As I'd said before, finals shouldn't be different, but they ARE. You'd like to think that every players goes out every game and gives 100%, playing like there is no "next game." But they don't. Maybe the truly great players do, but I suspect the rest of the planet lacks such incredible mental toughness. I know that I certainly don't go to my day job each day believing it may be the last.
But that's what happens come finals. Everything just gets a lot tougher, and experienced finals campaigners come to the fore.

I'm sure the last game was a big learning experience for Fearne and the boys, and I think it will be tough for them to regroup quickly.

There's a few titles in that Breakers playing group to step up & get them over the line when they need, still wouldn't write the Taipans off.

I expect NZ to finish this off today. I would prefer if they did just so the season can be over and the NBL can cast its mind to preventing its own demise.

Would love to see Cairns take the title, their program has done an amazing job this year. But it seems the NBL Championship trophy will be sitting on the long white cloud.

Unless Cairns can rediscover their "pass inside" game to Burston, Tregarth and Weigh to overcome their outside shooting woes, Breakers should chalk up another championship.
Webster has to be consistent both halves. Abercrombie just coming right. Ibekwe's the man. Jackson will be desperate.

What time is it on TV?

Cairns by 8 is my pick with Torrey Craig going for 20

Why aren't they playing at Vector?

Live on CH10 in 20 minutes, Vector is in use for something else.

Cairns hanging in there .....just .......Gliddon playing well Tory Craig throwing in bombs and Tregarth having a stormer.
We look in charge though and could pull away any time in 2nd half.

Today highlights one of the problems playing at a venue like Vector Arena which is effectively the 'entertainment centre' of Auckland. Sometimes the venue has been pre-booked for something else.......in this case its a 3 day show (today is the last day) called "Walking With Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular". Though having to deal with a pre-booked show isn't a regular occurrence thankfully.

Hence the reason they are playing at the North Shore Events Centre.

What the hell are Webster and Ibekwe doing. Get the ball inside and the game is ours for the taking. Tregarth carrying the Cairns.

Cairns hitting some big shots . Clutch !!!

Cairns screwed on the fouls. Seriously need to sort out the refs next season.

Fantastic game. Cairns could not have played and shot better. We got lucky with Ibekwe's final shot but I feel sure if it had gone to OT we would have pulled away.
Quite a classy guy that Laughton with after match sum up.

Sensational finish but the taipans really had no chance with NZ getting more home cooking than Perth. 3 fouls against them in the first minute set the tone.

HOOOLLLLLLYYYY SHIIITTT!!!!
Probably the second biggest shot I've ever seen, behind Ray Allen!

What a shot!!

Amazing shot to win by Ekene Ibekwe! He played amazingly throughout the playoffs as did Jackson. In fact Webster, Vukona & Abercrombie can take a pat on the back also.
Commiserations to the Taipans fans, that was a tough way for your season to end.

That was a great game of basketball and an example of what the NBL should be. Just classy, intelligent, hard nosed basketball. The organisation and business that is NBL is an absolute failure for not finding a way to promote THAT. It was an outstanding product, equal in skill and intensity to any professional sport in Australia. And THAT SHOT! Winning a Grand Final on a single last second shot has to be the pinnacle moment in the dreams of every kid that ever picked up a ball. Every Aussie kid into the game should have seen that, and few did.

Now the season is over, the organisation needs to have a long hard look at itself and the many ways it failed to capitalise on that.

Not that it really matters, but should Wilbekin have had 3 shots on that last play?

Credit to Cairns on a fantastic season. They have some great players and an exciting core to build around with Loughton, Gliddon, Wilbekin (if they can get him back) and Id even throw Bruce into that conversation (I have been very impressed with him).

If there is one thing they really need to elevate them even higher next season its an athletic big man. Unfortunately, Burston, Young and Trigger is a very unathletic big man rotation and Loughton loves hanging out on the rim. If they can nab an Ibekwe/Gladness type, they could be deadly next season.

Young is actually pretty athletic but it doesn't come out in games too often. They have definitely missed that Wortho, Petrie, Vukona, Redhage type mobile PF for a number of years now.

Breakers are too damn good! Cairns had a good year but to be swept like that with a fully fit team is what richie would say.. pretty poor effort that!

iBol Bol- seriously. 3 Imports for NZ yes Weley is from Utah. Cairns should be congratulated to achieve what they have with their roster vs the NZ roster. They could have easily lost that game 2 and then gone to game 3 and lost. No one in ttheir right mind would think Cairns put in a pretty poor effort. Seriously. Well done Cairns on a great year and Congrats to NZ.

No dog in this race, but just a great game of basketball, and a classic shot.

Anon i did say cairns had a good year but i think they should be disappointed with how they played in that first game. They lacked the defensive intensity required and should have played their home court better. Perhaps it could be lack of finals experience that separated the two teams. In saying that, quite rightly if they managed to win game two i would have backed them to play better game 3.

From Wilbekins clutch free throws to the 7 footer buzzer beater game winner that is the most incredible thing I've ever seen.

Wow what a game! NZ are champs!

Shame the Taipans could not get the win though as I really wanted them to win.

Breakers clinch Championship on Ekene Ibekwe game winner

'We all have dreams, some of them don't come true'

Was that a dig at Cairns by the douche bag NZ commentator?

'We all have dreams, some of them don't come true'
Was that a dig at Cairns by the douche bag NZ commentator?

I think he accidentally referred the NBL to the NBA, and then tried to cover it up by making a joke of it, which I thought was pretty average.

