Three-Time NBL Champion Predicts Breakers/Kings Finale

Thursday, February 16, 2023

The New Zealand Breakers are in line to return to the NBL Championship Series, and they’ll be taking on the reigning champions.

The New Zealand Breakers are in line to return to the NBL Championship Series, and they’ll be taking on the reigning champions – if you follow the same school of thought as three-time NBL champion and two-time MVP Chris Anstey.

Speaking on SEN, Anstey believes the Sydney Kings will overpower the Cairns Taipans in their Playoff series, and he also says New Zealand’s 1-0 series lead over Tasmania looks unassailable given how the first game of the series played out.

“When you come up against a team with the depth, the talent, the length, the athleticism of the Kings you really need to be operation on all cylinders,” Anstey said. “The Cairns Taipans aren’t.

“They’ve done so many things right and you can only imagine internally it’s got to be disappointing that they’re taking on the number one seed without their best player and potentially one of their imports, but they’ll play hard.

“They’ll make the Kings beat them, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the Kings come out early.”

New Zealand, like Sydney, were the benefactors of an extended break ahead of the Playoffs, and Anstey say that looks to have been the difference in the first game of the series.

“New Zealand came out and looked fresh while Tasmania came out and looked tired,” he said.

“In my opinion Tasmania has overachieved with the talent they’ve got. When they hit this stage of the season – just like when they hit the Championship Series last season – they were just out-talented.

“With a few key players down it’s hard to see Tassie turning the tables … if the scores were tied in the final three minutes, I’d have more faith in the Breakers’ shot-making ability, and you just think it might be a little bit too much.

“If we do get a New Zealand vs Sydney Championship Series then you have to argue the two best teams for the year made it.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It's been five seasons since playing in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLFinals?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLFinals</a>, but now the <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NZBreakers</a> are back ?<br><br>The Foot Locker Player of the Game is William McDowell-White ? <a href="https://t.co/QVoth87nib">pic.twitter.com/QVoth87nib</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1624665784147664898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Despite not backing the JackJumpers to make the final two, Anstey praised them highly for their red-hot entrance into the NBL competition.

After being tipped to finish in the lower reaches of the ladder in both their campaigns so far, Tasmania has turned into the feel-good story of the competition by registering back-to-back fourth place finishes.

“I’m finding it more and more difficult to tip against the JackJumpers,” he said. “They just continue to find a way to bob up and win games you don’t expect them to.

“I can’t think of another NBL start-up franchise that’s been so successful so quickly … to do what they’ve done – to make a championship series and a final four in their first two years is a credit to everyone in the program.”

The Kings kick off their series against the Taipans on Wednesday night at 7:30pm AEDT, while the second game between New Zealand and Tasmania tips off on Friday night at 7:30pm AEDT.

Both games are live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.

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