A star was born on a night when Melbourne United’s top-two hopes took a significant blow with a shock 97-95 defeat to an undermanned New Zealand Breakers team fighting to stay alive in the playoff race at Spark Arena in Auckland on Friday night.
Breakers Next Star Karim Lopez emerged with his performance of the season to produce a mesmerising 32 points on 11/13 shooting from the field and eight rebounds.
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Lopez had an excited New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon out of his seat, but more importantly the NBA scouts furiously scribbling positive thoughts in their notepads.
The Mexican teenager showed off his ridiculously deep bag of tricks, coolly hitting from deep in the arc and mid-range, while audaciously showing off his silky fadeaway jump shot.
With star forward Sam Mennenga (wrist) joining Rob Baker II and Izayah Le’Afa on the season-long injury list, few gave the Breakers hope of upsetting a full strength United riding a three-game winning streak.
But the Breakers preached a next man mentality in training during the week and backed up the words with Lopez leading the way.
A long range three-point attempt from Milton Doyle failed on the final buzzer and United’s winning streak came to an end.
Towering centre Jesse Edwards exerted his dominance with 23 points and 14 rebounds, including eight offensive.
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The Dutch import took full advantage of the Breakers lack of presence in the paint in Mennenga’s absence.
Edwards was a calming influence when United stared down a 10-point deficit in the first half.
Outside of Edwards, it was a flaky display for United with players flashing in and out at both ends.
United led by eight points late in the game, but could not hold on against a brave Breakers side with it all to play for.
Chris Goulding (16) and Finn Delany (13) had periods of dominance for United, but it was unsustained.
The Breakers are not feeling sorry for themselves as the injuries pile up, believing in the next man up mentality they preached pre-game.
Arriving at the do-or-die stage of the season, the seventh-placed Breakers made a fast start, racing to a 28-21 quarter time lead and signalling their intent to hang in the top six race.
Breakers point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright was the catalyst, slicing and dicing his way to 23 points, three assists and two steals.
Jackson-Cartwright’s speed was a constant threat.
Aerial threat
Spring-heeled Breaker Izaiah Brockington lifted the roof off the stadium with a vicious dunk.
Brockington showed no concern for the length of United forward Malith Machar, putting him on a poster.
Former NBL legend Damon Lowery said of the dunk: “That was just disrespectful”.
It was a laboured and messy start for United, but they turned on the defensive blowtorch in the second quarter to get back into the game.
United took a slender two-point lead into three quarter time, but only after a Brockington three-point attempt on the buzzer swivelled around the hoop three times before trickling out.
The Breakers won a tight last quarter 26-22 as a road weavy United ran out of legs.
Tenacious as always
It was a sight to warm the heart of United fans.
Veteran point guard Shea Ili, returning from eight games out with a hamstring injury, scrambling on all fours to retrieve a loose ball shortly after checking into his return game.
Ili showed no limitations, throwing his body on the line to produce a strong performance with 11 points and three assists.
Legend honoured
The Breakers honoured New Zealand basketball and club legend Tom Abercrombie.
The team retired Abercrombie’s number 10 jersey, which will hang in the Spark Arena rafters.
A four time NBL champion, Abercrombie was a key part of the history-making first Breakers title team that went on to complete a three-peat between 2011-13.
NBL SCOREBOARD
New Zealand Breakers 97 (Lopez 32 Jackson-Cartwright 23) d Melbourne United 95 (Edwards 23 Goulding 16)
At Spark Arena, Auckland.
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