A great game. Good to get one final game that went down to the wire. Cairns must be really disappointed how they played in the first game in Cairns. They fought so hard in this one. Credit to the Breakers for the comeback in the last few minutes. Excellent defense on the last Cairns play and if Cedric hadn't fouled Wilbekin looked in trouble. It was a poor foul in the situation.
Great game winner and not the play Cairns (or me) would have expected.

Cairns did so well to hang tough, it was NZ's game for almost three quarters, but the Taipans looked like they'd weathered the storm.

Jackson and Vukona were huge defensively to turn that around, and Abercrombie was just cash money at the other end! Super super game with an even better finish.

The tall blacks win again well done

I think the foul on Burston at the end with evetone fighting for the ball was very harsh.

Wow! What a game. Congrats to the Breakers, they really took it to another level. This Breakers dynasty of the last 5 years is certainly one of the best ever seen.

I'm using small pieces of public information to maybe support a premise.
Fearne & Coaching Co were as gutted by the defection of Dorsey, Dillon and Bakka after the 2011 series as they were about their elimination in the Finals. They had hoped to keep the productive core of the squad to mount a comeback the following season.
F&CC recruited well for 14/15 and their imports decared their intention of claiming a championship at the start of the season. Maybe after today Craig and Wilbekin figure they have unfinished business and want to sign on with Cairns to go round again next season.
Fearne could still become a happy man.

Not taking anything away from NZ. They have done everything right on and off the court but this dynasty is an indictment on how poor the league is at the moment. One team shouldn't be dominating like they are if it were a healthy competition. Aussie teams need to get your s*** together!
Forget Brisbane the next NBL team should be a second nz team. It would help spread the talent coming through their academy and kiwi international players choosing to play in NBL. They seem to prefer playing at home (understandably)

"Not taking anything away from NZ. They have done everything right on and off the court but this dynasty is an indictment on how poor the league is at the moment."

New Zealand are consistently a top 16 team in the world, it's hardly an indictment on a league that they keep winning. Any team that can piece quality national team talent with good imports (ala Brisbane, Sydney in the 2000s) will always be very tough to beat in the NBL.

You could put in a conference system so it didn't happen.

If the second NZ team grew to be successful as the Breakers are, how would the Australian basketball watching public feel about a Grand Final series between two NZ teams?

It wouldn't make any difference to how it is now. The interest level is very low when the local team isn't in the grand final. It doesn't matter who is playing and how great the series is, if it's not the local team, then the care factor is zero (just a general observation over the years).

If 2 NZ teams played off in a GF, it would have about as much interest Australia wide as this years Cairns v NZ series. Minimal.

...Unless of course you're in Cairns :)

Would have liked to see Cairns win.
Will be interesting to see what points values are assigned after this season, as both those teams have a lot of talent.

A Wellington team should be a priority, and I see it as a big plus, not a problem. If anything, they will compete for some of the same local talent (in time) and they will take games off each other because the HCA won't be so extreme. If they WERE the top 2 teams then at least all Australians would have two teams to support in the semis, and if Wellington made the GF then all Australia would be rooting for them to upset the Breakers.

I want to see more !

For the first time this season im screaming for more.

ffs let them sort it out in 5 games,this is what the fans WANT to see !!!

Today marked the second time that a team coached by the NBL's Coach of the Year has been swept in the Grand Final series. The first was Brian Goorjian in 1998 who's Magic were swept by the 36ers.

NBL CotY to lose the Grand Final in the same season include:

1982 - Cal Bruton (Geelong - lost to West Adelaide)
1984 - Brian Kerle (Brisbane - lost to Canberra)
1988 - Bruce Palmer (Nth Melb - lost 2-1 to Canberra)
1990 - Brian Kerle (Brisbane - lost 2-1 to Perth)
1997 - Brian Goorjian (SE Melb - lost 2-1 to Melbourne)
1998 - Brian Goorjian (SE Melb - lost 2-0 to Adelaide)
2008 - Brian Goorjian (Sydney - lost 3-2 to Melbourne)
2010 - Gordie McLeod (Wollongong - lost 2-1 to Perth)
2015 - Aaron Fearne (Cairns - lost 2-0 to NZ)

NZ had ton of room under the player points cap due to loyalty discounts & young guys still on rookie contracts.

Most of the Kiwi contingent of the Breakers are in the Tall Blacks because the Breakers developed them into players of that caliber not because they sat outside Tall Blacks trainings offering contracts.
Vukona, Abercrombie, Pledger, Webster, TeRangi & Bailey were all Breakers DP's before cracking the main roster, how many other clubs can say the same of their core playing group?

HoldenV8 I'm not sure of the point of your post. you could put up a list of championship winning coaches that didn't win COTY and it would offer the same value to this thread - none.

Mystro, my guess is that most 'good' Australian juniors go on to American colleges for their 'development' so by the time they get back to Australia they're not really eligible or interested in a DP position.

NBL should forget any expansion in Australia. We need one or two more teams based in New Zealand. Simple as that.

Interesting that Cairns didn't get their runners up trophies on stage (Maybe they got them in the change rooms later) but I’ve always liked the fact that our league recognises the runners up.

HoldenV8 I'm not sure of the point of your post. you could put up a list of championship winning coaches that didn't win COTY and it would offer the same value to this thread - none.


Actually, I found it quite interesting, so your assertion it added nothing to the thread is wrong. It added nothing to you, doesn't mean others wouldn't find it interesting.

Academies don't develop talent. They are simply a front for talent identification programs. They pick the best juniors and funnel them into the next level.

Point is that it's the NBL and we basically have a national team competing in our domestic league. Not the breakers fault.

They will win another four!

Would rather watch teams from Australia play to be honest, no disrespect.

I'd rather watch the Breakers play than Perth.