What Round 19 openers mean for Finals race

The opening fixtures of Round 19 have dramatic NBL24 Finals permutations. The Breakers, Hawks, Bullets and 36ers are all jostling for a Play-In position, and while Illawarra and Brisbane hold their destiny in their own hands for the remainder of the season, Adelaide and New Zealand do not.

The Hawks have defeated the Breakers in both meetings between the two clubs during Justin Tatum’s tenure, while Adelaide basically has to win out for the remainder of the season and hope for the best if it’s to continue its fairytale run to the post-season.

Liam Santamaria says a number of possible outcomes for the regular seasons will be struck from the record pending the results of Friday's pair of high-pressure contests.

“Really a lot of it comes out of this one. New Zealand coming in they’re going to need to knock one of these two out. Brisbane, maybe they don’t go 2-0, or Illawarra, maybe they don’t win a bunch of these final four games,” Santamaria said on NBL Now.

“This is the thing that makes it big for New Zealand, they play the teams they’re trying to knock out and it starts tonight against Illawarra. It’s essentially a Playoff game, this one.

“What if Illawarra goes 0-2 this week? Now, from sitting in the top four, now they’re staring at this final round thinking ‘my goodness, we may all of a sudden miss’. For Cinderella, midnight might strike.

“There’s a lot on the line in a lot of these games. It might be congested, it might not be a round that started on a Thursday night and goes deep into the following week, but every single one of these games has Playoff implications.”

One of the NBL’s key storylines heading into the final two weeks of the regular season revolves around the Breakers, and how they’re going to tackle this run home without the services of star import Anthony Lamb.

Lamb’s performances this season have seen him labelled as a near-consensus All-NBL First Team-elect, however a ruptured Achilles has brought his successful individual campaign to a screeching halt.

Santamaria says Lamb’s absence adds another string to the bow of an already exciting matchup between New Zealand and Illawarra.

“Some people are in the camp that New Zealand will be about to power on and some people are in the camp that it’s a devastating blow,” he said.

“We’re going to see what that looks like a little bit tonight.

“Illawarra has been the thorn in New Zealand’s side in recent times. Remember when they made the change to Justin Tatum and bid farewell to Jacob Jackomas, that first game was in New Zealand and Tatum led them to victory. I remember my man AJ Johnson sliding along the base line and catching a body, and Gary Clark having an emphatic dunk in the last minute to grab that game.

“Then it was less than two weeks ago where was Anthony Lamb fouled by Justin Robinson going to the rim? The ref said no, I say yes, and that’s two wins over the Breakers for the Hawks in recent times.”

Round 19 will begin tonight at 5:30pm AEDT when the Hawks take on the Breakers, live on ESPN via Kayo, and Sky Sport in NZ.