MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy’s View from Downunder) - If you missed the performances of Boomer Adam Gibson and Tall Black Tom Abercrombie in last Sunday’s NBL national TV game, catch the replay.

Whether it’s on nbl.tv or Livebasketball.tv, it’s worth spending a couple of hours of your life watching just for the performance of that duo.

Gibson simply controlled the game, Milos Teodosic-like offensively with the ball in hand on his way to 34 points and nine assists, and Damian Martin-like defensively on his way to nine rebounds and six steals.

Abercrombie was en fuego with a 22-point second half, including 11 in a tick over 80 seconds late in the game that helped the Breakers reduce a 14-point deficit to two and almost steal an incredible victory.

Not surprisingly though, it was Gibson who shut the door for Adelaide, nailing 7-of-8 free throws in the final 93 seconds to seal the win in front of a 36ers crowd whose enthusiasm has returned to levels of yesteryear.

Both players have been constant members of their national teams since the 2009 FIBA Oceania Championship, which makes it feel as if they’ve been around forever.

The reality is they're aged 28 and 27 respectively, only at the beginning of their prime, and certainly Sunday’s efforts suggest they’ve got plenty more masterpieces to uncork in the near future.

Having the Moltens

Interestingly, where Gibson was so effective against the Breakers was off the ball-screen, where he was unflappable in the face of a number of different defensive looks.

At Spain 2014, he was Australia’s best point guard when it came to pushing the ball, getting flow into the offence and getting the ball to the post.

Where he was constantly hesitant was with ball in hand, allowing big defenders to sag well off the on-ball unpunished, something Matt Dellavedova was also guilty of.

Former Boomers floor general Shane Heal commented a number of times Gibson was more than capable of making those plays, but was simply lacking confidence (or the Moltens) to do so.

Certainly, Sunday’s dominant effort against half the New Zealand national team – plus Cedric Jackson and Nigerian international Ekene Ibekwe – suggests Heal was on the mark.

Having the Molten

In contrast, Abercrombie’s burst was very similar to his sublime first quarter against the Dominican Republic at the World Cup, and the underlying issue the same from the Tall Blacks to the Breakers.

On that Spain 2014 morning Abercrombie scored 13 first-quarter points on 5-of-7, but got just two more shot attempts until the final 20 seconds of the game.

Now it’s well known Abercrombie was playing injured, but when a guy is hot he needs the ball.

The jumping jack turned marksmen is shooting 50 per cent from distance this season – as he was for most of last year – but up until Sunday’s game he was getting just seven shots a night.

Part of it is Abercrombie needing to overcome his natural inclination to defer to talented teammates, the rest his teams needing to get him involved more.

As he further emerges from a recent hernia operation, let’s hope both sides of the equation improve, and the attention Abercrombie then draws is used to make teammates better.

Welcoming old chum Motum

Another great story from that Adelaide-New Zealand clash was the 23-point performance of 36er Brendan Teys, who only two years ago was checking tickets at Reading Cinemas in Townsville while battling for an NBL contract.

Now he starts for one of the league’s best teams, not only helping deliver victories, but also delivering boom recruit Brock Motum, his lifelong friend who was recently cut by the Utah Jazz.

Motum made a tentative but promising start to his international career this year, averaging 6.5 points at 49 per cent in 13 minutes per night at Spain 2014.

While his signing with Adelaide was seen as a surprise, the chance to play with Teysy and national teammate Gibson proved too good to resist, and that pair put on a show to let him know how much fun he’s going to have.

Teys laughed afterwards that he was showing his old mate who the star of the team was!

Fun to watch

Full credit must go the NBL for the broadcast of Sunday’s clash. There were more replays of great action than you could poke a stick at (not that I actually tried, there were no sticks handy).

Lachy Reid flown in from Perth gave plenty of enthusiasm and the product was a great advertisement for the league.

Now if they can just insert some other great plays from around the league we’ll have a broadcast that might get some new fans putting the remote control down.

An elite panel?

Perhaps the one letdown from Sunday were some of the refereeing decisions.

Michael Aylen and Damien Lyons did a pretty good job, but it did seem that officiating at professional level is a big challenge for Andrew Filmer.

This was highlighted by not calling Abercrombie for an unsportsmanlike foul in the second stanza when he effectively shouldered Teys as the last defender, yet call a USF in the crucial dying seconds when Abercrombie made a play at the ball with Corey Webster between him and the basket.

Senior officials have long complained that the NBL panel has too many referees, diluting the quality of whistle-blowers.

A reasonable argument against reducing it has been the relatively low pay rates making it difficult for the better officials to commit to an increased number of games.

I like the idea of creating a smaller elite panel that covers NBL and WNBL games, giving the best refs more games, more income, and allows for consistent underperformers to be relegated back to the lower levels.

This is too important a time for basketball to have those not capable of calling the game effectively still making mistakes on centre stage.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

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