So close and yet so far

The NZ Breakers came within a heartbeat of winning a second consecutive ANBL title last night; the Herald reports:

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

The New Zealand Breakers will be doing exactly that at Vector Arena on Tuesday night, after the Wildcats last night levelled up the Australian NBL grand final series with a 87-86 win in Perth.

The Breakers will be hoping the long plane ride home will induce some amnesia, considering they held the lead and generally controlled the second game of the series for most of the contest.

It will be hard for the Breakers to recover for the deciding game in just three days' time, but they must do exactly that if they are to have any chance of winning back-to-back championships.

It is perhaps fitting that these great foes will battle it out in three. The finals were billed as a potentially classic series before a basket was even shot, and the first two games have done nothing to dispel that prospect.

We tried in vain to watch last night's match, but mid-way through the second quarter our eyelids just got too heavy, so we watched it on MySky this morning. CJ Bruton had a chance with the final possession of the match, but his run to the basket got blocked, and as the Americans say, that's all she wrote.

Both teams will be licking their wounds this morning; the brusing play and demanding travel schedule is taking its toll. And thus far, it's a carbon copy of last year's play-off series where the Breakers emerged victorious at home in the last match of the season. Can history repeat on Tuesday night at the Vector Arena? You betcha!

PS: Tickets for Tuesday's match go on sale at 9am this morning; get in quick!