The Breakers broke the game open from the tip-off, culminating their best first half scoring performance for the season with 62 points on the board at the main break, which turned into a 82-111 blowout victory at the Cairns Convention Centre.

Jackson-Cartwright put on a devastating attacking performance, staking his claim as a NBL superstar.

He finished with 20 points, eight assists, and four rebounds, leading the Breakers out of the gates with venom.

The 28-year-old guard invaded the paint with ease and was able to consistently manoeuvre his way to the basket, as well as orchestrate passes to open teammates.

Jackson-Cartwright didn’t stagnate possession, always looking for the extra pass and the rapid ball movement created easy points for Breakers, particularly in transition.

Breakers forward Anthony Lamb was a powerful presence with 32 points and eight rebounds.

“We just worked all week, we know they’ve been hot, (they have) a lot of really good, talented players,” Lamb said post game.

“We made sure we focused on the defensive rebounds, we gave up a lot last week.”

Despite starting on the bench, Taipans guard Taran Armstrong was impressive with 15 points and four assists.

SUFFOCATING PRESSURE

Breakers coach Mody Maor would have been ecstatic with the starting five’s energy and suffocating pressure from the get-go with Izayah Le’afa and Lamb setting the tone, despite the former finding himself in early foul trouble.

Switching between zone-coverage and man-on-man defence, they pushed Taipans to constantly rethink plays.

Meanwhile, the Taipans’ first quarter was one coach Adam Forde will want to eliminate from his memory.

The Snakes were killed in transition, giving up six careless turnovers and struggling to keep hold of possession and generate dangerous offence.

They struggled to get stops on defence, with limited paint pressure from the Taipans’ usually intimidating big-men, which pushed Forde to substitute the entire starting five midway through the opening quarter.

MILLER v JACKSON-CARTWRIGHT

It was a box office guard match-up that looked enticing on paper.

Heading into round 11, Taipans’ Patrick Miller led the league in assists (6.2), was third in points per game (20.1) and was one of three qualified guards shooting at least 50 cent from the field this season.

However, Breakers Jackson-Cartwright has been sparking an offensive storm all season with 20.4 points per game and 5.8 assists.

Jackson-Cartwright won dual early as the pair went toe-to-to, not just by scoring at the basket but continually making the right play and rewarding his teammates for the hard work on defence.

On the other hand, Patrick Miller struggled early and was benched with the rest of the starting five midway through the first quarter.

He grew into the contest as the game went on finishing with 13 points.

UNITED DOMINATES PHOENIX IN THROWDOWN TO REMAIN TOP OF NBL

Lance Jenkinson

Melbourne United runs the city with the clench of an iron fist after another take-down of South East Melbourne Phoenix in a one-sided Throwdown at John Cain Arena on Thursday night.

United, top of the ladder and in imperious form, ran riot to win 106-78, registering their third win over Phoenix this season.

Phoenix had no answer to the domination of United twin towers Jo Lual-Acuil Jr and Ariel Hukporti.

Lual-Acuil Jr was particularly dominant on the defensive end, recording seven blocks, before taking over on the offensive end in the fourth to finish with 17 points and eight rebounds.

United will enter Saturday night’s clash with Adelaide 36ers as the clear title favourite on the back of this performance, improving to 12-3 on the season.

Phoenix is 8-7 and will need to improve significantly to get within a bull’s roar of United, but will be stronger next time out with new import Abdel Nader, a forward with NBA experience, signed.

With only two days before their next game against Illawarra on Saturday night in Traralgon, Phoenix’s woes could be compounded after Mitch Creek went off with a jarred knee in the fourth.

UNITED FLAIR

United brought a touch of showtime to the Throwdown in the first period.

The ladder leaders sliced and diced their way through the Phoenix defence to race to a 35-18 quarter time lead.

United point guard Matthew Dellavedova lined up centre Arial Hukporti for a huge left handed dunk and veteran Chris Goulding wowed with a look away pass to an unattended Luke Travers.

United shot 85% from the field in an incredible first quarter offensive display but the Phoenix offered little by way of a roadblock.

It was a half of frustration for the Phoenix, which saw stars Mitch Creek and Alan Williams have running battles with the referees.

Even the usually placid Phoenix coach Mike Kelly felt like the rub of the green was going against his team.

If the decision makers hadn’t annoyed the Phoenix enough, guard Gary Browne copped a technical foul for flopping and the resultant free throw stretched United’s lead to 20.

UNITED DOMINATION

Williams tried to ignite the Phoenix with five unanswered points, while Lual-Acuil Jr continued his block party, displaying the kind of defensive presence the Phoenix was crying out for as United went into half time leading 66-46.

At that stage, United led the points in the paint 38-22, shot at 75.8% from the field and had 31 bench points to nil.

The Phoenix refused to wave the white flag in the second half with an 11-4 run cutting the deficit to 13.

Both a creator and a finisher, Browne tried his utmost to get the Phoenix back into the game with 22 points

Any hope of a Phoenix last quarter comeback evaporated with a pair of Goulding threes early in the fourth.

TRIPLE TREAT

Hukporti had bad intentions from the moment he set foot on the court with the hoop in his sights.

The towering United centre rose for three massive dunks, including two connections with Dellavedova.

The pick of the lot was a two handed jam that put Phoenix’s Creek on a poster.

SCOREBOARD

South East Melbourne Phoenix 78 (Browne 22 Williams 12 Creek 12) lt Melbourne United 106 (Lual-Acuil Jr 17 Clark 15 Goulding 15)

At John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Originally published as NBL round 11: Breakers breeze past Taipans after Jackson-Cartwright domination