Basketball On The Internet.

GIVE New Zealand its due - the Breakers were just too good for Perth in the finish, winning Game 2 of the best-of-three iiNet NBL Grand Final series 70-66 to complete the sweep and the three-peat.

It was a well-constructed win and saw the Breakers join Sydney as the only clubs in the NBL's rich and volatile history to win three consecutive championships.

It also was the only game in six meetings between the two clubs in 2012-13 which was decided by single figures, New Zealand's 70-point tally the lowest winning score in a championship series.

Congratulations are due - and were given on the night - to coach Andrej Lemanis and his extended support team which not only includes his coaching coterie but his senior players.

All have bought in and the results are on the board.

Cedric "Action" Jackson took the Larry Sengstock Medal, though personally I felt fellow Breakers guards CJ Bruton and Daryl Corletto were every bit as impactful, if not moreso.

That another superb crowd of 13,527 was in attendance at Perth Arena is testament to the Wildcats' organisation and the work done behind-the-scenes because you know BA, the NBL and most of the mainstream media did SFA in terms of promoting the grandest annual event on our basketball calendar.

What a shame then that the first half was some of the worst basketball you could hope to suffer, with 29-29 the interval score.

I mean, seriously, is that the kind of basketball we put on show as our best and wonder why we have problems selling the product?

Yes, I can hear the apologists talking up words such as "intensity" and "finals pressure" and "defence" and *blah blah.

It was just ugly to watch and if you were not a Breakers or Wildcats' fan, it only held your interest because a) it was our sport's grand final; or b) it was close.

Thank goodness it turned into something resembling a ball game in the second half but when a team is leading 40-29 in the third quarter and you're thinking: "This could be over" you just know we have been brainwashed into allowing our league to go from an entertaining player-driven spectacle to a dour-but-successful over-coached bad college game.

It was fitting Bruton, with 16 points which included 4-of-5 triples and the championship-clinching free throws at the death, delivered the final nails as he joined David Stiff as the only players to win six NBL championship rings.

He also started his NBL life as a Wildcat.

Game 2 was overly-physical, Shawn Redhage and Will Hudson tangling early, Redhage finishing the game with the swollen left side of his face draped in bandaging, Kevin Lisch and Daryl Corletto inciting a scuffle which Brad Robbins was only too eager to join.

Take nothing from Perth, it was brave in defeat and in the post-game, no-one spoke of the fact Defensive Player of the Year Damian Martin had to miss the Grand Finals with injury, which also showed class by not seizing the moment to diminish what the Breakers had achieved.

If a threepeat was easy, it would have occurred more than once in the NBL's 34-year history so there are insufficient accolades to summarise New Zealand's achievement.

Maybe Lemanis said it best when he said: "To do it once - you can kind of stumble onto it.

"But to go through that pain again, go through a pre-season, connect with your teammates again, play a different role and go through all that war again to get yourself in a position to do it again ... it means that they’re pretty special people."

They are and they deserve to be mentioned alongside any of the great teams or dynasties in NBL history.

Grand Final Game 2

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 70 (Bruton 16, Jackson 14, Corletto 11) d PERTH WILDCATS 66 (Lisch, Redhage 14, Wagstaff 10) at Perth Arena.

New Zealand wins best-of-three championship series 2-0.

(*That was "blah blah" NOT baa baa)