Breakers keen to can slow start

BASKETBALL The New Zealand Breakers aim to finish the year with a better start.

The two-times defending champion Australian National Basketball League champions look to back up their remarkable comeback win in Adelaide on Friday night with an 11th victory in 14 matches when they face the Cairns Taipans in Cairns tonight.

But coach Andrej Lemanis acknowledged his side won’t want to come out cold and give tonight’s hosts the kind of head start they handed the 36ers, when the Breakers trailed 49-28 at halftime before storming back with a vastly improved defensive effort to win 71-66.

The Breakers missed a surfeit of open shots in the first half and failed to stop the hosts from taking full advantage with their transition offence.

Lemanis said the Breakers hadn’t played for 15 days which was a factor, but not the biggest one.

‘‘We’ve got to come in with the right mental attitude,’’ he said.

‘‘Our defensive transition game was an issue – it wasn’t what it needed to be and our intensity wasn’t what it needed to be.

‘‘That’s an indication of your mindset and it’s often how you miss open shots as well.

‘‘An improvement in the first five or six minutes would give us the intensity and tempo that is Breakers basketball.’’

However, Lemanis was keen to also focus on the positive aspect of a second-half revival led by a swarming defence that rattled Adelaide and set the tone for an improved offensive showing.

‘‘We did a good job in believing in the task and doing the things that make us a good basketball team.

‘‘I was very proud of the way we regrouped. I could tell at halftime that the body language was great – players were sitting forward and paying attention.

‘‘It’s easy to change these things for three or four minutes at the start of the half and then have things drop away again.

‘‘There were times we could have thrown in the towel, when we missed lay-ups or fumbled the ball; it was easy to drop the bundle. But we kept believing.’’

That left Lemanis feeling good about his team’s chances against a Taipans side they have already beaten twice this season.

‘‘Winning helps recovery, both mentally and physically.’’

The Breakers did struggle in the first half against Adelaide’s twin towers of Luke Schenscher and Daniel Johnson – especially after centre Alex Pledger struck early foul trouble – and Lemanis is wary of the influence of Cairns’ Cam Tragardh, whom he called one of the best low-post players in the league.

‘‘They shoot the three-ball well too and are very disciplined in their offence, so it’s a case of trying to get them out of their rhythm, disrupt them and keep them to one shot.’’