Change inevitable at Breakers, says coach
When Kevin Braswell picks over the carcass of this underwhelming Breakers season he won’t have far to look for the most obvious deficiency.
After Thursday night’s 114-107 defeat to the Adelaide 36ers, Braswell’s men slipped to 10-15 for the Australian NBL season. With just three games remaining, starting tonight at the Illawarra Hawks, there is just one club below the Kiwis on the standings.
No matter what lens you view this season through, this group of players have come up short of the mark. And nowhere more than when the opposition have the ball.
Once again on Thursday the Breakers were creampuff on defence, allowing yet another opponent to stroll past the century mark. The Sixers shot 13 of 25 from beyond the arc and 38 of 75 overall to be just a shade over 50 per cent. It was just all too easy.
Not that the small crowd at Auckland’s Spark Arena could have been surprised. This Breakers side has played matador defence for the vast majority of this inefficient season. They have given up 100 points or more in seven of their last eight games and have shipped 90-plus in 17 of their 25 games.
Yes, they can score the ball themselves, but you have to get stops to win ball games, and this side has patently failed to do that.
Braswell admitted after the Sixers defeat that he had learned some painful lessons with perhaps more still to come.
‘‘I’ve learned so much,’’ said the rookie ANBL coach. ‘‘I don’t think I’ve ever lost like this in my life. It’s a lot of learning when you lose … losing, and facing adversity, humbles you. The challenge has been trying to get our team to respond in certain moments. How do we get better? How do we take mistakes we made and improve on them?’’
Braswell fudged his answer a little when asked if defence had again let his side down against Adelaide, pointing to the visitors’ finals experience and a heck of a shooting night, but eventually conceded his team had been its own worst enemy.
‘‘Yeah, they made shots with our defence, but what’s disturbing is the offensive rebounds we give up. When a team is hot and the ones they’re missing we give up 16 O-boards, your night’s over. Everything we did, we did wrong tonight.’’
Braswell also delivered somewhat of a backhanded compliment when he reflected on a final-quarter comeback that got his team as close as five down the stretch, after trailing by as many as 16.
‘‘I never question our team’s heart. Sometimes I just question whether our mind’s in the right place,’’ he said. ‘‘You get it to five or seven, then other things happen and you take some steps back. At some point you’ve got to put a stop to that, get that seven to two and it’s a different ball game.’’
And Braswell made it clear that some form of change was likely to take place in the wake of this season, which made the last three games more important than just incidental placings.
‘‘There’s a lot to play for,’’ he said. ‘‘No 1 is pride, and finishing the season strong. What message or image do you want to leave with the group when we are thinking about signing guys next year?
‘‘Everyone on this team won’t come back. There will be pieces we’re going to have to change. Look at our record and we’ve got a competitive owner who wants to win.
‘‘We’ve got to get those pieces and figure out how we’ve got to get this right. These next three games are about everyone leaving the right image.’’
A little defence will help too.
‘‘I never question our team’s heart. Sometimes I just question whether our mind’s in the right place.’’
Breakers coach Kevin Braswell