CJ Loses Tooth, Breakers Win
Tagged in: In The News, NZ Breakers
Marc Hinton, Fairfax Media
CJ Bruton got mad. Then he got even, sending the Melbourne Tigers back to Australia with their ambitions of a perfect Australian National Basketball League season in tatters.
And on Friday, the Breakers point guard will head to the dentist to see about getting his missing front tooth replaced after it was knocked out during the New Zealand Breakers upset 120-111 victory over the defending ANBL champions at the North Shore Events Centre on Thursday night.
In the first quarter of the match against the Tigers, Bruton – the Breakers’ star off-season signing – was the victim of a cheap shot when his Boomers team-mate David Barlow hit him with an elbow to the face while posting his smaller defender under the basket.
The shot knocked one of Bruton’s front teeth clean out of his mouth. Then to compound matters, the Breakers playmaker then copped a verbal volley from the Tigers bench as he screamed for referees to stop the action so he could attend to his liberated fang.
Bruton was not impressed. In fact before heading to the bench, he went over to the Tigers bench to remonstrate with them, in particular having something to say to team boss Seamus McPeake who had led the initial spray directed Bruton’s way.
Anyway, he who laughs last, laughs longest, even if it’s with a gap-toothed grin, and Bruton certainly wore the look of a contented man afterwards, pouring in 23 points (8/15 FG, 6/12 3PT), nine assists and six rebounds to lead a balanced offensive display from the Breakers.
Fellow Aussies Tony Ronaldson and Oscar Forman both matched their point guard with 23-point hauls, while Kirk Penney, playing with a restrictive cut to the finger of his shooting hand, still managed 20.
With American centre Rick Rickert adding a quiet 13 points and seven boards, Phill Jones coming off the bench to pitch in with a dozen and some much-needed relief at the point and Dillon Boucher weighing in with his trademark intangibles, the Breakers stunned the title favourites with a sustained display of offensive brilliance.
Bruton presented a composed figure afterwards, but he didn’t mind admitting he was an angry man after that first-quarter incident.
“It was just an elbow in the mouth, but there was no way of getting my hands up in time,” said Bruton. “The ball went in the bucket and I was trying to stop the play. The tooth was in my hand and I was a little upset that the refs didn’t pay any attention to it. I got a shot in the face.
“Then I heard Seamus saying a few things from the side. He didn’t know what had happened I guess, so I was a little more upset that they thought I was trying to cry to the ref about a play. That was the end of that.”
Well, not really.
Bruton, who has the heart of a streetfighter and the killer instinct of a sniper, was not going to let the Tigers off with this.
Sure enough, he came up big as the match played out, nailing two deep, deep threes and taking control of a game where he was required to log big minutes in the absence of his backup Paul Henare.
“Any time you play the Tigers it’s a fiery game,” shrugged the veteran Boomers international.
“I’ve had many good battles against them. I’ve lost a championship to them and I’ve won one against them. Their team is stacked and we were missing Pauly. We had to put a lot of heart in it, and I thought we did a good job to battle and stay in the ball game.”
It’s a result that will certainly make the rest of the Aussie NBL sit up and pay attention. There had been chat earlier this week that the Tigers were so good they could go through the season unbeaten. Now they’ve been served notice that, finally, the Breakers have a side capable of mounting a serious title challenge.
Not that there were too much in the way of brash statements being made by the Breakers afterwards. They’re too experienced, too smart for that. They know this is just two matches into a long haul, even if it’s the most promising start they’ve made since joining the league.
“The Tigers are a good team, no one takes that away from them,” said Bruton. “But we’re all in this to win it… we’re not just saying here’s the Tigers team they’re great on paper. You still have to put it together on the floor. As I found out in Brisbane and Sydney no matter what team you have on paper, you still have to come together.”
Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis was doing his best to dampen any over-enthusiasm around what was an outstanding performance.
It was arguably Ronaldson’s best display in a Breakers jersey (8/10FG, 4/43PT and six assists), and Forman was not far behind him (8/13 FG, 7/10 3PT). The Breakers shot as astonishing 51.3 per cent from beyond the arc (20/39).
“Putting points on the board, we’ve got guys who can do that for us,” said Lemanis. “But it’s getting into the def and getting it done at that end, keeping them to 22 in the fourth quarter was good for us.
“We kinda weathered the storm in the first quarter. We gave them some easy ones but they also hit some shots and it felt like they didn’t miss and to keep hanging around there was a good effort.”
The Breakers also did well to restrict Tigers star Chris Anstey to 10 second-half points in his game-high 32 points and keep scoring machine Ebi Ere to just 19 points and a lone three-pointer.
Lemanis said with Anstey it was not about any major adjustments, but rather just wearing him down with different defensive looks. To that end Rickert, Tim Behrendorff, Ronaldson and Boucher all contributed, Ronaldson in particular proving effective.
“Bear did a good job on him,” said Lemanis. “He’s played Chris a bit coming through together, so he knows how he plays. But [Anstey] had to battle for 45 minutes, and with the length of the game if you keep making it tough for people that can help you.”
But Bruton wasn’t going to let his coach off without some credit: “Andrej made a key point in the locker room. He didn’t want him keeping getting the looks he was getting. The players stepped up. As a group we have to understand that and try to help out.”
It was a night when the Breakers had the key answers at the right time. Which made Bruton’s trip to the dentist today all the more bearable.
“The wife was just mentioning to me how she had to go to the dentist. I was thinking ‘oh, sucked in’. I guess now we’ll go together.”
NZ Breakers 120 (CJ Bruton 23, Oscar Forman 23, Tony Ronaldson 23, Kirk Penney 20, Rick Rickert 13, Phill Jones 12) Melbourne Tigers 111 (Chris Anstey 32, Ebi Ere 21, David Barlow 17, Rod Grizzard 14)
1Q: 33-34, HT: 59-58, 3Q: 91-89
Breakers vs Tigers Box Score (27KB html)
