Breakers must show nasty side
When Breakers coach Paul Henare gathered his men in at the end of Wednesday’s practice three weeks of frustration came spewing out.
The spit flew, fingers were thrusting in all directions and eyes narrowed into dark slits.
The words weren’t so much spoken, as blasted. ‘‘Right now nice ain’t working,’’ he told his players around their need to have some honest conversations with each other leading into today’s clash against the Brisbane Bullets in Auckland.
‘‘Right now, it’s time to show some nasty,’’ he added.
Henare, the first-year Breakers head coach, is not by habit a sconedoer. It’s still a business he’s figuring out, and as a recent player of some renown he understands the need to communicate on an effective level with your men.
But within the measured and personable character lurks a castiron competitor and Henare is sick of losing, and sick of the part his team is playing in its own demise.
Finally, the time has come to unleash ‘‘the nasty’’.
Later he explained what he meant by this ‘‘nasty’’ which he was surprised to learn had already been coined by legendary San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
‘‘I’ve been too nice. We’re too nice right now,’’ he said.
‘‘We need to bring back a little bit of nasty. I think this group are experienced enough to know where that nastiness should come from and what that means.
‘‘It’s not all of a sudden we hate each other. It’s about holding each other accountable for when we slip below our standards, and it’s happening far too often right now.’’ Desperate times, and all that. Henare’s Breakers have lost four straight in the Australian NBL and have plunged to last on the table with a 6-8 record. It’s not exactly familiar territory, given that it was just the second time in the last 263 rounds they had concluded a weekend at the foot of the table.
Three of those four defeats have been by double-digit margins, and two by embarrassing spreads (they lost by 31 at Illawarra and 24 in Melbourne). What’s more soft defence, careless turnovers, offensive breakdowns, poor free-throw shooting and stupid fouls have contributed heavily to the slump.
‘‘We just need to play with a bit of an edge,’’ explained Henare.
‘‘On the defensive end there are breakdowns we’re seeing over and over again on film. It’s being able to make that change and if those
"I've been too nice. We're too nice right now." Paul Henare
changes aren’t being made, it’s first myself and then team-mates holding those people accountable for slipping below standards.
‘‘Sometimes that can be an uncomfortable conversation and some people can take it the wrong way.
‘‘But the important thing is we’re sending the right message for the right reasons and we’re understanding why we’re receiving those messages.’’
Henare believes his group is experienced enough to take his message the right way. And to embrace it for what it is − a challenge.
This is a team allowing the second most points in the league (87.93 a game), committing the second most turnovers (15.43 on average, though 18.5 over the four straight defeats), committing the second most fouls and shooting the worst free-throw percentage.
Their situation is far from irretrievable, with the league so tight that two wins this round (they also visit Adelaide on Saturday) could thrust them back into the top four on a .500 record.
But Henare understands the need to put a fullstop under the sloppiness, starting against a 7-6 Bullets side that has its strengths, but also its weaknesses.
The Bullets have lost two of their last three, are a bit turnover prone, and on their last visit to the Breakers’ downtown arena, limped away with an 86-70 defeat on November 6.
Tipoff is 7.30pm. The Breakers’ season might not hinge on a win, but their coach’s sanity might.