I also see this as a Crocs win - the current Breakers lineup is short of offensive weapons, and middle of the road defensively. However, overall Williams hasn't been great against NZ, and Bruton seems to be on fire at NSEC this season, so I think it will be close.

since when are the crocs the new favourites?

I heard this morning that Penney will play!?

Isaac can you confirm?

He has been doing close to full training. NZ have been saying he wouldnt play until next week, but they do need a win and Penney for 10-15 mins has to help (as long as he doesnt re-injure himself!!)

TAB has breakers ahead for this one 1.95 - 1.85, and still title favourites. maybe they know something we dont?

From the Townsville Bulletin:

Townsville Crocodiles impact player Corey Williams has sent a warning to the New Zealand Breakers to be prepared for him tomorrow night.

In particular, Williams has targeted Breakers imports Awvee Storey and Rick Rickert ahead of their clash in Auckland.

In five appearances this season, Storey is averaging 5.8 points a game and Rickert 12.2.

"I want to go down there and put their struggling imports under the pump," Williams said.

Ha ha, I bet Rickert just shuts the f$%# up at training if he gets dunked on...h

Breakers have their hands full containing the Crocs offence.
Hard to see us competing unless perimeter shots drop from someone other than CJ.
Like to see us go inside and challenge Roberts, see if we can't get him in foul trouble. Rickert have to have a big one.
Surely Lemanis will not be silly enough to try marking Williams with Storey as he did last weekend against Hawks.

Storey needs to contribute something tonight or start thinking about his future.
I can't see Penney risking re injuring his back for this game but i guess I'll wait and see.
Got free tickets from bartercard so i'll be pissing of from work soon to get my pre game drinks on

Bill, who would you use? I was thinking Henare and a bit of Abercrombie.

Id put Abercrombie on Williams as he is athletic enough to get up and block him when he takes it to tha rack and is prob fast enough. Storey would just rack up 2 or 3 quick fouls and then contribute nothing apart from a few bricks.
Im not planning on an NZ victory

Isaac, no question Henare.
He at least has the quickness to match Williams. He's combative and won't take a backwards step. It's important he stops hime getting into the lane because if we have to help that is where the other Crocs get open. Likewise for trying to double him.

Can't see Abercrombie doing the job for lengthy spells, although being a little taller might trouble his jumper.
Boucher might also be called on.

At least someone make homicide hit a mid/long range jumper and make him pass.
Ie drop off him and collapse on the drive. Let the other crocs beat you!
Just be wary if Kelvin or Cedar (injured still?) get hot.

BTW see Hinder's Stats from down town WHAT THE!?!

Breakers by 8. Rickert vs. Roberts will be interesting.

Kicking Crocs everywhere.
Boys really playing well. Williams 3 fouls, seen about 6 minutes action by half.
This is a very poorly officiated game. There are body checks going unwhislted and incidental slaps pulled up. Have to say favouring home side so far.
Rolan Roberts has picked up two very questionable calls, CJ sucked the refs on Williams drive.
Rickerts having top game,
Storey is 4 for 4, unbelievable.

W for breakers

Storey finally shows us why he played NBA, hitting treys hard
Rickert solid all game
Foreman played sweet I thought
Abercrombie was solid all round but fouled out in the 3rd
Boucher had a couple of sweet reverse lay ups and a few steals but fouled out
the Bear had sum sweet buckets inside but was quiet outside
Henare was solid as always on the ball and played ok D
Storey picked up 3 early fouls as per but was stroking the ball nicely from behind the arc and hit them at crucial moments
Pledger and Webster both came on in the first
CJ was not having to carry the team which was great

Homicide picked up 3 early fouls and was fairly quiet despite telling the media that he was gonna put pressure on our imports. NZ's Imports played awesome where the Crocs both had 3 in the first half and were forced to sit back
Breakers Solid at home again

Right on Mystro and well done Breakers.
Crocs made a run in last quarter to make life a little uncomfortable but Storey hit the dagger to keep them at bay. Storey really surprised me and answered a few critics, although starting Dillon was a master stroke and got us off to a flyer.
My first look at Corey Williams and I have to say he had a poor game. Early foul trouble. Overdid the penetration and shoud have settled for mid range J.
Very poor officiating and even worse TV coverage. The Producer did not have a clue about what the viewer expects to see, with inane crowd shots while the ball was in play.
Kirk Penney got more coverage than if he had actually played the game!!!
Rickert had another fine game. Rolan Roberts foul trouble again curtesy of the officials and was almost invisible.

Thought Boucher had a great start and Rickert was very good including 18 boards. Henare is having a great season. Hoare was decent for the Crocs who had no help from the refs.

Wow- Awvee Storey. Still made some of those dumb mistales, but where did that stroke come from?!

Rickert is starting to move like the Rickert of 07 - although Crocs arent great inside so cant read too much into tonight for him - great game though.

Liked Abercrombie's game, he really knows how to play within his limitations and still be very effective. Henare and Boucher their usual selves.

Bruton was great, even though he didnt have a good shooting night. Really taught Williams a lesson in quarterbacking and kept him out of the lane well.

I really look forward to the next time these teams play because Williams will take that personally.

Hoare was tremendous for the Crocs, gee he is an efficient player. Tovey was good too but not too many others won their matchups for Townsville.

