NZ Breakers coach Mody Maor challenges his men to bring ‘fire’ for semifinal decider

Breakers coach Mody Maor has lit the fuse on Sunday’s NBL semifinal decider at Spark Arena by challenging his side to deliver more “fire”.

That came in the wake of Thursday night’s disappointing 89-78 defeat to the Tasmania JackJumpers at MyState Bank Arena in Hobart that levelled the best-of-three series at 1-1. The Kiwi club had the chance to seal a first grand final appearance since 2016, but got a bad case of the staggers down the stretch of an otherwise tight encounter that featured a dozen lead changes and was locked 42-42 at the halfway point.

Scott Roth’s gritty second-year NBL outfit, who also overcame an 0-1 deficit to make the grand final last season, rode home on an 11-0 run either side of the final break to take a final-quarter grip they never looked like relinquishing.

The defeat continued the Breakers’ horror run at the Hobart venue where they played a chunk of their “home” games behind closed doors in the 2021-22 season. They have now lost 11 of their last 12 there, and five on the bounce to the Jackies, at a place coach Mody Maor admitted he “does not like”.

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That view is unlikely to change after a strangely flat performance from him and his players. He relied heavily on his starters, and got serviceable efforts from imports Barry Brown Jr (19 points on 8-of-18 shooting and 3 steals), Dererk Pardon (15 points, 11 boards for his ninth double-double of the season) and Jarrell Brantley (17 points, 9 rebounds, 5 turnovers).

But the support was notably lacking.Tom Abercrombie went scoreless in 22 minutes, Will McDowell-White (8 points on 10 shots) and Izayah Le’afa (9 points on 3-of-5 shooting) were muted and there’s a case to be made that Rob Loe (7 minutes) and Tom Vodanovich (8 minutes) were underplayed.

The Breakers’ trademark tight defence was also well short of the mark as they allowed star import Milton Doyle (20 of his game-high 23 points came through the first three periods) to get away on them and the home side to knock down 11 triples and finish plus-15 on points from beyond the arc.

Maor put that down to “a bunch of things from a tactical standpoint” and pledged to address them for the decider..

“Other than that, there’s more fire in us,” he added. “We’re better from an intensity standpoint most times. We’re a new team in new circumstances, and I think we really, really wanted it.

“Sometimes that takes you to a place that’s not necessarily a positive one. But I have so much faith and trust in this group. They have overcome every challenge that’s been thrown at them and I’m sure this is going to be very similar.”

Brown, who looked freer with his injured left hand than he had been in the opener, agreed that the Breakers had to dial the intensity back up for the decider that will tip at 6pm on Sunday.

“Yeah man, I think everyone did [lack intensity] a little bit for small stretches, even myself just going with the flow out there and not really pulling us together at times when we needed to come together more. It’s definitely something we want to clean up, and adjust, getting ready for the next one.

“We wanted it so much and I think it got in our head a little bit,” he added. “We missed some open shots and we turned the ball over a little too much for our liking. I think we just regroup now and get ready for the next one.”

There’s a lot Maor needs to address, and not much time to do it, given Friday will be a full travel day, and Saturday will be as much about recovery as it will be fine-tuning.

“We got outplayed today. The JackJumpers responded and played great, we didn’t defend to the level we defend and our offence was a little bit stagnant,” said the Breakers coach. “Some of it came from just missing some good open threes. We’ll play better next time.”

They had better. It would be a shame if this remarkable turnaround season from the Breakers should meet such an inglorious finish. After going 5-23 in ‘21-22, they have turned that into an 18-10 regular season, and No 2 overall spot, with a new head coach, revamped roster and a major attitude change.

But this back-to-the-future group Maor has assembled has its biggest test Sunday. Deciders are partly about who executes best. And partly about who wants it most.

Maor will gently remind his men ahead of tip-time on Sunday that they need to tick both boxes lest they become just the seventh team in the last 20 years of NBL playoff hoops to lose a three-game series from 1-0 up. That is not the kind of history they’re chasing.

NBL semifinal series, game 3: Spark Arena Auckland, 6pm Sunday: NZ Breakers v Tasmania JackJumpers

Game 1 in Auckland: Breakers 88, JackJumpers 68

Game 2 in Hobart: JackJumpers 89, Breakers 78