth at 16.3 per game with Corey Williams averaging 13.8 ppg. Kelvin Robertson scored 27 for the Crocs in game one of the series but his season is unfortunately now over due to a knee injury.
The Crocodiles’ biggest loss of the year came against the Wildcats in Perth in Round 8 and strangely the four biggest defeats by Townsville came in their four trips West. Their biggest home loss of the year also came against Perth back in Round 5.
Crocs biggest losses in 2009:
37* – at Wildcats Round 8
27 – at Adelaide Round 1
21 – at Perth Round 15
21 – at Adelaide Round 13
16 – at Melbourne Round 22
14 – vs Perth Round 5
* Also Perth’s biggest win of the year
NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS VS ADELAIDE 36ERS
North Shore Events Centre
Thursday February 19
All-Time: Breakers 6, Sixers 11.
In Auckland: Breakers 5, Sixers 4
New Zealand have won 56% of their home games against Adelaide (5-from-9) while Adelaide have won 87.5% of their home games against New Zealand (7-from-8). The home team has won seven of the last eight games played between these teams, the only exception being the Sixers’ 10-point win in Round 8.
2009 meetings:
Round 3: 2/10/08 – Breakers 118 def Sixers 80 at Auckland
Round 8: 6/11/08 – Sixers 96 def Breakers 86 at Auckland
Round 21: 7/2/09 – Sixers 102 def Breakers 91 at Adelaide
These teams have struggled to have consistent line-ups this season with key players missing in each of the three contests. The Sixers also had import Mark Tyndale for the first two clashes and Rod Grizzard for the third. (Julius Hodge never played against the Breakers in his time with the 36ers).
Absent from 1st match: Adelaide: Adam Ballinger, Aaron Bruce New Zealand: Paul Henare
Absent from 2nd match: Adelaide: Brad Davidson, Brett Maher New Zealand: CJ Bruton, Phill Jones
Absent from 3rd match: New Zealand: Kirk Penney
This is the first time in NBL playoff history that two players that were teammates on a Championship winning team have coached against each other in a finals match. Both Andrej Lemanis and Scott Ninnis were a part of Brian Goorjian’s South East Melbourne Magic team in 1992 that won the title in the franchise’s first season. There have been just seven men in the history of the competition that have won a title as a player and come back to coach a winning playoff game, with Lemanis last year being the most recent.
To make this equation all the more historic (and complicated), it is also the first time two playoff coaches will have a player on their roster that they shared a Championship with as a player. Lemanis (and Ninnis) celebrated with Tony Ronaldson in the South East Melbourne Magic’s Championship season in 1992 and Ninnis was also a teammate of Brett Maher’s when they shared a title for the Sixers in 1998 in Ninnis’ last match of his 318-game playing career.
There have just been a handful of occasions this has happened to one team in a finals match with Shane Heal coaching Kavossy Franklin for the Dragons in 2007, Scott Fisher leading Ricky Grace for Perth in 2005 and then it goes back to Andy Campbell in 1989 and Jerry Lee in 1987, who both coached a long list of ex-Cannons from their 1983 and 1984 Championship years.
Kirk Penney played just twice against Adelaide this year and scored 34 and 24 points. Spirit import Derrick Low was the only other player to score more than 24 twice this year against the Sixers. Penney’s 29-point average against Adelaide was the second-best scoring average by any player this year, only topped by his 35.5 against the Hawks.
