Well the season is over and with much regret, we are doing our final wrap up for the season 2010/11.
We are happy to have been your source for NBL news, wrap ups of the weekly action and a little bit of comic relief, and we thank you for your loyal following and hope we continue to amuse you and keep you coming back.
Now that we got all that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff, the hoops.
The Grand Final series between the New Zealand Breakers and the Cairns Taipans is a matchup many thought was not the final series that was expected, with the reigning champion Wildcats looking good going into the playoffs looking like a resemblance of the title team from last year, the Crocs looking dominant for most of the year.
But playoff basketball is a totally different thing, and after the breakers had their scare against the Wildcats, they looked like they were going to be unbeatable, nobody expected the Taipans to beat the Crocs for the right to face them as the team with home court usually takes out the series, but we did say playoff basketball is something totally different.
The Taipans were full of confidence coming into the finals with their upset win over the Crocs, the team most thought would challenge for the title this year, but the upset put them back into the spotlight, and for a team that almost didn’t exist and was on the brink of collapse, what a Cinderella story, could they pull off the biggest upset in NBL history?
Game 1 started at a frenetic pace, both teams getting used to the calls made by the ref’s early on in the game, but it was the Breakers who came out for one thing, and that was to assert their dominance, and Kirk Penney was the one man wolf pack leading the charge with a game high 25pts 8reb and 4ast.
And assert it they did, even though the game was low scoring in typical Taipans style, 5 Cairns players managed double figure scoring, 3 players scoring 12pts a piece, was it a conspiracy, who knows, but the Taipans came to play, defence that is, they tried to make the Breakers play a half court grind it out style, and it worked, just a pity they couldn’t put points on the board to match their defence, 67 points in a grand final game is not something fans want to see, not the best showing for the first game, but thankfully the series got better.
Game 2could not have been scripted better if it was a Hollywood Blockbuster, after the game 1 live TV fizzer, the Taipans, on the brink of being swept came out in front of their home town fans with supreme passion and intensity, matching everything the Breakers had to offer.
One man took it upon himself to will the Taipans to force a game 3, and that man was Ron Dorsey, Dorsey was criticised for his lack of production a great deal this season, but this game he earned his cheque and keeping the Taipans dreams alive.
Dorsey hit key well beyond the arc 3 point shots to take the game into the NBL’s first ever double overtime in a finals series, was it luck, skill, we don’t know, but Dorsey willed himself to perform and bring his team to victory, and what an effort for his 22pts 9reb and 3ast.
Kirk Penney was under extreme defensive pressure and held to under 20 points, only Kevin Braswell and Thomas Abercrombie bothered the score keepers, this was going to what all fans had hoped for, a Game 3.
The Breakers had been the league’s most dominant team the entire season, and to come all that way after a semi final scare, it was only fitting that they came out to prove they were the team to beat.
In what was a low scoring, foul riddled battle of the league’s best offence pitted against one of the league’s best defence’s, game 3 saw the Breakers dominate from start to finish, all players from Cairns tried to do what they could to keep it close, but the Breakers were too much keeping Cairns to 51 pts and only allowing 1 player to break the double figure scoring mark.
Finally breaking their hoodoo of previous playoff choke jobs, taking the title off the Australian mainland and becoming the first foreign team to win an Australian sporting championship in the history of Australian sport, the Breakers are your 2010/11 iiNet NBL Champions.
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| The Breakers were crowned the Champs. Wilkinson can taste the Whoppers already |
Thomas Abercrombie was surprisingly named playoff MVP, Kirk Penney will remember this as the year of the snub, as he was snubbed for league and finals MVP, who would have ever seen that coming.
So get the beers from the chilly bin, slip on your jandals, grab yourself a choice feed of fush and get fully sick bro, because the title is in New Zealand, and for almost another 12 months, it won’t be coming back, NBL teams of the Australian denomination, we want it back, you are going to have to go across the Tasman and take it, so show no mercy.
Until the new season starts, this will be our last wrap for season 2010/11, but we will try and bring you some interviews and other interesting things we think you will enjoy, until then, keep hoops alive, keep following us and if you have anything you would like to see us do in the offseason, let us know.
Until next season, all the best from Haggard and R-Diddy.
We apologise for the lame Kiwi lingo also.
