New Zealand Breakers coach Mody Maor far from satisfied with 98-87 win over Cairns Taipans

Parker Jackson-Cartwright was impressive in his regular-season debut for the New Zealand Breakers. Photo / Photosport

New Zealand Breakers coach Mody Maor expects many things from his team this season, and one of those is for them to perform better than they did in their campaign opener against Cairns on Saturday night.

The Breakers were impressive at times on their way to a 98-87 win at Spark Arena, led by a dominant outing from import point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, who finished with 25 points, eight assists and six steals.

But for Maor, this was merely the foundation on which to build the team’s season.

“We didn’t play very well. We competed at the appropriate level in stretches, and for one stretch in the third quarter we played the way we wanted to play, broke the game open, and we held on. So, okay,” Maor said in summing up the performance.

“It’s normal that things don’t go smoothly in the beginning, but I’m really proud of the guys; how they settled down, they came out, they played the right way, they shared the ball, they competed – it was a very good third quarter.”

The Breakers were slow to get going, allowing the Taipans to get extra opportunities from offensive rebounds in the first quarter and hold a three-point lead after the opening 10 minutes.

But once the new-look Breakers settled into their work, they were able to get the better of Cairns. Jackson-Cartwright looked assured with ball in hand and committed to everything he did. As a whole, the team shot the ball well, with Finn Delany (18), Justinian Jessup (15), Zylan Cheatham (11) and Mangok Mathiang (11) all scoring in double figures as well.

After turning around the opening quarter deficit to lead by four at halftime, a 31-18 third quarter saw the hosts blow the game open.

There was plenty to like for fans in Tom Abercrombie’s 400th game – the Breakers running an alley-oop dunk for Abercrombie to score their first points of the game likely at the top of that list. But they can be buoyed by the Breakers showing the defensive mettle that defined their run to the grand final a season ago.

The side forced 21 turnovers from the Taipans and turned those into 32 points, and ultimately put in a positive performance to build upon in Thursday night’s clash with the Brisbane Bullets at Spark Arena.

“We showed glimpses of our identity and who we ultimately want to be for a consistent base throughout a 40-minute game,” Jackson-Cartwright said.

“Obviously we didn’t do it for 40 minutes, and when you don’t do that, you can let a good team like that get out on the open floor, get easy ones and stop the bleeding. We have to continue to be disciplined on offence and defence, but it’s the first game of the season. We’ll get there.”