Best season averages by a player against another team:
35.5 ppg – Kirk Penney (Breakers) vs Wollongong - 2 games
29.0 ppg – Kirk Penney (Breakers) vs Adelaide - 2 games
29.0 ppg – Ebi Ere (Tigers) vs Wollongong - 3 games
27.5 ppg – Justin Bowen (Blaze) vs Perth - 2 games
27.0 ppg – James Harvey (Blaze) vs Sydney - 3 games
26.7 ppg – Shawn Redhage (Wildcats) vs Wollongong - 3 games
26.5 ppg – Kirk Penney (Breakers) vs Townsville - 4 games
26.5 ppg – Adam Ballinger (36ers) vs Perth - 2 games
26.0 ppg – Ebi Ere (Tigers) vs Townsville - 3 games
25.3 ppg – Kirk Penney (Breakers) vs Dragons - 3 games
Kirk Penney’s 24.2 ppg was good enough to lead the league in scoring and he becomes the second Breaker to do that after Carlos Powell averaged 28.2 in 2007. Only once in the last nine years has the team of the league’s highest scorer won a playoff series in the same season and that was Matthew Neilsen’s Sydney Kings, who went on to win the Championship in 2004. Last year Penney took 508 shots in the regular season – it was 507 this year – and shot the ball at 47.2% in 2008 compared to 45.5% this year.
Adelaide have lost their past four playoff matches, which is the worst ever run in their 28th season in the NBL. They have been knocked out in sudden death in 2004 (at Melbourne 107-103), 2005 (vs Brisbane 110-125) and 2006 (vs Cairns 103-106 in overtime).
The Sixers last won a playoff game in March 2003 but it was a famous one. After losing 116-119 to the Wildcats at home in the best-of-three series, Adelaide looked certain to be heading home when they trailed 54-80 at three-quarter time, but outscored the home team 45–11 in the final quarter to win 99-91 and set a new league record with the 26-point comeback. Perth did however recover to win Game Three at home 107-99. That comeback win remains the only winning finals match that Adelaide’s Jacob Holmes has played in during his 244-game career.
This will be the first-ever NBL finals match played in Auckland and is probably the most important game played in New Zealand since the Breakers debut game in October 2003, which was also against the Adelaide 36ers. That match was won by the Breakers 111-110 and featured four players for the home side that will be playing in this match in Phill Jones, Paul Henare, Dillon Boucher and Paora Winitana (who will be wearing the opposition colours this time around as a member of the 36ers). Brett Maher and Jacob Holes represented Adelaide that night with another man that has since switched clubs in Oscar Forman.
Paora Winitana is featuring strongly in the milestone games with his debut for the Breakers in their first-ever game against Adelaide and last year he was a part of New Zealand’s first ever team in the NBL playoffs when they were eliminated by the Bullets in Brisbane. This year he will feature in the Breakers first ever home playoff game but in the role of the spoiler. Winitana did not suit up in their first game in Auckland but played 18 minutes in the return clash which was won by the Sixers.
Tony Ronaldson is completing his 20th season in the NBL and has the unbelievable record of his teams never having missed the playoffs in his career. Ronaldson chose to miss the 1991 finals for the Eastside Spectres to attend college at Arizona State but has never missed a post-season since his return the following year. This will be his 13th campaign since his last taste of a Championship for the Magic back in 1996.
15 of the 20 sudden death Quarter Finals under the current format have been won by the home team.
Last season, New Zealand was the only road team to win a Quarter Finals match when they defeated the Taipans in Cairns by 22. In 2007, every home team won the four knockout matches.
The first and second ranked teams have ended up playing off in the past four Grand Final series. In the 30 Championships that have been decided already, first and second seeded teams have taken the title 24 times with only one team ever winning the Championship from outside the top four. That was the Perth Wildcats who came from fifth to take the title in 1990 and win the club’s first ever Championship.
Ladder positions to end up Champion:
First – 13 times
Second – 11 times
Third – 3 times
Fourth – 2 times
Fifth – 1 time
Perth’s Conner Henry and Adelaide’s Scott Ninnis have both qualified for the playoffs in their debut seasons as coach in the NBL. Surprisingly, the last time the league had two rookie coaches make their playoff debuts in the same year was way back in 1993 when Don Monson was in charge at the Adelaide 36ers and Brett Brown coached North Melbourne, with both losing in the first round of finals.
