Basketball On The Internet.

NOT even the halftime ejection of coach Mody Maor last night could stall the recovery of the New Zealand Breakers as a playoff threat, dispensing with the directionless and erratic Adelaide 36ers 96-83 behind an Izayah Le'afa 3-point barrage in Christchurch. And bear in mind the Sixers scored twice in the last 10 seconds.

This game was in the Breakers' keeping pretty much from the moment club icon Tom Abercrombie stuck an opening 3-pointer in an immediate 9-0 run which then grew to 11-1 and just continued to balloon.

Le'afa came off the depleted bench to sink 3-of-3 threes in that first period, 5-of-7 to halftime and 7-of-10 before he missed his last one, probably from exhaustion. He also had played some great D with a couple of memorable come-from-around-the-back steals.

He was great but so too was Parker Jackson-Cartwright, who played 38:08 straight before finally being relieved of his duties.

PJC's 21 points came at 67 per cent and accompanied six rebounds, nine assists and three steals in arguably his finest and most creative game as a Breaker.

Anthony Lamb also again was huge, possibly even preposterous with some of the moves he put on the Sixers en route to 24 points at 56 per cent (with four 3s), six rebounds and six assists.

By quarter-time, this was as good as done, New Zealand's 37-point first quarter the most this season, giving it a 20-point lead.

But it was in foul trouble and as Adelaide grafted it back to 41-53 by halftime, Maor remonstrating mid-court with the officiating crew - possibly about the 6 fouls to 15 disparity - did precious little.

The NBL this week having announced a crackdown on coach behaviour, Maor copped two technical fouls from Chris Reid and was done for the day, Daniel Sokolovsky stepping into the hotseat.

(Personally, a crackdown on coach behaviour was LONG overdue. Of course, it would help alleviate the situation if the NBL had more than a bare minimum of competent officials too.)

Isaac Humphries led a 36ers revival as they closed to eight before Lamb hit a particularly big shot as New Zealand regained some lost momentum.

Out 77-60 with a period to play, the Breakers again faced a 36ers onslaught, this time Sunday Dech pairing two big threes as Adelaide rallied.

With Jacob Wiley (10 points, 12 rebounds, two assist and a steal) inspired, Adelaide closed to 75-82 before Le'afa and Lamb hit threes and PJC went hard to the hoop as part of a 9-0 run.

And at 91-75, this was over, the Breakers home despite the injury absences of import Zylan Cheatham, Aussie playmaker Will McDowell-White, foul woes and coach Maor in the changerooms for the second half.

On the plus side for Adelaide, all 12 players had a run so all their mums and dads will be happy.

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 96 (Lamb 24, Jackson-Cartwright, Le'afa 21, Delany 10; Jackson-Cartwright, Lamb 6 rebs; Jackson-Cartwright 9 asts) d ADELAIDE 36ERS 83 (Vasiljevic 14, McCarron 11, Humphries, Dech, Wiley 10; Wiley 12 rebs; Vasiljevic 4 assts) at Wolfbrook Arena, Christchurch. Crowd: 3,936