Breakers wary of low flying Hawks

A bad early-season defeat will ensure there is no complacency when Australian National Basketball League leaders, the New Zealand Breakers, host struggling Wollongong in Auckland tonight.
The two teams' fortunes have headed in opposite directions in recent times.
The Breakers are unbeaten in 2011, with their current streak of four wins - the last a 77-74 victory in Cairns at the weekend - being part of a 10-match stretch in which they have lost just once.
Wollongong, on the other hand, will run out at the North Shore Events Centre on the back of seven successive losses.
That string of poor results has dropped the one-time high-flyers to fifth in the nine-team competition.
But the Hawks are also the only side to have tripped up the Breakers on the latter's home court this season.
That came back in November, when they won 73-57, restricting the Breakers to the lowest total in the franchise's history.
"The last time they were here, we got embarrassed," forward Mika Vukona recalled.
"If we want to end up winning this championship, we need to back up by coming home and doing the job."
Vukona was expecting the Hawks to be fired up because of their predicament.
"Seven losses for them - they will definitely be coming out hard," he said.
"They know they can do it over here, because they've done it already."
The Breakers have a short turnaround, having got back from Cairns late on Monday night.
They needed a late comeback against the Taipans to improve their record to 14-3, having been 20 points down at the main break before the depth on their bench came to the fore once again.
Vukona said the depth was the key reason for the Breakers' ability to finish their matches strongly - and he cited the contribution from the likes of import guard Kevin Braswell.
"We've got guys who could be starting in any other team," he said.
"We've got a great closer in Kevin Braswell, who does a job in the fourth quarter. It's definitely a deep bench."
Vukona, 28, is in his second stint with the Breakers, after helping the South Melbourne Dragons to the title in 2008-9 and playing for the Gold Coast Blaze last season.
The Tall Black said the strength of the current roster was not just in the calibre of the names on paper, but also in the collective spirit.
"This team is closely knit," he said.
"Everybody has confidence and everyone is really unselfish. We're all going for the championship."
Vukona himself has been voted the league's best rebounder in a player survey, an accolade he described as flattering.
"It was nice and it was awesome to see other guys in the team also featuring in the poll."
Among those other New Zealand Breakers players highlighted were Kirk Penney, Tom Abercrombie and CJ Bruton, who filled the top three positions in the vote for the individual that other players would pay money to watch.NZPA