![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768365730_454_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Lopez had an excited New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon out of his seat, but more importantly the NBA scouts furiously scribbling positive thoughts in their notepads.<\/p>\n
The Mexican teenager showed off his ridiculously deep bag of tricks, coolly hitting from deep in the arc and mid-range, while audaciously showing off his silky fadeaway jump shot.<\/p>\n
With star forward Sam Mennenga (wrist) joining Rob Baker II and Izayah Le\u2019Afa on the season-long injury list, few gave the Breakers hope of upsetting a full strength United riding a three-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
But the Breakers preached a next man mentality in training during the week and backed up the words with Lopez leading the way.<\/p>\n
A long range three-point attempt from Milton Doyle failed on the final buzzer and United\u2019s winning streak came to an end.<\/p>\n
Towering centre Jesse Edwards exerted his dominance with 23 points and 14 rebounds, including eight offensive.<\/p>\n
7 EJECTED in all-in NBL brawl | 02:13<\/p>\n
The Dutch import took full advantage of the Breakers lack of presence in the paint in Mennenga\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
Edwards was a calming influence when United stared down a 10-point deficit in the first half.<\/p>\n
Outside of Edwards, it was a flaky display for United with players flashing in and out at both ends.<\/p>\n
United led by eight points late in the game, but could not hold on against a brave Breakers side with it all to play for.<\/p>\n
Chris Goulding (16) and Finn Delany (13) had periods of dominance for United, but it was unsustained.<\/p>\n
The Breakers are not feeling sorry for themselves as the injuries pile up, believing in the next man up mentality they preached pre-game.<\/p>\n
Arriving at the do-or-die stage of the season, the seventh-placed Breakers made a fast start, racing to a 28-21 quarter time lead and signalling their intent to hang in the top six race.<\/p>\n
Breakers point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright was the catalyst, slicing and dicing his way to 23 points, three assists and two steals.<\/p>\n
Jackson-Cartwright\u2019s speed was a constant threat.<\/p>\n
Aerial threat<\/p>\n
Spring-heeled Breaker Izaiah Brockington lifted the roof off the stadium with a vicious dunk.<\/p>\n
Brockington showed no concern for the length of United forward Malith Machar, putting him on a poster.<\/p>\n
Former NBL legend Damon Lowery said of the dunk: \u201cThat was just disrespectful\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was a laboured and messy start for United, but they turned on the defensive blowtorch in the second quarter to get back into the game.<\/p>\n
United took a slender two-point lead into three quarter time, but only after a Brockington three-point attempt on the buzzer swivelled around the hoop three times before trickling out.<\/p>\n
The Breakers won a tight last quarter 26-22 as a road weavy United ran out of legs.<\/p>\n
Tenacious as always<\/p>\n
It was a sight to warm the heart of United fans.<\/p>\n
Veteran point guard Shea Ili, returning from eight games out with a hamstring injury, scrambling on all fours to retrieve a loose ball shortly after checking into his return game.<\/p>\n
Ili showed no limitations, throwing his body on the line to produce a strong performance with 11 points and three assists.<\/p>\n
Legend honoured<\/p>\n
The Breakers honoured New Zealand basketball and club legend Tom Abercrombie.<\/p>\n
The team retired Abercrombie\u2019s number 10 jersey, which will hang in the Spark Arena rafters.<\/p>\n
A four time NBL champion, Abercrombie was a key part of the history-making first Breakers title team that went on to complete a three-peat between 2011-13.<\/p>\n
NBL SCOREBOARD<\/p>\n
New Zealand Breakers 97 (Lopez 32 Jackson-Cartwright 23) d Melbourne United 95 (Edwards 23 Goulding 16)<\/p>\n
At Spark Arena, Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A star was born on a night when Melbourne United\u2019s top-two hopes took a significant blow with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[141763,64,63,689,726,231732,68088,44079,6173,163984,231728,142570,4517,231729,226420,97614,8084,231730,231723,231727,97616,1736,677,210719,205114,6895,23596,231722,231731,149817,231733,68135,231724,231726,85,30194,231725,224658,231721,49981,187549,3585,9020],"class_list":["post-447126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-aerial-threat","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-basketball","tag-breakers-point","tag-chris-goulding","tag-christopher-luxon","tag-club-legend","tag-damon-lowery","tag-defensive-blowtorch","tag-final-buzzer","tag-hamstring-injury","tag-injuries-pile","tag-izaiah-brockington","tag-jesse-edwards","tag-lance-jenkinson","tag-lopez-32-jackson-cartwright","tag-man-mentality","tag-mexican-teenager","tag-milton-doyle","tag-new-zealand","tag-oceania","tag-playoff-race","tag-positive-thoughts","tag-prime-minister","tag-quarter-time","tag-range-three-point-attempt","tag-road-weavy","tag-sam-mennenga","tag-season-long-injury-list","tag-shea-ili","tag-slender-two-point-lead","tag-spark-arena","tag-sports","tag-three-game-winning-streak","tag-three-point-attempt","tag-title-team","tag-tom-abercrombie","tag-top-two-hopes","tag-veteran-point","tag-winning-streak","tag-young-gun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}