Powell doesn't look disinterested to me, I think people totally read his game-face wrong. I sit right behind the Kings bench and you can tell from his interactions there
(as well as his IG) that he seems pretty well invested in the team so far.

Always a tough game in NZ, and I expect Webster to incrementally improve each game following missing most of the pre-season. Hoping for a close one no matter how it shakes out.

Hopefully Vukona's pumped up for his 300th and he gets in Powell's face!

NZ by 3.

I find Powell very strange, in that everything he does off the court seems like he is all in with the Kings. Every thing he does off the court seems like he doesn't want to be there.

^should have been Every thing he does on the court seems like he doesn't want to be there. My Bad

Probably loves playing and hates training ;)

Powell looks good.

Maric did some nice things in the last game too.

Won't be enough court time to go around once Khazzouh gets back. Nice problem to have, I suppose.

The Breakers have been hot and cold early, I guess the same can be said about most teams, if not all of them at this stage.

I think the Kings can win this one and upset the home team but not if the Breakers are in that mood they can get into on their home court, where they can't be touched.

I am looking for the Kings to grind it out and stay with the Breakers to make it a tight one, but if they allow the Kiwis off the leash early it may be over 'Red Rover'...

Agreed, only 1 Q but that's probably the best 10 mins of D I've seen from the Kings since the days of Goorj...

Powell is a problem.

Powell looks legit

"Put your head down and fucking dunk it"

Wise words, Henare.

Whittington is going to lead the league in steals.

Whittington is NBA calibre all over him. Man, he's good

Because he's a one dimensional player, who's shot isn't falling

lol @ Tommy on that foul "What did I do??"

Exactly Tommy, exactly.

Bryson has at least one boneheaded drive per game.

Let ourselves down the last 3-4 mins there, should be up more than 8.

Watch Powell on every screen and boxout and tell me he's not trying.

Ok, to be fair: Bryson is good for one bonehead drive AND one amazing block a game.

Something tells me you wont have to worry about that, anon

and Michael Bryson SAYS NAY!!!!!!

Angus strikes me as the kind of dweeb who would get beaten up at school every day and then go home and be a hard man in COD forums.

Oh hey look, its the McQuade troll....

Woodside a bit too passive for mine, NEEDS to be slashing to the hoop to be effective

Will we even see Bo Liu in this game? He will probably come on with THREE SECONDS to go do one throw-in to statisfy the Kings Chinese masters.

Bryson has been better in this game but he is LUCKY that Brett Brown is not coaching here or he would have been back to the airport QUICK smart you better believe it, Brown was familiar with the guy selling coffees at the airport because he was always there after sacking another dud import.

Who's the McQuade troll? Someone else who called you out for being an insufferable douche? Or someone you pwned in the COD forum while wearing a fedora?

Yeah, nah. Sorry Anonymous. Not even close.

NZ look good with Woodside running pick and rolls with the big men. Should keep it REAL simple and get the limited big man diving to the rim.

Whittington is an all around GUN who will get Sydney some wins on his own. Good player!

Carls Jr is in NZ?? This is a REVELATION to the Mock

I DO NOT care for the school playground style buzzer at NZ Zbut overall the venue is sound and vERY loud when those MAD kiwis get a sniff of victory

Powell looks the goods. So does Woodside.

Penney struggling. Just signed a 3 year deal too.

Not writing off the Breakers just yet though, cos the Kings look great, I read this game as telling us more about them. If Powell keeps this up, look out NBL. Not many weaknesses on this squad with him beasting inside.

wrong ANONYMOUS i was just commenting on it. the MOCK has travelled far and wide and has seen NBL in 4 cities including the great PERTH which has the best atmosphere

As a NZ fan; i'd admit were not too flash this year. I don't think our roster is too good either.

Personally Ive never rated Henare and now his lack of coaching is going to show up. He won NZNBL titles with pretty good rosters. He really got the Breakers HC gig by default.

Wordsmiths, please note the important difference between 'disinterested' and 'uninterested'.
If you want to describe Powell as involved/uninvolved with the game and his team then 'uninterested' is probably the word.
If you want to suggest Powell is merely an embedded observer, in no way a protagonist in a competitive situation, that is as they say 'a whole new ball game'.

Powell can look however he likes. He's a very solid import in this league and so is Whittington. 2 out of 3 aint bad.
The weakness I see in the Kings is PG depth. If anything happens to Lisch or he strikes foul trouble there's zero behind Cadee.....and Jason is still growing into the spot at this level. That's why I think Bryson is in big trouble. They should be looking for a pass 1st guy who's a great defender and putting Bryson on a plane home.

The best move for Sydney to make is no move. They're playing great defensively..offensively they're gelling. Good signs.

You can always improve, particularly when you have an import who's not cutting it and rapidly losing confidence in himself. If he's not going home then Bryson should forget about shooting the ball, they don't need him to, and work on his handle and defence.
A great defensive guard(either someone else or Bryson working to be that guy) to go with the 2 quality combo guards they already have and this is a Championship team, with big Jules just icing on the cake when he gets back

Didn't rate Henare's timeouts tonight. And yes they are clearly missing Cedric. The guy is so underrated, and Webster will struggle a lot more without him running the show next to him.

Agree on Bryson - if he sticks around, he doesn't ever need to drive into traffic with the ball or create in the half-court. Shoot wide open 3s, take any easy opportunities that come, and otherwise just get your freakish blocks and steals and play solid D.

I had the Breakers finishing 4th most of the bookies had them second to bottom. I think they might end up being closer to the mark.

All the bookies had Cairns finishing bottom, I had the 36ers bottom though.

and as I said earlier Anonymous you are WRONG and you are a COWARD

Kings need a legit import point guard ASAP.

In all honesty, while they're winning, (or even if they pick up a loss or two, if the team is still clicking but just get beat on the night by a better team) I'd be reluctant to swap out Bryson... Seems to be a good fit within the playing group and even though he's probably the most underperforming import in recent history (that hasn't been cut), the risk of disrupting the team when they're just starting to click is too great...

I'd agree with Angus that he needs to change his focus... He's not going to make the NBA taking one shot per game and fluffing most of everything else (apart from that standard awesome block per game!) but if he comes out and works hard on that defensive end and actually get into position to make some easy shots, then it will work out better for every body...

I only managed to catch the last quarter, which obviously wasn't their most impressive one of the 4, but still, great to see things clicking, as the talent was always there, just needed to have the players buy into their roles... Fantastic seeing different players stepping up at different times as well... Lisch doesn't always need to be the only go to guy, unlike what we had to rely on with Chill for most of last season...

As for a legit import PG, I agree that they definitely need a pass first guard to back up Cadee, who is actually coming along pretty nicely, considering how much he likes to shoot, and we have a local spot left... still... which hopefully hasn't been taken up by Prewster...

Harder to get a local PG though than an import one, but getting an import one might risk stuffing around team chemistry...

The only other thing I'd change at the moment is to tell Maric that unless he has both feet set under him he's not to shoot the ball under any circumstances :) He shot a couple of nice little set shots last night and also is solid from the free throw line but anything where he's moving or involving any sort of athleticism he looks completely stupid and has missed badly. The guy is a solid pro and just needs to stick at what he does well.

Yeah, just goes to show that I have no clue what's going on... lol...

As long as they actually have someone ready to go... If you're gonna be ruthless, you might as well do it properly... I don't want to drop the next couple of games because we're having to run with both Prewster AND Moller!