NBL Cup Preview v NZ Breakers

For the third time already this NBL season the Adelaide 36ers take on the New Zealand Breakers and Saturday's clash as part of the NBL Cup provides the Sixers a chance to bounce back from an encouraging performance two days ago.

It might sound like a funny thing to say after a defeat, but the Sixers deserved to feel good about a lot of what happened on Thursday night against Melbourne United as they now look to return to the winner's circle on Saturday against the Breakers back at John Cain Arena. 

Now it goes without saying that there wasn’t a lot to like about the opening 12 minutes of the game on Thursday with Melbourne leading 36-10. 

But from that point the 36ers were the better team and went on to outscore United in the second, third and fourth quarters to claim the three points in the NBL Cup calculations.

Adelaide ended up outscoring Melbourne 63 points to 46 after the moment they trailed 36-10 so there was a lot to like from the heart the team showed to fightback, and even give themselves a chance at what would have been a remarkable victory down the stretch.

But the only way that will count for anything is if the 36ers can carry on the momentum from those last three quarters into a strong winning performance against the Breakers to open the Saturday NBL Cup double-header in Melbourne.

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The 36ers have now played three of their eight matches at the NBL Cup for a win against South East Melbourne Phoenix, and losses against Sydney Kings and the Brisbane Bullets.

They have 9.5 points in the NBL Cup from the 21 that were available in those three games heading into Saturday's clash with the Breakers.

New Zealand has played just the one NBL Cup game so far and that was a 102-88 defeat at the hands of the Illawarra Hawks.

Overall this season the Breakers hold a 1-5 record and two of those defeats have come at the hands of the 36ers in the Adelaide. 

The first encounter was an overtime thriller with the Sixers prevailing 94-91 before five days later they met again at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre with the 36ers beating the Breakers 88-78.

New Zealand is now also without injured import Lamar Patterson and centre Rob Loe who has returned home, but none of that means the 36ers can afford to take them lightly.

The Breakers still possess Corey and Tai Webster who are capable of match-winning performances while Tom Abercrombie and Finn Delany are proven competitors, and Colton Iverson is a strong inside presence.

With Jarrad Weeks, Rasmus Bach and youngster Kyrin Galloway are capable role players too so there's no question Adelaide will need to be on their game to still come away with the win.

Sixers Next Star Josh Giddey had another impressive performance against Melbourne United on Thursday night as he looks forward to a third fascinating point guard battle with Tai Webster on Saturday against the Breakers.

But he took heart from the fight his team showed against Melbourne on Thursday to give them some confidence coming into this encounter.

"It was a tough one obviously we dug ourselves a pretty deep hole early in the game," Giddey said.

"It would have been easy for us to throw the towel in and call it a night, but to the guys' credit we stuck with it and we got the game back to two or three points or whatever it was there in the last quarter. 

"We were right there and had a chance to win, but we had some good looks and had our chances but didn’t take advantage of it. Credit to the guys for sticking with it, we were down 25 points and it would have been easy to call it a night but we stuck with it and we almost got there."

2020/21 Hungry Jack's NBL Season – Round 7

NBL Cup Week 2

Adelaide 36ers v New Zealand Breakers
John Cain Arena, Saturday 5.00pm ACDT

Broadcast – SBS Viceland, SBS on Demand, NBL TV, Twitch