Breakers want Brisbane bounce
REBOUND is the word du jour for the Breakers in more ways than one as they chase a bounce-back ANBL victory in Brisbane today.
Coach Paul Henare’s tabletopping Kiwi club had their ninegame win streak snapped at the NSEC on Friday night when they were handed an 89-73 lesson by a more dialled-in Perth Wildcats side. It was their second home defeat of the season and the first win by Perth in Auckland since December of 2013, as the defending champs also ended a run of five straight losses to their Kiwi rivals.
The passionate Breakers coach wasn’t about to make more than he needed to of a rare mis-step this season, but he also wasn’t about to sugar-coat some concerning deficiencies that have crept into the Breakers game, even while they’ve been rattling off all those wins.
Top of that list is rebounding. They gave up 14 offensive boards in the first two quarters, and 19 overall. That allowed the Wildcats to stay in the game and then make their run over the final two periods behind the offensive firepower of J P Tokoto and Jesse Wagstaff.
That clearly annoyed Henare as he shrugged off any suggestions that this might have been a wakeup call that was needed.
‘‘I’m not a believer in needing to lose to learn lessons,’’ said Henare. ‘‘The last four games our defensive rebounding numbers had been on a downhill slide and it took a further dive by giving up 48 per cent of our defensive rebounds to Perth. We’ve got to keep finding ways to secure that ball.’’
Breakers centre Alex Pledger, who missed just one shot en route to a team-high 15 points to go with four boards and three blocks, said it had been a collective misfire in predictable areas.
‘‘Against Perth it always comes down to the physicality battle . . . who wins that battle of the paint. The first two games [this season] we won that area, tonight they raised it a level and for whatever reason we just didn’t match it.
‘‘You have to know they’re coming, and you have to know you’re going to get hit in the back. You basically have to hold your spot, go up with two hands and bring that thing in. Against this GETTY IMAGES team you have to be really good in that area, but we weren’t.’’
Henare has other things to address at Saturday’s video session ahead of an early evening flight to Brisbane for a 5pm (NZT) Sunday matchup against Andrej Lemanis’ Bullets, who they’ve already beaten twice (home and away) this season.
In no particular order there will be offensive execution (they shot 39 per cent from the floor and 24 from deep), discipline (Rob Loe’s third-quarter foul-out technical was dubbed a ‘‘brain-fart’’) GETTY IMAGES
‘ There’s no point in sitting around moping . . . ’ PAUL HENARE
and intensity (it was noticeably absent on the back of the international break).
‘‘We were a little stagnant offensively,’’ noted Henare. ‘‘I feel like a lot of our looks were good, but basketball is a game where you’ve got to put ball through the hoop, and we didn’t do that very well.’’
The international break had been a challenge for both clubs, but clearly one handled it better. Henare hopes Mika Vukona’s tight Achilles, which limited him to just five second-half minutes, will be fine by the Bullets tipoff, but more that the sharpness will quickly return to some of his key men, who were off the pace.
‘‘There’s no point in sitting around moping and having a cry about that one,’’ shrugged the hard-nosed coach.
‘‘We’ve got to get back on the horse.’’
That, adds Pledger, is against a Bullets side, led by classy import Travis Trice and Boomers big man Daniel Kickert, that provides some familiar challenges.
‘‘We’ve got off to a great start, and this [defeat] doesn’t mean we’re suddenly a bad team.
‘‘Brisbane are similar to Perth in that they crash the boards, they like driving to the basket, and getting the ball inside.
‘‘It’s very important we bounce back.’’