wow - Oscar dismantles the Breakers! Well don e Hawks.

Isaac, did your brother take some sort of Basketball Viagra or something before the game? Think he can ship some here for the 36ers by tomorrow arvo? LOL

Well done to the Hawks. Who'd have thought it, last week given a complete spanking by the Blaze and this week they stop the Breakers (top of the ladder no less) win streak at 5...

7/7 3's Oscar was simply on fire like he has never been at this level before! Throw a Ubaka/Ervin type along sid ehim on court, and you maximise his potential as one of the bets spot up shooters the league has seen for his size in some years. Congratulations Hawks, they have a backbone, and its a nice story considering where they have come from this season!!

Ozzie for player of the week for sure.

Hell of a stat line for Forman, and quite a surprise to see the Breakers go down that hard.
This league just refuses to become predictable (36ers aside, sadly)

Nz assist numbers were dismal

Who is isaacs brother?

Good game by the Hawks. New Zealand were struggling and the Hawks put good pressure on them to make sure they got the win.

Insane game by Forman good to see after his form has dropped a bit this season compared to last. 7/7 three's is just bloody amazing!!

Breakers had plenty of opportunities to win but turnovers killed it. Missed layups and gifted the Hawks the ball all game and failed to make Foreman put the ball on the floor.
Seems blocks and spin moves are not wanted by the NBL judging by the calls.

Top 2 teams struggling to beat bottom 2.

Cedric Jackson 0 assists?!

That block by Abercrombie, while "amazing and athletic", was still a foul. He jumped out of his cylinder and made body contact. He also grabbed the ring, which should've counted the basket. Tired of carfino.

Agree it was definately a block by Abercrombie. He must be getting annoyed by some dud referees calling that. He blocked Winder on the dunk last year clean and got called for a foul too.

Hawks finally change their starting five (albeit through injury) and they win. If only Geordie listened earlier.

Anon - the notion of a foul being soft or hard is interesting. Either way you still are saying it's it a foul. So what's your point?

Or is this like "making him earn it from the line". As if being skilful and good enough to beat the defender and get into a shooting position means he hasn't already "earned it".

Personally, I prefer the skill aspect of a fair block to the alternative. Seeing a player rise and block without any contact on the body arm etc is something that makes me jump up and applaud. That's skill. That's what made great shot blockers like Bill Jones, Simon Dwight and Darnell Mee special. Doing it with fouling contact is easy - that just needs some hops and being somewhere in the vicinity - not a lot of skill and timing required. I used to do it regularly when I played. But I only ever managed to do it without fouling a few times. Trust me - it feels a thousand times better to beat the shooting player fairly than to know you got away with cheating.

Worst Call of the game was when abercrombie was fouled clearly while shooting, makes the basket and is sent to the line to shoot 2 shots.

I think if the body contact comes before the block it's a foul, if the contact comes after the ball is swatted then it's fair game. Abercrombie went up too early and got caught out of position. It's a foul, hard or soft.

Foul calls aside, the Hawks hit their shots when they needed to. Breakers didn't put enough pressure on their shooters early and by the time they did they were red hot. Wilkinson played very average for a change especially defensively and Vukona couldn't finish shots he'd usually make with his eyes closed.

Props to the Hawks on a very good performance.