Coaching playoff experience:
Brian Goorjian (Kings) 107 games, won 63, lost 44
Alan Westover (Tigers) 18 games, won 13, lost 5
Trevor Gleeson (Crocs) 4 games, won 2, lost 2
Andrej Lemanis (Breakers) 2 games, won 1, lost 1
Scott Ninnis (36ers) Debut season
Conner Henry (Wildcats) Debut season
Adelaide’s Brad Davidson is the most experienced player in this year’s finals that is yet to win a Championship with 392 games under his belt. Maybe his 13th season will be lucky for him. In 2009, the Gold Coast’s Scott McGregor was the active player with the most games without playing in a title winning team (413) with both players now in reach of the all-time league record holder in that category - 15-year veteran Andrew Goodwin on 431 matches. Davidson has played 245 matches since his Crocs lost the Grand Final to the Hawks in 2001 with just one playoff win in that time – a home win by his Taipans over the Wildcats in 2004.
Current most games without a Championship amongst players in this year’s Finals:
392 – Brad Davidson (Adelaide)
312 – Peter Crawford (Perth)
264 – David Cooper (Adelaide)
231 – Russell Hinder (Townsville)
188 – Matt Burston (South)
185 – Paul Henare (New Zealand)
162 – Rhys Carter (South)
159 – Adam Caporn (Perth)
147 – Shawn Redhage (Perth)
146 – Luke Kendall (Melbourne)
Tony Ronaldson begins his 19th post season as the second-oldest player in the NBL Finals and he hopes to celebrate with a trip to the Semi-Finals, which begin on his 37th birthday next Wednesday night.
Oldest players still in finals: (as at Feb 18)
37 years 3 months – John Rillie (Crocs)
36 years 11 months – Tony Ronaldson (Breakers)
35 years 10 months – Brett Maher (Sixers)
35 years 0 months – Phill Jones (Breakers)
34 years 9 months – Brad Davidson (Sixers)
34 years 1 month – Chris Anstey (Tigers)
33 years 11 months – Rosell Ellis (Crocs)
33 years 3 months – Stephen Hoare (Tigers)
PERTH WILDCATS VS TOWNSVILLE CROCODILES
Challenge Stadium
Wednesday February 18
All-Time: Wildcats 33, Crocs 17.
In Perth: Wildcats 19, Crocs 6
Perth have won their past six home games against Townsville dating back to 18/9/05
2009 meetings:
Round 3: 4/10/08 – Crocs 97 def Wildcats 80 at Townsville
Round 5: 17/10/08 – Wildcats 107 def Crocs 93 at Townsville
Round 8: 8/11/08 – Wildcats 115 def Crocs 78 at Perth
Round 15: 27/12/08 – Wildcats 97 def Crocs 76 at Perth
Previous finals meetings:
24/3/00 – Semi Final game 1 – Perth 104 def Townsville 101 at Challenge Stadium
31/3/00 – Semi Final game 2 – Townsville 101 def Perth 78 at the Swamp
2/4/00 – Semi Final game 3 – Perth 104 def Townsville 84 at the Swamp
22/2/08 – Quarter Finals – Perth 96 def Townsville 78 at Challenge Stadium
The Crocs have finished fifth for the third straight season under Trevor Gleeson with a record of 19-14 in 2007 and an identical 17-13 the past two years. In the past two seasons, Townsville have been eliminated on the road in the Quarter Finals. In 2000, Townsville made the playoffs for the first ever time and Perth were their opponents in the Semi-Finals after the Crocs automatically made it after finishing the year second. That year, three teams were equal on top of the ladder with 22-6 records. Townsville have qualified for the playoffs in seven of the last 10 years since.
Perth are the league’s most experienced playoff teams with this being their 23rd straight season in the finals. The Wildcats have played 95 finals, which is well ahead of Melbourne (84), Adelaide (72) and Brisbane (66). They have played five years without making the Grand Final which is nothing out of the ordinary for most clubs, but the worst run for Perth since their first five years in the competition. They have never had six straight years without playing in a Grand Final.
Townsville have a poor record away from ‘The Swamp’ in playoff games. In the last nine seasons since their playoff debut in 2000, the Crocs have played in 10 ‘away’ games for just the one victory. That was when they evened the 2003 Semi-Finals against the Kings 1-1 in Sydney, winning by a whopping 22 points (113-91).
