Basketball: Breakers punished by Adelaide for slow start

The Breakers started too slowly to give themselves any chance in their ANBL match against the Adelaide 36ers at Trusts Stadium last night, losing 121-94.

Worse, their import forward Rich Melzer left the game early with a leg injury and did not come back. They now appear to have little chance of winning either of their next two games away to Sydney then the 36ers, especially if Melzer's problem rules him out.

They lacked both urgency and accuracy in delivery.

Ben Pepper won the tip-off, the first defensive rebound and scored first points but it was all down hill for the Breakers after that in a first quarter where the visitors were left open too often. The home team looked slow and at times clumsy, perhaps because of the 10 days since their last outing.

They turned over too much ball from bad passes and missed too many of their shots, including free-throws. When they tried to double-team Adelaide's scorers, others stepped in and the 36ers led 44-23 at the first break. Having Melzer benched with a knee tear after six minutes didn't help.

Little changed in the second spell, the 36ers continuing to dominate all aspects of the game. Late in the period the Breakers bench man AJ Majstrovich went down and then limped off with a left knee problem, not coming back into the game until mid-third quarter and then not lasting long.

By halftime, Adelaide were up 76-46 on the back of 64 per cent shooting, with five players in double figures, the Breakers having none. The only area where the home side led was in turnovers and fouls.

Mika Vukona and Lindsay Tait sparked the attack in the third quarter but they managed just 23 points.