Breakers create a baseline for defensive effort

Starting five on the floor for the eight minutes that mattered in Thursday’s win

The Breakers have been a patchy side all season but two positive patches in their slump- busting Aussie NBL win over Brisbane showed the path towards consistency.

There was the 5 ½ - minute stretch to start the second half on Thursday night, when the Breakers embarked on a 16- 0 run to seemingly break open the game. And there was a 2 ½ - minute spell to end the game, when the deficit had been whittled away to three points before Brisbane were again kept scoreless.

Together those eight minutes were enough for the Breakers ( 7- 8) to snap a four- game losing streak, enough to restrict an opponent to 75 points or fewer for only the second time in the last 13 games, and enough to spark optimism ahead of tonight’s trip to Adelaide ( 6- 6).

The defence has been an undeniable issue this season, with the Breakers heading into the Bullets game conceding an average of 88 points a game, the second- worst mark in the competition. And although they eventually allowed Brisbane to get closer than they would have liked, the Breakers improved enough on the defensive end to set a marker for the remainder of the campaign.

“The big thing for us i s holding each other accountable,” said coach Paul Henare. “If anything I said at halftime, that was really it — challenging each other at the defensive end.

“And they locked in. That [ scoreless period] was about the group on the floor really laying that platform and setting the standards. If we can get that flow- on effect and we can continue to do that with whoever’s on the floor, I think we’re going to be in a pretty good place.”

The group responsible for laying that platform was the starting five, a unit Henare credited for setting a similar defensive tone to begin the game. And that starting five on Thursday featured the first tactical tweak Henare has made all season, introducing Rob Loe in place of Alex Pledger.

Both players responded well to the switch, with Loe grabbing 14 points and seven rebounds and Pledger pulling down a game- high 10 boards. Henare explained the move was more about team strength than individual weakness.

“I spent a lot of time with the coaches at the start of the week looking at that,” he said. “And it wasn’t about Rob playing better than Chief — there was much more that we looked at. It came down to, once we got in to our rotations, what lineups we were going to have on the floor.”

That personnel adjustment will continue against Adelaide, when the Breakers will be facing the only defence in the league more generous than their own. And, as Tom Abercrombie warned, the defensive improvements his team made on Thursday will mean nothing if they aren’t repeated tonight.

“This win means nothing if we go out and drop our standards on Saturday,” Abercrombie said. “I think we set a standard for ourselves. We didn’t play amazing but we played a lot better than we had been and we set ourselves a standard that we can build on.”

If we can get that flow- on effect and we can continue to do that with whoever’s on the floor, I think we’re going to be in a pretty good place.