There was a dramatic difference in the free-throw shooting for Perth in their series against the Crocs. In the first two games at The Swamp, the Wildcats had 17 and 16 attempts (average: 16.5), but back at Challenge Stadium they had their two games with the most trip to the charity stripe – 41 in game three and 46 in game four (average 43.5).
For the second year in a row, Crocs guard Corey Williams has led the league in free-throw attempts with 201 this year, just ahead of ‘Cats forward Shawn Redhage (197). Williams’ percentages from the stripe took a tumble at just 62.6% following 71.8% last year. Redhage on the other hand connected on 84.7% of his attempts, an improvement on the career 74.5% he started the year on.
Perth finished the year as the league’s best free-throw shooting team at 76.1% while Townsville were the league’s worst at 62.8%.
Townsville averaged 98.5 ppg over the season and scored 100 points or more in 14 of their 30 games but there was only one team they couldn’t score triple-figures against all year long – Perth. The Wildcats restricted the Crocs to just 86 ppg in their four meetings with only Wollongong (84.7) and Cairns (81.3) scoring less against the Westerners.
Despite playing four times this year, Perth only had one 20-point scorer against the Crocs this year, with Isiah Victor posting 23 in their final meeting. The Wildcats had six players average double-figures against the Crocs with Shawn Redhage the team leader at 15.5 ppg and Victor next highest on 14.8 ppg. Rosell Ellis was the best for the Crocs against Perth at 16.3 per game with Corey Williams averaging 13.8 ppg. Kelvin Robertson scored 27 for the Crocs in game one of the series but his season is unfortunately now over due to a knee injury.
The Crocodiles’ biggest loss of the year came against the Wildcats in Perth in Round 8 and strangely the four biggest defeats by Townsville came in their four trips West. Their biggest home loss of the year also came against Perth back in Round 5.
Crocs biggest losses in 2009:
37* – at Wildcats Round 8
27 – at Adelaide Round 1
21 – at Perth Round 15
21 – at Adelaide Round 13
16 – at Melbourne Round 22
14 – vs Perth Round 5
* Also Perth’s biggest win of the year
NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS VS ADELAIDE 36ERS
North Shore Events Centre
Thursday February 19
All-Time: Breakers 6, Sixers 11.
In Auckland: Breakers 5, Sixers 4
New Zealand have won 56% of their home games against Adelaide (5-from-9) while Adelaide have won 87.5% of their home games against New Zealand (7-from-8). The home team has won seven of the last eight games played between these teams, the only exception being the Sixers’ 10-point win in Round 8.
2009 meetings:
Round 3: 2/10/08 – Breakers 118 def Sixers 80 at Auckland
Round 8: 6/11/08 – Sixers 96 def Breakers 86 at Auckland
Round 21: 7/2/09 – Sixers 102 def Breakers 91 at Adelaide
These teams have struggled to have consistent line-ups this season with key players missing in each of the three contests. The Sixers also had import Mark Tyndale for the first two clashes and Rod Grizzard for the third. (Julius Hodge never played against the Breakers in his time with the 36ers).
Absent from 1st match: Adelaide: Adam Ballinger, Aaron Bruce New Zealand: Paul Henare
Absent from 2nd match: Adelaide: Brad Davidson, Brett Maher New Zealand: CJ Bruton, Phill Jones
Absent from 3rd match: New Zealand: Kirk Penney
This is the first time in NBL playoff history that two players that were teammates on a Championship winning team have coached against each other in a finals match. Both Andrej Lemanis and Scott Ninnis were a part of Brian Goorjian’s South East Melbourne Magic team in 1992 that won the title in the franchise’s first season. There have been just seven men in the history of the competition that have won a title as a player and come back to coach a winning playoff game, with Lemanis last year being the most recent.
To make this equation all the more historic (and complicated), it is also the first time two playoff coaches will have a player on their roster that they shared a Championship with as a player. Lemanis (and Ninnis) celebrated with Tony Ronaldson in the South East Melbourne Magic’s Championship season in 1992 and Ninnis was also a teammate of Brett Maher’s when they shared a title for the Sixers in 1998 in Ninnis’ last match of his 318-game playing career.
