Maor brands Sydney as favourites

Not many people are giving the New Zealand Breakers much of a chance in their sudden-death play-in qualifier against the defending champion Sydney Kings at their intimidating home arena. Including, it would seem, Mody Maor.

Maor was at his devilish best at club headquarters yesterday just before heading to the airport for the flight to Sydney. Soon after confirming previously injured players Will McDowell-White (shoulder) and Finn Delany (back) would both travel, and hopefully both play in tomorrow night’s post-season eliminator, the Breakers coach was asked about this being a contest no one expects his team to win.

“They’re right,” deadpanned the fiery Israeli. “Sydney are definitely the favourites. They have the higher seed, and it’s not by accident they’ve earned this. They are the most talented offensive team in the league, they have the ability to explode in every game … people are right to write us off.”

Truth is neither side exactly canters into the post-season, which is why they are the last two of the six qualifiers (both finishing 13-15) and must play the sudden-death eliminator, from which the winner will meet the loser of third v fourth for the final semifinal spot.

The Kings, aiming for a title threepeat, lost four of their last six as they rather staggered across the finish-line of the regular season, though a last-up 122-67 victory over the undermanned Phoenix did rather hint at a timely step in the right direction.

Maor’s Breakers were not much better, losing three of their last six as they knocked off the ones that really mattered, but still struggled for consistency over back-to-backs as they continued to search for fluency after the season-ending Achilles rupture for star forward Anthony Lamb.

The Breakers have had dreadful luck with injuries all season, but the week-long Fiba break that created a buffer between the end of the regular season and the playoffs at least worked for them.

“Will is Iooking … it’s hard to say 100%, but we’ll know soon,” said Maor of his playmaking guard who went down with a suspected dislocated shoulder late in the season-ending 76-70 defeat in Adelaide. “Finn is actually doing better. They were just back spasms. He’s practised fully, and we’re expecting a great Finn this game.”