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NEW Zealand Breakers fans believing your team is getting screwed by the officials on a regular basis, take heart. You're right. Not sure the refs even recognise how much they do it. And Adelaide 36ers fans? Sadly, your team is close to its lowest ever ebb in its once proud NBL history. Those are the takeaways from yesterday's NBL matches.

That and the fact South East Melbourne has shown a little spunk and Tasmania has revelled in its record-making rout.

The Breakers getting screwed? Well, you be the judge. Coach Mody Maor cops two tech fouls during the halftime interval against Adelaide to be thrown out of the game for complaining of the 15-6 foul disparity. It's 17-6 as he walks away.

Starting the game against South East, the Breakers had three fouls in the first 67 seconds. Seriously now. Three in 67 seconds? Were the refs trying to goad or challenge Maor to see if he reacted?

OK. The Phoenix are in bonus from before the halfway mark of the first quarter, the Breakers cop six fouls, Finn Delany with two. Start quarter two and Delany cops his third foul, a dubious offensive foul within 13 seconds of the resumption.

Come on now. And yet, despite clearly being on the wrong end of the officiating attitude, New Zealand pulls ahead, Parker Jackson-Cartwright orchestrating his team and Anthony Lamb, Izayah Le'afa and Daniel Fotu hitting big shots to enjoy a 45-38 lead.

It could have been more but for some untimely turnovers, and by halftime it was less when Ben Ayre struck a triple to close the half at 41-45.

Credit the Phoenix for their defensive work, containing NZ to 20 in the third and a meagre 14 in the fourth, Mitch Creek (26 points at 67 per cent) a constant threat and Will Cummings also stepping up. Alan Williams had a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds and with two more assists would have had a triple-double, despite shooting at a clunky 29 per cent.

Breakers' Next Star Mantas Rubstavicius hit 2-of-3 big triples but with their offence running aground and Jackson-Cartwright nobbled with four fouls - including a brain fade on an Ayre 3-point attempt - South East was on its way to a much-needed victory.

On the dark side, Craig Moller injured his right knee in the first half and sadly it did not look good, the swingman having to be assisted from the court and having scans today. 

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 90 (Creek 26, Cummings 15, Browne 12, Ayre, Kenyon 11, Williams 10; Williams 14 rebs; Williams 8 assts) d NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 79 (Le'afa 17, Jackson-Cartwright, Lamb 14, Rubstavicius 11; Mathiang 8 rebs; Jackson-Cartwright 7 assts) at John Cain Arena. Crowd: 6,244

IF the Adelaide 36ers have produced a worse or more pathetic display in the club's 41-year history than they did in Hobart against the focused, fired-up and full-on JackJumpers, you'd be hard-pressed to find it.

Former 36er Anthony Drmic opened proceedings swishing a 3-pointer, then Marcus Lee threw down a slam dunk off a sweet lob for 5-0 and it already was evident Adelaide was heading into deep doggy-do.

Who knew just how deep though? Blame the tough scheduling, rough flights, bad hair day, whatever, these guys were just pathetic.

Their 59-point tally was the second lowest in a 40-minute game - forget the NBL's usual self-serving garbage about their "lowest score in the 40-minute era" because that supposed "era" excludes 1979-1983 when the league played 40-minute games ahead of the 48-minute years.

Back in 1983 - yes, 40 years ago - they had a 57-point game against Brisbane which is their actual lowest score. Yesterday's 59-point extravaganza did match their lowest score since the NBL returned to 40-minute contests.

But basically, without splitting any more hairs, they were as bad as they have ever been, especially when you look at the roster which, like Illawarra's, is far better than what it is producing.

While Tasmania played some of the most genuinely engaging, fun, team-orientated and enjoyable-to-watch basketball of the year, Adelaide steadily devolved into a head-shaking, disorientated morass of individualism and disillusionment.

Directionless, they lacked heart or commitment, starting backcourt Mitch McCarron and Trey Kell (who surely cannot yet be back to 100 per cent), going a combined 0-of-9.

Isaac Humphries had nine points and six rebounds but 17 minutes was all he saw, Jacob Wiley seemingly battling alone against the avalanche Jordon Crawford and Sean MacDonald were raining down upon the 36ers.

Milton Doyle was having fun, Jack McVeigh the time of his life and Drmic thoroughly enjoying  himself as Tasmania scored the biggest win of its short life, its 20-8 second period turning a 25-15 first quarter into an embarrassing 45-23 halftime lead.

The lowest scoring half by anyone this season, Adelaide had a chance to take stock during the break but CJ Bruton's team had already parachuted out of this burning wreck, leaving him to pilot it into the ground. It was actually sad watching this great identity of our sport struggling on the sideline.

Eventually the idea of playing his younger brigade occurred to someone - assistant Craig Simpson as usual carrying on like a sideline pork chop - and they showed some pluck, the team elders a sullen crew along the bench.

The only issue for the young 'uns was the fact Dejan Vasiljevic saw their arrival as his chance to repeatedly go one-on-one, somewhat limiting their options. Trentyn Flowers managed to draw a foul on Lee but the next time he went up for a slam, Lee was equal to it, rejecting it into tomorrow.

And tomorrow may not be a another very good day for this lamentable shambles of a basketball team.     

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 94 (Doyle 20, MacDonald 15, McVeigh 14, Drmic 13, Crawford 10; Lee 10 rebs; Doyle 6 assts) d ADELAIDE 36ERS 59 (Vasiljevic 15, Wiley 14, Humphries 9; Starling 8 rebs; Starling 3 assts) at MyState Bank Arena. Crowd: 4,340