There have just been a handful of occasions this has happened to one team in a finals match with Shane Heal coaching Kavossy Franklin for the Dragons in 2007, Scott Fisher leading Ricky Grace for Perth in 2005 and then it goes back to Andy Campbell in 1989 and Jerry Lee in 1987, who both coached a long list of ex-Cannons from their 1983 and 1984 Championship years.
Kirk Penney played just twice against Adelaide this year and scored 34 and 24 points. Spirit import Derrick Low was the only other player to score more than 24 twice this year against the Sixers. Penney’s 29-point average against Adelaide was the second-best scoring average by any player this year, only topped by his 35.5 against the Hawks.
Best season averages by a player against another team:
35.5 ppg – Kirk Penney (Breakers) vs Wollongong - 2 games
29.0 ppg – Kirk Penney (Breakers) vs Adelaide - 2 games
29.0 ppg – Ebi Ere (Tigers) vs Wollongong - 3 games
27.5 ppg – Justin Bowen (Blaze) vs Perth - 2 games
27.0 ppg – James Harvey (Blaze) vs Sydney - 3 games
26.7 ppg – Shawn Redhage (Wildcats) vs Wollongong - 3 games
26.5 ppg – Kirk Penney (Breakers) vs Townsville - 4 games
26.5 ppg – Adam Ballinger (36ers) vs Perth - 2 games
26.0 ppg – Ebi Ere (Tigers) vs Townsville - 3 games
25.3 ppg – Kirk Penney (Breakers) vs Dragons - 3 games
Kirk Penney’s 24.2 ppg was good enough to lead the league in scoring and he becomes the second Breaker to do that after Carlos Powell averaged 28.2 in 2007. Only once in the last nine years has the team of the league’s highest scorer won a playoff series in the same season and that was Matthew Neilsen’s Sydney Kings, who went on to win the Championship in 2004. Last year Penney took 508 shots in the regular season – it was 507 this year – and shot the ball at 47.2% in 2008 compared to 45.5% this year.
Adelaide have lost their past four playoff matches, which is the worst ever run in their 28th season in the NBL. They have been knocked out in sudden death in 2004 (at Melbourne 107-103), 2005 (vs Brisbane 110-125) and 2006 (vs Cairns 103-106 in overtime).
The Sixers last won a playoff game in March 2003 but it was a famous one. After losing 116-119 to the Wildcats at home in the best-of-three series, Adelaide looked certain to be heading home when they trailed 54-80 at three-quarter time, but outscored the home team 45–11 in the final quarter to win 99-91 and set a new league record with the 26-point comeback. Perth did however recover to win Game Three at home 107-99. That comeback win remains the only winning finals match that Adelaide’s Jacob Holmes has played in during his 244-game career.
This will be the first-ever NBL finals match played in Auckland and is probably the most important game played in New Zealand since the Breakers debut game in October 2003, which was also against the Adelaide 36ers. That match was won by the Breakers 111-110 and featured four players for the home side that will be playing in this match in Phill Jones, Paul Henare, Dillon Boucher and Paora Winitana (who will be wearing the opposition colours this time around as a member of the 36ers). Brett Maher and Jacob Holes represented Adelaide that night with another man that has since switched clubs in Oscar Forman.
Paora Winitana is featuring strongly in the milestone games with his debut for the Breakers in their first-ever game against Adelaide and last year he was a part of New Zealand’s first ever team in the NBL playoffs when they were eliminated by the Bullets in Brisbane. This year he will feature in the Breakers first ever home playoff game but in the role of the spoiler. Winitana did not suit up in their first game in Auckland but played 18 minutes in the return clash which was won by the Sixers.
Tony Ronaldson is completing his 20th season in the NBL and has the unbelievable record of his teams never having missed the playoffs in his career. Ronaldson chose to miss the 1991 finals for the Eastside Spectres to attend college at Arizona State but has never missed a post-season since his return the following year. This will be his 13th campaign since his last taste of a Championship for the Magic back in 1996.
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