Beyond Breaking Point: Brown's Unrivalled Resilience

Thursday, February 23, 2023

New Zealand Breakers’ import guard Barry Brown Jr has dominated in the Playoffs and head coach Mody Maor is optimistic he will continue that momentum into the Championship Series.

Brown Jr has been the top scorer for the past two Playoff games, as he added 32 points in Game 3 and 19 in Game 2 against the Tasmania JackJumpers.

The 32 points were the second most points by a Breaker in a Finals game. Only Kirk Penney has had more with 38 against Perth in 2011.

Maor applauded Brown Jr’s performances this season and praised his commitment to the team, despite injuries that should have sidelined him.

“Most people don’t know but he played through a broken hand in the first few games of the series,” Maor said.

“He gutted it out and was on the floor and did everything he could to help us, but he wasn’t himself 100 per cent and you could see yesterday when he is, he does good things.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Another bit of Breaker history was written last night ?<br><br>Only Kirk Penney has scored more points in an NBL finals game for the Breakers (38 in 2011) <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNBREAKABLE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UNBREAKABLE</a> <a href="https://t.co/i4agpKpqs5">pic.twitter.com/i4agpKpqs5</a></p>— Sky Sport New Zealand Breakers (@NZBreakers) <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers/status/1627441663819014144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Breakers’ veteran and captain Tom Abercrombie spoke on the significance of Brown Jr and his ability to drive the ball on the offensive end of the court.

“That’s Barry in a nutshell,” Abercrombie said.

“He’s done it multiple times this year, when we’ve had games when we’ve struggled offensively. He’s that ace in the back pocket – someone who can create their own shot and get things going.“He did a fantastic job of not settling for his floater which he’s very good at. Mody had a quiet word to him yesterday about trying to take one more dribble and get to the rim. He did an awesome job of putting pressure on their defence and they had no answer for him.”

The Breakers have time to prepare for the best-of-five Championship Series, with the FIBA window falling in between the two series.

Game 1 of the Championship Series against the Sydney Kings is on Friday 3^rd March at Qudos Bank Arena. Watch the game at 7:30pm AEDT live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies, 10 Peach and 10 play, and Sky Sport in NZ.