Tacko could have a field day with no Magnay

Just one Magnay block on Tacco would have been priceless!

Pick n roll with Tackos man and the JJ guards will have 50 plus by halftime.
And Tacko might have a few of his standing dunks, but he's had a career of hardly dominating despite his size.

Looking forward to watching this afternoon and it's great to see the NBL scheduling these Christmas Day games and getting a monopoly on live sport.

Bookies have it about right with Tasmania at $1.25 and 9.5 Line.

JJs easily, feel for coach Kop and PJC, had this team doing well only to be turned up side down. So many breakers players lost form since the change, talk about bad ownership. JJs just doing what's needed to get to finals, Roth is a cunning operator, yes Magnay is a loss but JJs just starting to flex. Hopefully it’s an entertaining game to keep the non basketball punters ready for the main course, kings v hawks.

The poop platter before the main course.

What Dunkman said, I feel for Coach Kop and PJC. Management unnecessarily meddling with the squad has changed their trajectory remarkably downwards. Not Tacko's fault, but blindly freddy could see he’s a poor fit for our league. I feel for Breakers fans.

Expecting the game to be close, but only because Tassie will play slow, which somewhat suits the crawl the Breakers come to when Tacko is on the flop and they’re spoon feeding him.

Jacks by 5.

Blowout to JJs by 20+. If % matters, then this is a game to get a big win to improve the %.

I agree with you, Dunkman & Ben - one single dumb owner decision seems to have basically destined Breakers to battle for the wooden spoon, in which case Kop and PJC won't be returning despite being well-suited to the league.

That was a fantastic intro lol

Again nothing against Tacko but where has he been successful. Totally dumb move.

Cool Xmas strip for the Jacks.

NZ's sucks. They used it last game, doesn't contrast well for tv. Can't really see any text/numbering.

No Lopez, no hope. lol.

3 from 8 free throws nz, can't afford to miss those.

Crawford is so fun to watch when he's hot

Crawford is gun, surprised at seasons start they took so long to sign him. JJs just doing enough to keep in front, plenty in reserve. Nz really trying to, PJC should have 10 assists but they can't hit an open three. Players like Mennenga, King, Bairstow have regressed badly since season start, plus got make their free throws. So far it’s been an entertaining contest.

If they start calling three seconds Tacko, they better call them on all players loitering in there

Scrappy game this, fun though

God I love water brown

Mooney been horrible, Tacko plus 15 Mennenga minus 21, Bolden minus 12. Tells you a lot.

It never ceases to amaze me how often Gaze has absolutely no clue what's going on yet is so confident in his claims.

Alright, PJC totally pissed off, should be, but got keep in control. Total lol.

Why do nz players always come in second, Loe, Illi, Terangi.

Spicy stuff in Tassie

Match descending in to a mockery.

These 2 teams are on remarkably different trajectories

Only for 10 seconds, but shoutout to Nick Stoddart on the NBL debut

Breakers can't shoot free throws, can’t shoot threes and got to many poor, poor defenders, you just can’t rely on PJC certainly now that he’s totally disgusted with what has gone on.

Deng and Crawford been really good, JJs just no how to get it done, they nearly unbeatable at Hobart, it’s like Perth was in the old days, dominating with crowd noise and also able to get the close decisions, plus dominating coach, it’s the real package.

Shout out Michael Aylen as well, handled that situation very well with the other refs help.

You're right Dunkman. Could’ve been a real shit show there. Cooler heads prevailed.

PJC should have been ejected and should be spending several weeks on the sideline. Inexplicable that he was allowed to continue playing.

Don't agree, thought refs got it right. It did look ugly though.

Pushing a referee to the ground is unacceptable in any sport in the world.

Should have been ejected.
The fact a referee had to hold him back suggests there was a real concern that he was going to lash out at someone, and him pushing a referee...what is that message sending to viewers?

I thought Te Rangi got off very lightly...

It's farcical that PJC wasn’t ejected. He aggressively pushed not one but two referees, knocking one of them to the ground. That’s a lengthy suspension in any sport. He was lucky to get such understanding refs.

