Tough return to action for the Breakers

The Sky Sport Breakers couldn’t quite rediscover their form from before a two-week enforced break with eight members of the team contracting COVID, but they now quickly turn their attention to Wednesday night.

The Breakers had been playing their best basketball of the season prior to the two-week break coming into Sunday's game in Hobart against the Tasmania JackJumpers, and it wasn’t a game to remember with the JJ's taking out the 83-59 victory at MyState Bank Arena.

The Breakers were building some momentum winning two of their previous three matches before an enforced break. They made their return for a first game back in two weeks, but it would be fair to say they were slow out of the blocks.

The JackJumpers were riding high following their come from behind home win against the Adelaide 36ers on Friday and continued that momentum into Sunday's match up.

Jack McVeigh provided the spark with a pair of threes on his way to his best game with the JackJumpers with 17 points and five rebounds for the game. 

He had plenty of help with Josh Magette hitting five threes in the second quarter alone on his way to 22 points and eight assists with 7/11 from downtown.

The JackJumpers would end up leading by as much as 26 points and while the Breakers did find their groove a little more in the second half, they could never seriously threaten and Tasmania went on to claim the 24-point win.

It's back to back wins for the first time this season for the JackJumpers and they dominated in a host of areas. They outrebounded the Breakers 49 to 32 with 15 offensive boards to nine. They also shot 46 per cent from the field and 50 per cent deep opposed to 35 and 23 per cent for the Breakers.

It was a tough loss for the Breakers but as we've seen, the first game back from a break has been a challenge generally for most teams in that situation.

Yanni Wetzell delivered another strong showing for New Zealand continue his standout season with 15 points and four rebounds. Hugo Besson top-scored with 19 points including 5/10 from three-point range to go with eight rebounds as well.

Breakers coach Dan Shamir knows there might be reasons for his team's performance, but he didn’t want to rest back on those.

"It's definitely a factor and we've seen more than one team struggling in their first game back, it's an unusual situation for everybody," Shamir said.

"We had eight players actually sick with COVID so they probably struggled and it's a process to get back. The rest of the team in situations like that were struggling to keep a normal routine. We're not the first team to struggle in the post-COVID break game but I don’t think about that at all. 

"That's not my job to be thinking what the affect of that is. My job is to get more out of the team even under tough circumstances, and think basketball and think how we can play better. Today was obviously a day that was very, very far from how we want to look."

The JackJumpers were fresh off a spirited win over Adelaide on Friday and were back at MyState Bank Arena to play a Breakers team returning to action for the first time in two weeks, and they took advantage.

In the opening minutes, including three-point bombs to Jack McVeigh, Tasmania raced to a 14-5 advantage and remained in control leading 23-13 by quarter-time.

It was a sluggish looking Breakers outfit in their first game since beating the Sydney Kings two Sundays ago and that didn’t change in the second quarter.

Jarrad Weeks marked his 200th NBL game with a three ball before Josh Magette decided to take over and for the first real time in #NBL22, showed the shooting potential he arrived with.

Magette delivered five triples in the second quarter alone as the JackJumpers put up 30 points and held the Breakers to just 14. That saw the JJ's go into half-time with a dominant 53-27 lead on the back of 27 rebounds to 15 including 10 to two offensive which led to 13 second chance points to nil.

New Zealand opened the second half on fire with seven quick points with four of those from Wetzell. But the JackJumpers responded including a sixth three of the game for Magette as part of a 7-0 run.

The Breakers were trying to will themselves back into the contest, though, and were within 20 by three quarter-time having outscored the JackJumpers 20 points to 14 in the third period.

McVeigh and Magette both added another three ball apiece in the fourth quarter with the JackJumpers cruising to the eventual 24-point win.

The Breakers now back up quickly taking on the Illawarra Hawks back in Hobart on Wednesday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 9

SKY SPORT BREAKERS 59 (Besson 19, Wetzell 15, Dieng 9) 

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 83 (Magette 22, McVeigh 17, Adams 11)

BOX SCORE