Breakers is full retard lazy as f*ck mode today .... Cedric Jackson in full corpse mode

They got themselves back into it in the last few minutes after the 26-9 start. Well, at the offensive end at least. I think at the other end they're still kind of waiting for the Hawks to cool off rather than trying to make it happen. But fair enough ... they can't stay that hot all game.

You can't beat a team who has a centre changing pivot foot and stepping a being rewarded for it. Yes the breakers are not playing the best but I would think it wouldn't matter. Since when do you call a travel on a a slip on the wet court too. Call a break and clean it up and side ball to continue play. God the reffing is horrible this season and appears to be influencing games and helping promote certain players.

Yeah, how can the Breakers be expected to be competitive if the refs are going to enforce the rules?

Should be a good 2nd half

I played on a court once that was just ridiculously dusty. Players were sliding all over the place. And the umps called travel every time.

Hawks have done great to stop any initial run out of the half by the Breakers. They are starting to really roll this season! Smoky for the title

"they can't stay that hot all game."

Ok, 3 quarters in and I stand seriously corrected.
Hawks showing no signs of slowing down. This is some pretty basketball.

Agreed. Even NZ at home can't take victories for granted. It's a good thing for the league.

And if they don't want to take top spot away from the Cats that's fine with me too.

Kevin Lisch, what a game. 24 points @ 67%, 6 boards, 7 assists, 4 steals and a block.

Someone somewhere needs to be sacked

Definitely. Breakers are a joke. Overrated. Grand finalists my arse. etc etc.

"Where is blowout guy?"

No time to post here. To busy counting all his winnings from NZ's predictable thrashing of the travel-weary Hawks.

Bill Baxter's a funny bloke isn't he

If the Hawks shoot like that in the playoffs they won't be beaten. Scary stuff they didn't give the Breakers a chance today. Gotta love the NBL

Gees I wish we'd kept Lisch.
He must be in line for Naturalisation, with an Australian wife and child, and that would really open the way for the Hawks.
As it is, they are definite contenders this year. Shaping up to be a very intense 2nd half and finals, with 4 teams definitely in contention.

Great game to watch, Hawks came out firing and shot the lights out and NZ were playing catch up for the rest of the game.
Having the long break didn't do NZ any favours and have looked just as flat in other games this season after a decent lay off.

I know the Cats 113 was the most points scored in a 40 minute game this season, but the Hawks 107 was far, far more impressive. Perth got that because of incredible long range shooting but the Hawks ball movement and spacing for Penny and Lisch to go to work was even more impressive. Plus the Opponent(Breakers) was far superior to the United.

Offence looked like a very well oiled machine.Crisp ball movement off the ball and superb spacing.If the Hawks can replicate that on a consistent basis they can win it all.

As a Breakers fan I will say that the Hawks clearly outplayed us- they absolutely pulled our pants down.

A few reflections:
-Both teams shot above 50% from the field
-Breakers were very careless with the ball
Hawks
-8/19 from ft line for Breakers- this is becoming a serious issue
-Jackson/Pledger were barely used
-the lack of of a sideline play for the Breakers was terrible- even the commentator mentioned they can't rely on the guards to get free alone- how about some
Screens Deano? Two/three times there was a cheap turnover from a sideline pass

Finally, I'm not hitting the panic button, for the last couple of years we have been towlled up by Perth (this year it has been the Hawks) but have then come good in finals. The Hawks played VERY well but I don't think they could play much better and I think we will be okay!!

My 2 cents worth :)

I know the Cats 113 was the most points scored in a 40 minute game this season, but the Hawks 107 was far, far more impressive. Perth got that because of incredible long range shooting but the Hawks ball movement and spacing for Penny and Lisch to go to work was even more impressive. Plus the Opponent(Breakers) was far superior to the United.

Perth were at home. Hawks beat the Breakers in NZ after having played already that round, and NZ were previously undefeated at home.

Illawarra's effort was more impressive.

Much of the Wildcats efforts were from Beal getting red hot and having the best individual shooting effort from anyone this season.

Even when he wasn't hitting the Shots himself, it was often Beal doing the damage- for example in the middle of his hot streak on one possession, Beal caught the ball 1.5 metres outside three. United sent two players to him, so he hit Redhage for the wide open three. That stat line is off the charts ridiculous- 40 points, 7 assists, no turnovers and shooting at around 60% from the field (He actually shot 10/19 from 3 and 14/26 overall but I'm ignoring the 3 misses he had in junk time, in quick succession when he was trying to break the 40 point mark).

And as has already been mentioned- Illawarra faced tougher opposition and were playing away from home, where no one had won this season.
Illawarra had multiple contributors all working seamlessly together.

Dazz if you take your Cats glasses off, you’ll see that it isn’t even close- Illawarra’s effort vz NZ was much more impressive than Perth’s vs Melb.

At the simplest level, think of it like this:

Perth played on their home court against an out of form United.

Illawarra travelled to NZ to play the hottest team in the competition, after already playing less than 48 hours prior.

" how to manage to turn this into yet another Perth bashing thread, but I'll bite."

how about it just stays a "give the Hawks some credit" thread?

Its just so easy to bash Perth Dazz thats how haha ;)

It's not about "bashing Perth", it’s just about giving credit where it’s due.

When United travelled to Perth they’d lost 4 of their last 6 games. In fact I’d suggest they’d played one impressive half of basketball in their last six outings (the first half vs Adelaide). So in reality, Perth took advantage of a team who was at a low ebb. (Which has continued since then)

And, as I’ve detailed on here exhaustively several times over the past few weeks, United’s 9-0 start was far less impressive than the win loss column suggests, if you choose to look a little deeper.

Whereas NZ were 9-2 since Webster’s arrival- the only losses being a 6 point loss in Perth, and a 1 point loss in Melbourne where they got a dodgy call in the dying seconds and were playing without Wesley and Vukona. In NZ, they’d been absolutely unstoppable this season. Yet Illawarra blew them off the court with 26 points in the first 6 minutes and never looked back. Penney was hitting shots, Lisch was doing everything and the whole team just looked like a well oiled machine. Offensively they’re the best team of the 40 minute era, and Sunday was their most impressive display to date.

I think if Illawarra keep playing the way they have in recent weeks they'll be a contender for best offensive line-up ever.

Geez, even I didn't think it was a shot at the Wildcats...

Even leaving aside where they were playing and who their opponents were, I agree that just from the "eye test" of the way they played, the Hawks win was the more impressive.

Not sure how anyone can interpret "The Wildcats performance was arguably the 2nd-most-impressive of the season" as being Perth bashing. Yikes.
Perth's win over Melbourne was far more than just one guy being unconscious from long range, but the Hawks game was a super impressive display right from the opening tip (which the Cats didn't manage), and it never really let up until the result was well beyond doubt.

Wildcats-Hawks grand final!

Best offensive line-up ever vs most offensive line-up ever :p

The Hawks impressive offense has been spoken about many times.

Just quietly Bevo has also improved their defense quite a lot since the start of the season. Sure they are still no defensive champs but their style goes a long way to creating the tempo that fits their desired tempo of play.

Isn't it about time the Lisch > naturalised > Boomers talk starts again. He is in a rare run of form even when measured against his past levels.

Hawks also kept Breakers to eight offensive rebounds, pretty impressive.