Some high quality basketball tonight, a shame it was so over-officiated. Stop bailing out offensive players please???!!!

Funny

Yesterday everyone as well as centerbet was talking up the crocs as title favs but in 2 days time they will be 3-4 after losing to hawks dont look like champs to me cant go past the cats . if they can beat the Tigers Breakers and Hawks in the next 3 home games and be 6-2 they will be looking the goods.

Talk about responding to a kick in the ass. Awvee Storey! it wasn't just that his shot was falling, he looked far more energetic at both ends right from the get go. Unfortunately in a game that was called so softly he ended up in foul trouble but a great game nontheless. His D was brilliant.

I thought the Rickert-Roberts matchup woule be big and Roberts was pathetic, and anything that may cause Rickert to bust out into one of his trademark retarded celebrations is a bad thing.

"Imports under pump". How the worm has turned!
Crocs interior defence woeful. Tovey, Williamson exposed.
26 assists, says it all about the Breakers finding the open man.
Given that though, if it hadn't been for Storey lighting it up and dismal FT % for Crocs, this could have been close.
18 rebounds!! Has Rickert ever put up those numbers before.

Rickerts effort was inspirational, in fact NZ effort on the boards as a whole was amazing. Lemanis deserves cudos for starting Boucher and Abercrombie, both played solid as D and Abercrombie got to the line early causing a few probs for the Crocs. There were some nice blocks from the Breakers and our D was solid. Foreman played well, had some nice cuts to the hole and his D was improved. Crocs tried full court presses on a team with 2 legitimate point guards on the court? Couldn't work it out, they were pretty half hearted at that as well, Breakers would just split it and push the ball and convert.

Storey def had a lot better body language and energy last night. Stepped up when he needed to so props to him.

Homicide lights a fire under the Breakers imports, Storey has 22 and Rickert 16/18/5 in a brilliant individual game.

The Crocs fightback was pretty decent though - 36ers could learn from them not giving up on the road!

Agree Isaac.
What was impressive was that they hung on in the first half without their imports and mounted their comeback basically without them as well.
Hoare was outstanding.
Tovey, Williamson have some offensive skills, but found out defensively.
Robertson steady, just rushed a couple of 3's which could have been handy.

Surprised they never tried more on balls with Williams who struggled to get into lane and convert one on one.

Defensively though give up two many easy buckets.

I think Lemanis deserves credit for the start NZ got off to, as Bill said Boucher played awesome in the first quarter as did Abercrombie and as a result we got points on the board and key fouls on key players for the Crocs.
Rickert's chest thumping is dope, I like his passion. He gets the crowd going which in turn gets his team mates going. Rickert and Boucher are the kings of hustle and it was nice to see the Breakers share the scoring duties round instead of CJ having to shoulder the load.

Yeah, starting CJ and Rickert with a virtual rookie in Abercrombie, doesn't-like-shooting Boucher and out-of-form Forman worked. I wondered if he went with a combo that he knew would just have good chemistry and stick to their team structure before bringing in flavour off the bench?

I also like Rickert's dorky celebrations - I think we're the only ones though!

The scoring spread was good, no doubt. The team defence was better and the best I have seen this season.

That is always the problem for the Crocs with the game style they play. If the oppo wins the boards and stops them from running, then they are left with mostly Williams penetration and three point shooting in the half court. A good team defence can shut that down, and hence the Crocs have been an inconsistent team in the past few years.

As I said when Penney was first injured this could be a blessing because our offensive would not be one dimensional, and we would have to find other ways to score. It's taken a while to come to fruition.
But we could not have done it any better, with 26 assists.
Hard to know whether this is brilliant execution or poor defense. Probably bit of both.

Who would have thought that the much maligned bricklayer Storey would prove the decisive difference between the two teams and pretty much doing a Penney.

The key for us is balanced scoring and focus. Crocs did a very poor job of guarding the paint with about 12 easy post up points. And although Storey had the radar working, those post up points were just as decisive.

yeah i think we are the only ones Issac lol.
totally agree with you Bill on the points in the paint being as decisive as the 3's and i also agree with you Paul on that being the best team effort on the defensive end all season, the rotation and help on d was awesome at times from NZ and they shut down the crocs in transition also which stopped Homicide from getting into double figures

As soon as Storey hit those first shots, I thought "He's going to get cut, like Joiner after his 18 point game" but then the team's celebrations with him after his fourth or fifth three seemed very genuine, so perhaps not.

Rickert and Ronaldson did have a lot of room inside, but the Breakers are such a threat from the perimeter that it is hard to clog the middle. It is so hard to defend against good NBL teams because you cant sag off the bigs or they'll nail a jumper, and the teams usually have four guys who can play from the perimeter, meaning if you do sag and then close out hard the odds are even the 'bigs’ will blow by you or shoot it in your face.

I think Lemanis will stick with Storey as long as he can keep contributing like he did. Yeah the team seemed to be pretty genuine in their celebrations when hit hit that 3 before the crocs called timeout in the 3rd

No I'm not talking about help defense.
The 3 plays I'm thinking of were where Williamson and Tovey twice came around the post missed the steal and Rickert was left with open lane to hoop. To me that is inexcusable.
They wern't fronting the post,they came around late and made it easy.
To me it was "rule 101 post defense" stuff.