Like all of us the refs feel for PJC, being saddled with Taco Fall, hence the Christmas leeway.

Fall had 11pts, 9 reb and 3blk in 16 mins last night and was +14. No other Breaker was better than +3 which indicates his impact was pretty positive.

Can't they review the incident and issue suspensions after the game?

NZ are 0-8 and 9th on the ladder with Fall; previously topped the standings at 7-3.

I don't think taco has been terrible if anything I think the breakers coaching since he came in has been. If you’re going to bring in a player like him you need to build your whole game plan around him slow things down get it into the paint let him throw it down . The problem Is pjc needs the ball a lot to be effective the two just don’t fit together

That's the problem, though. The team isn’t meant to be built around Fall, it’s built around PJC. Mennenga, Mooney and others can play off PJC. They can’t play off Fall. Things could be better if they had started with Fall preseason, but making these adjustments mid season is very hard.

Coaching is about getting the various pieces to gel to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Regardless of who it is, most players generally fit into a 'norm' and can be combined reasonably easily. Gillespie was starting to fit into their structure, and most other imports around the league are fitting into their structures by now.

Tacko, on the other hand, is way outside the norm, and would be a challenge for any coach. More so in the NBL where he’s a real exception.

I don’t doubt that the owner’s attitude would be "you’re a coach on good money so deal with it!". However, there ARE limits, as EssenX pointed out.

There’s no guarantee the Breakers would have made finals with Gillespie, but at least the coach would have been able to work with him and around him. While Tacko seems like a nice guy who actively supports the team, he has his limitations. Bringing him in was a real shit sandwich for the coach. If Kop can make it work then I’ll be really impressed with him as a coach.

I think the coaching staff have done well, which is demonstrated by the Breakers now becoming competitive in their last two outings. If they shoot better, they're potentially winning games. But losing hurts and the frustration for Mooney, PJC and Mennenga is palpable and becomes a disease that brings you down when other teams go on run.

For what it’s worth, if you swap WMW for PJC he’d be a better point guard to put with Tacko.

Hoodie of course they can review post game. That's exactly what happened to Loe

PJC should gave been ejected. He was third person in. Te Rangi was rough but went him as he injected himself

I assumed that there will be some review, but ... how long until we hear? Games are coming thick and fast, so the review had better get a move on.

"NZ are 0-8 and 9th on the ladder with Fall; previously topped the standings at 7-3."

Way too simplistic. Who else missed games coming out of the FIBA break? How bad were some of their performances pre-FIBA? NZ's record flattered them early on, injuries have cruelled them at times, and Gillespie was a better fit than Fall for this group. However, they are definitely learning how to use Fall better.

0-8.

PJC and Te Rangi are headed to the GRP.

Te Rangi given the same penalty as Loe, one game suspension or a $1550 fine. PJC headed straight to the tribunal on Saturday.

Unless PJC's defence is that he couldn’t stop his momentum and Aylen happened to get in his way, he should be out for weeks. The video looked pretty bad for him.

PJC deviated towards Aylen, and extended both arms to shove him, so that defense won't fly. Can understand why Aylen made that ruling on the floor, but inexplicable for Butler (or whoever was making decisions in the replay center) to let it stand.

He went for Te Rangi, not the ref, the ref entered to intervene which put those two on the path to clash, where PJC pushes the ref out of the way.

The other ref then holds and moves him away where he then kind of pushes that ref away.

There ought to be punishment for sure but the refs entered the fray to intervene and instigated the contact with him, so that really should be a mitigating factor if you're focussing on the physical touching and aggression.

Not incidental, definitely will get punished though, presumably a suspension of a game or 2.

He clearly deviated towards Aylen once he realised there was no way he was going to get to Te Rangi without removing Aylen from his path.

Should have been ejected and will get some suspension, but koberulz you're making it sound like he went after Aylen. I don’t think that’s the case at all. I also don’t think he pushed the second ref away, he pushed himself away to break the hold.

Agreed EssenX with all your points.

I'm not sure what KR gained from adding the word "clearly".