Breakers are going ‘soft’ says veteran
Tom Abercrombie didn’t need his coach to tell him how poorly he had just played.
After last Friday’s horrible fourth-quarter meltdown against the Adelaide 36ers at Spark Arena, Breakers coach Paul Henare labelled his team soft and lacking in accountability as they plunged to a fourth Australian NBL defeat in five games.
A 34-11 final term in the visitors’ favour had seen the brittle Breakers fall apart after leading through the first three periods. They played matador defence and shot like they were wearing mittens, making just four of 21 attempts for the fourth quarter.
‘‘You come out of a game like that and you feel like you’ve just been punched in the guts,’’ said Abercrombie before heading to Sydney for tonight’s (9.30pm tip NZT) final pre-christmas outing. ‘‘I know I had a really bad feeling inside me.
‘‘It was a tough pill to swallow, giving up 34 points in the fourth quarter. There is something to be said for moving on and staying positive but you’ve got to learn from an experience like that. It was a big wakeup call.
‘‘Like Pauli said, some softness has crept into our game and that’s not what we’re about. We have to get back in the trenches.’’
Abercrombie had just two points from one-of-seven shooting in that 90-75 Adelaide defeat – his third game in the last five (all post the Fiba international break) where he has been kept to single-figures.
Like all his fellow starters and one or two of the key bench men, Abercrombie has been guilty of inconsistency over the five-game funk. He has also been around this game long enough to understand the keys to turning it around.
‘‘The important thing is even though we have guys who have been in these situations before, it’s not something you just gloss over and say we’ve got guys who are experienced, we’ll be all right. You have to look at what’s going on and address it.
‘‘When you’ve got momentum you feel the confidence and just roll with it. Then when things aren’t going so well it comes back to putting your head down, working hard and going through those little checklists and make sure you’re not taking any short-cuts anywhere and doing the right things.’’
And for all the naval-gazing going on in Breakerland right now, with Henare invoking the threat of calling in a third import if the situation worsens, their situation is one the 3-11 Sydney Kings would kill for.
The Breakers may have plunged from their runaway 9-1 record, but their second-placed 10-5 mark is still one they would probably have taken at season’s start.
‘‘We’re in a very good position,’’ added Abercrombie. ‘‘Now we’re into a little period of just playing one game a week, we’ve talked about coming out of the gates these games and just leaving everything out there.’’