Injury concerns for Breakers after third loss to Bullets
It’s the injuries, not the early run of defeats, that concern new Breakers head coach Paul Henare after a faltering start to the pre-season.
The Breakers were swept 3-0 by Andrej Lemanis’ Brisbane Bullets in their Aussie NBL pre-season series which concluded in Invercargill yesterday with an 86-77 victory for the visitors.
Undermanned only begins to describe how the Breakers finished their internal tour, with Corey Webster (back and hip soreness) and Kirk Penney (calf strain) both sitting out the finale, Tom Abercrombie only able to go the first minute after hurting his back in the warmup and import point guard Ben Woodside withdrawn at halftime with a heel problem.
The only bright side of that equation was the fact that 2.15m centre Alex Pledger was able to see his first action of the series, experiencing no issues with his quad injury in 17 minutes of activity (eight points, three rebounds).
Henare had no problems with the lack of a win from the three outings.
‘‘This week was never about results, and the pre-season is never about results,’’ he said. ‘‘You don’t want to let that losing attitude slip in, but we’ve stayed focused on what we’ve tried to achieve each game and tried to have some improvement across the week.
‘‘Though I would have liked a little more improvement in certain areas we have come together well as a team.’’
But Henare admitted the injuries were an issue with just the three games in the official pre-season tournament in Brisbane next Friday, Sunday and Monday to come before the October 7 regular season tipoff against competition favourites Melbourne United.
‘‘It’s a big concern,’’ added Henare. ‘‘We need everybody on deck, and we haven’t had everybody on deck yet. It’s a little frustrating, but you can’t do anything about it. We’ll just have to deal with it as best we can.’’
All the afflictions are considered relatively minor, though Abercrombie’s back problem had yet to be fully diagnosed. Webster had been slowed in game two by his injury and Henare hopes he can get as many bodies as he can fit to play in Brisbane.
‘‘The first priority is to get as healthy as we can.
‘‘Whilst we don’t want to push guys through when we don’t have to, it’s our last hitout and we’ll need guys getting into game-shape going into October 7.
‘‘We’ll have to find a balance between resting and playing through some stuff.’’
Henare felt he saw some improvement on the boards and defending the paint in the final outing. He also saw enough from new imports Woodside and Akil Mitchell, and new Aussie pickup Isaih Tueta to feel encouraged.
‘‘Akil is a great athlete, a really good defender, and impacts the game in so many ways.
‘‘He was one of our most consistent guys in this series.’’