Barry Brown Jr pours in 32 points to take NZ Breakers past Tasmania into NBL grand final

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At Spark Arena, Auckland: NZ Breakers 92 (Barry Brown Jr 32, Dererk Pardon 15, Jarrell Brantley 14, Rob Loe 11 Izayah Le’afa 10), Tasmania JackJumpers 77 (Jack McVeigh 22, Rashard Kelly 16, Sean Macdonald 14, Milton Doyle 12). 1Q: 21-25; HT: 49-42; 3Q: 67-64.

From the agony of 2021-22 to the ecstasy of ‘22-23, Mody Maor’s New Zealand Breakers are through to their first Australian NBL grand final in seven long years.

With Sunday’s 92-77 victory over the gritty Tasmania JackJumpers in their semifinal series decider at Spark Arena in downtown Auckland, behind a sizzling, season-high 32 points from dynamic import guard Barry Brown Jr, the Kiwi club advanced to their first grand final since 2016, and their sixth all-time, where they will meet defending champs the Sydney Kings in a series that will begin on March 3 at Qudos Bank Arena.

The 2-1 semifinal series victory over the second-year club from Tasmania completed a stunning turnaround in 2022-23 under first-year coach Maor. He had been an assistant when they went 5-23 in ‘21-22 on the Covid road trip from hell, and he has engineered the mother of all turnarounds. You simply have to tip your hat to the intense, charismatic Israeli.

Earlier the Kings rolled past a tired and undermanned Cairns Taipans outfit 79-64 to win their own semifinal decider and keep alive their hopes of back-to-back championships. Kiwi Sam Waardenburg posted a double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Snakes, but it was not enough as the North Queenslanders hit the wall late, with just six final-quarter points.

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The Breakers simply could not have got there without that brilliant 32 points, on 10-of-16 shooting (2 of 2 from deep and 10 of 10 from the line) from Brown, who provided an important scoring thrust early on when his struggling team needed it, and kept it going late when the visitors made a run. He also had 3 steals and 4 boards and the league’s sixth man of the year was a team-high plus-24 in his 26 minutes on court.

“That’s Barry in a nutshell,” said skipper Tom Abercrombie afterwards. “He’s done it multiple times this year, when we’ve had games when we’ve struggled offensively. He’s that ace in the back pocket – someone who can create their own shot and get things going.

“He did a fantastic job of not settling for his floater which he’s very good at. Mody had a quiet word to him yesterday about trying to take one more dribble and get to the rim. He did an awesome job of putting pressure on their defence and they had no answer for him.”

Jarrell Brantley goes on the attack for the Breakers against the Tasmania Jackjumpers at Spark Arena on Sunday.

Masanori Udagawa/Getty Images

Jarrell Brantley goes on the attack for the Breakers against the Tasmania Jackjumpers at Spark Arena on Sunday.

Fellow imports Jarrell Brantley (14 points, 7 rebounds) and Dererk Pardon (15 points, 13 boards and a pair of steals) also played their parts nicely, while Rob Loe added 11 points and 8 rebounds in just 11 minutes for the Kiwi club, while Izayah :Le’afa chipped in with 10 points and 3 steals.

It was not easy for the Breaker as they trailed 21-25 after one, led by seven at the major break and just three (67-64) at the three-quarter mark. But they dominated on the offensive boards (16-8), had 12 steals, forced 15 turnovers and had a significant edge in points off turnovers (29-14), second-chance points (19-7) and fast-break points (18-2).

“I’m very happy and proud, and I’ll stay happy and proud today and get to work tomorrow,” reflected Maor after another result based firmly on defence (they kept the Tasmanians to just 10 second-half field goals and 38% shooting for the game).

Added Abercrombie: “It’s that ability to relentlessly execute the little things in big games like that and stay focused on the task, just be so disciplined Game 1 and game 3 we were fantastic at that and tonight especially on defence we did a fantastic job. They made some shots but for the most part it was playoff kind of defence which has always been the backbone of this club.”

The energetic Jack McVeigh paced the JackJumpers with 22 points (at a 5-of-9 clip) and 7 boards, busy guard Sean Macdonald chimed in with 14 points on 6-of-17 shooting, while imports Rashard Kelly (16 points) and Milton Doyle (12 points on 2-of-10 shooting) also kept things ticking over for the visitors.

The Breakers fell into an early 10-2 hole after Macdonald knocked down back-to-back triples for the JJs. It was nearly four minutes in before the Kiwi club had their first bucket (a drive by Brantley) and after making just two of their first 12 shots they actually did well to work their way back within four (25-21) at the first break.

Izayah Le'afa came up with 10 important points off the bench for the Breakers in the semifinal decider.

Masanori Udagawa/Getty Images

Izayah Le’afa came up with 10 important points off the bench for the Breakers in the semifinal decider.

But a 28-17 second term., fuelled by nine points in the period from Brown and some pressure defence that made life tough for the visitors, saw momentum swing and the Breakers take an important 49-42 lead into the major break.

They did so forcing turnovers (with 8 steals for the half), crashing the boards (a 13-2 edge in second-chance points) and riding the momentum of a 15-point first half from Brown who made 5 of 8 shots – many of them difficult, off-balance drives – and was a perfect 5 of 5 from the line.

The Breakers got 9 points and 5 points off Brantley through the first two quarters and 7 points apiece from Pardon, Le’afa (who also had 3 first-half steals) and Loe who added 6 boards in just under 9 minutes off the pine.

It looked ominous for Roth’s Jackies midway through the third period when the Breakers surged to a 15-point lead (63-48) behind six quick points from Brown, but the never-say-die visitors finished the term on a 16-4 run to close to within three points (67-74) at the final break.

Maor’s men started the final stanza impressively and inside 3 minutes had the advantage out to double-digits. The Jackies had one more surge in them, but when the Breakers steadied late after Brantley fouled out, the visitors were all out of gas.

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