Breakers’ troubles continue

BASKETBALL

WELLINGTON: The Breakers concede they are struggling.

The fourtime champions remain rooted to the bottom of the NBL ladder after slumping to their fourth defeat from five games.

Their latest setback was a 8474 loss to the Sydney Kings, in Sydney on Saturday, after relinquishing a fivepoint lead in the final quarter.

‘‘It’s another tough night,’’ Breakers coach Dan Shamir said.

‘‘We were in the game. We were up five . . . but overall as a group we’re struggling with a lot of simple actions.

‘‘I think we played in a lot of areas in control and to a certain extent also together [but] it’s not enough. It’s not enough to win and we’re much better than that.’’

Offensively is where Shamir has the most concerns, after shooting just 36% from the floor against the Kings.

‘‘It’s very obvious that we can and must be much better.

‘‘[We’re] not going to win a lot of games with basically 71 points. We made a three in the last second.

‘‘But it’s something that we need to solve also in our heads. We can and should play much better.

‘‘We as a group need to be better and more consistent.’’

Breakers forward Finn

Delany says basketball is consuming their lives at the moment.

‘‘. . . we’re in a hotel room or in a basketball court. We’re missing balance but we just have to get to work and get better.’’

And Delany believes they can turn around their fortunes and was irked when asked whether their issues are fixable.

‘‘Of course it’s fixable. We know the players that we have, what we’re capable of, you know we have a lot of belief in ourselves and of course it’s fixable.

‘‘I think it’s a stupid question, to be honest. We have that belief, everyone has that. It’s not going to be easy, we’ve got a lot of work to do but it’s more than fixable.’’

The Breakers are scheduled to head to Melbourne next, but that is on hold as a result of Victoria’s fiveday lockdown.

‘‘Again, we’re in a little bit of an unknown,’’ Shamir said. — RNZ