Every Sam Mennenga game of NBL27: drag the line
points, all 8 games to 18 Oct · the 3 without Parker Jackson-Cartwright marked under the columnsOver 26.5: 4/8 games · Without PJC: 3/3 games
Show the numbers
| Date | Opponent | PJC | Points | Rebounds | Minutes | Share of plays | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Sep | v Illawarra Hawks | played | 27 | 8 | 33 | 29.5% | W 95–81 |
| 22 Sep | at Brisbane Bullets | played | 12 | 5 | 33 | 27.7% | L 85–88 |
| 26 Sep | at Perth Wildcats | played | 12 | 4 | 23 | 20.3% | L 93–97 |
| 30 Sep | v Cairns Taipans | played | 18 | 9 | 32 | 24.7% | W 98–75 |
| 4 Oct | at Adelaide 36ers | played | 14 | 5 | 32 | 21.2% | W 88–72 |
| 10 Oct | at Perth Wildcats | out | 40 | 18 | 36 | 41.0% | L 84–100 |
| 14 Oct | at Sydney Kings | out | 27 | 13 | 34 | 25.5% | W 102–101 |
| 18 Oct | at Tasmania JackJumpers | out | 36 | 11 | 36 | 34.9% | L 92–98 |
Why?
Parker Jackson-Cartwright (PJC) still leads the NBL at 26.6 points a game, and has not played since 4 October. On 10 October, hours before the Breakers played at Perth, the club announced a lower-leg injury that would sideline Jackson-Cartwright for a number of weeks. Sam Mennenga scored 40 that night. So I counted every Mennenga game of NBL27, with PJC and without.
Mennenga's bigger role
In 5 games with PJC, Mennenga averaged 16.6 points and 6.2 rebounds. In the 3 without: points and rebounds, more than double on both. Flip Figure 2 to Rebounds and Share of plays.
Without PJC, Mennenga's points and rebounds more than doubled
a game, NBL27 · 5 games with Parker Jackson-Cartwright, then 3 without · the change in the gapShow the numbers
| Games | Points | Rebounds | Minutes | Share of plays | Breakers won | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| With PJC | 5 | 16.6 | 6.2 | 30.7 | 24.7% | 3 of 5 |
| Without PJC | 3 | 34.3 | 14.0 | 35.3 | 33.8% | 1 of 3 |
Mennenga also played more, 35.3 minutes a game without PJC against 30.7 with, and had more of the ball: share of plays, a usage rate (the share of the team's plays a player finishes while on the court), went from 24.7% to . Without PJC, about a third of the plays end with Mennenga, up from a quarter. And Mennenga was already climbing: the biggest scoring rise of 2025-26 among NBL players with real minutes in both seasons was Mennenga's.
The night at Perth
Mennenga's 40 points and 18 rebounds at Perth are the only NBL game of 40 or more points and 15 or more rebounds in Punt's box scores, which go back to 15 January 2021 and cover 1,000 of the 1,001 completed games since. The closest is Montrezl Harrell's 36 and 16 on 25 October 2024. The 40 also ties Cole Anthony's 40 on 3 October for the most points in an NBL27 game.
The three games without PJC:
| Points | Rebounds | Breakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Oct, at Perth | 40 | 18 | L 84–100 |
| 14 Oct, at Sydney | 27 | 13 | W 102–101 |
| 18 Oct, at Tasmania | 36 | 11 | L 92–98 |
Mennenga scored 27 or more in all 3; with PJC, in 1 of 5. Figure 1's line starts just under that, at 26.5.
MVP numbers, MVP wins?
Over the season, Mennenga's 23.3 a game is 4th among the 94 NBL27 players with 5 or more games. The wins have not followed the points:
| Breakers won | Scored a game | Let in a game | |
|---|---|---|---|
| With PJC | 3 of 5 | 91.8 | 82.6 |
| Without | 1 of 3 | 92.7 | 99.7 |
The Breakers scored about as many without PJC, and let in 17 more a game. The one win, at Sydney, was by a point. All 3 games without PJC were away; 3 of the 5 with were too.
MVP numbers, yes. MVP wins? Not yet. Three games, all away, can't say how much of the Breakers' 1–2 comes from losing PJC and how much from the road. The club's 10 October statement gave no return date, and the game at Cairns on Sunday 25 October, 2 pm local time, had not been played when these numbers were read on 22 October 2026. I'll count Mennenga's games again once PJC is back.
Summary
- Points a game
- 16.6with PJC34.3without
- Rebounds a game
- 6.2with PJC14.0without
- Without PJC
- 40L27W36L
The working
Definitions, sources and when the numbers were read
- Games
- Every NBL27 game Sam Mennenga played for the NZ Breakers to 18 October 2026: 8, 5 with Parker Jackson-Cartwright and 3 without. A game played means minutes above zero; without means Jackson-Cartwright had no minutes (no box-score row) in that game. Jackson-Cartwright played the first 5, at 26.6 points a game.
- Share of plays
- The usage rate the feed stores for each game, averaged over the games: 100 × (FGA + 0.44 × FTA + turnovers) × (team minutes ÷ 5) ÷ (minutes × (team FGA + 0.44 × team FTA + team turnovers)). Derived.
- 40 and 15
- Every NBL player-game in Punt's database, any season, any round. Box scores start on 15 January 2021; 1,000 of the 1,001 completed games since have one. The one without: NZ Breakers v Perth Wildcats, 4 January 2023. The closest is the most points in any other game with 15 or more rebounds. The most rebounds in any other 40-point game: 10, Mitchell Creek's 46 on 18 December 2022.
- Ranks
- Points a game among the 94 NBL27 players with 5 or more games, the floor Punt ranks by: Parker Jackson-Cartwright 26.6 (5 games), Mennenga 4th on 23.3. The NBL27 high, 40 points, is shared by Cole Anthony (3 October) and Sam Mennenga (10 October).
- The Breakers
- Won means the Breakers' score was higher. Scored and let in: the Breakers' score and the opponent's in each of Mennenga's games, averaged. Home games: 2 of the 5 with Jackson-Cartwright, 0 of the 3 without.
- Read
- 22 October 2026, from Punt's database, in a read-only transaction. The Breakers' next game, at Cairns Taipans (Cairns Convention Centre) on 25 October, 2 pm local time, had not been played.
- Sources
- The injury: NBL.com.au, Breakers suffer huge injury blow, 11 October 2026: the club announced on Saturday 10 October that Parker Jackson-Cartwright would be sidelined for a number of weeks with a lower-leg injury. The competition's own record is at nbl.com.au.
- Not in this article
- Who took Jackson-Cartwright's minutes, assists and plays created, defence, the opponents' absences, and prices.
- Sources and terms
- Every source Punt uses, with its licence, is on Credits. The terms are defined in the Glossary, and the methodology page sets out where every number comes from and the rules it follows.