Proud Australian sports fans have to digest the very real possibility of a Kiwi club winning an Australian-run competition for the first time after the New Zealand Breakers claimed game one of the NBL grand final series against Cairns.
Bledisloe Cup rugby losses are always tough to swallow, while New Zealanders enjoy dishing out underarm cricket barbs, but they could soon have cause for fresh celebration after the Breakers' 85-67 victory in Auckland.
The minor-premier Breakers thrashed the rank-outsider Taipans on Wednesday night and can create history by claiming the best-of-three series with victory in Cairns on Sunday.
The closest a previous Kiwi team had come to claiming trans-Tasman bragging rights in Australia was the New Zealand Warriors, who lost the 2002 NRL grand final to Sydney Roosters.
Kirk Penney, one of only two New Zealanders to ever play in the NBA, led the way for the Breakers with 25 points and eight rebounds while team-mate and American forward Gary Wilkinson had 15 points.
For Cairns, centre Ian Crosswhite had 15 points and six boards while Kiwi guard Phill Jones had 14 points, including 4-of-6 outside the arc.
The Taipans are the NBL's Cinderella story after they were placed into voluntary administration during the 2008-09 season, only for a community-based ownership scheme to bring them back to life.
But there was no fairytale in Auckland.
Cairns began with promise, going on a 9-0 run in the opening quarter to lead 11-5.
Then it went pear-shaped. The Taipans ended up shooting a disturbing 13 per cent from the field to trail 17-14 at the first break - but worse was to come.
On the back of a 17-0 run, the Breakers blew their second quarter advantage out to 19 points before easing into half-time up 41-27.
The Breakers - who at one stage led by 30 points - had a 70-52 buffer by the final break before sealing the win.
The Breakers had the luxury of a week's break since qualifying for their first grand final series with a come-from-behind 2-1 series defeat of Perth.
In contrast, the Taipans - who finished third in the regular season - ended Townsville's 12-game unbeaten home streak to book their grand final berth just 72 hours earlier.
The Breakers will arrive in Cairns this weekend full of confidence thanks to a 4-0 season record against the Taipans and 9-1 overall.
Cairns import guard Ayinde Ubaka feared for the Taipans if they repeated their "soft" effort on Sunday.
"We played soft. If we play like that again they will kill us - we will be destroyed," he said.
"And it would be worse (on Sunday) because it would be on our own court.
"They beat us down. We really didn't have an answer for anything."
Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis was happy with how his side responded after Jones' three-point shooting threatened a mini-third quarter revival.
"We came out with good intensity. In that Perth (semi-final) series we let ourselves down in game one and tonight we weren't going to make that same mistake," he said.
"We took our foot off the accelerator (in the third) and you can't do that in finals basketball."
- AAP
First posted April 20, 2011 18:49:00
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