Basketball: Assured Breakers learn from bitter experience

Paul Henare (left) says the Breakers have a belief about them this year. Photo / Sarah Ivey

These may be heady times for the NBL pace-setting New Zealand Breakers, but they come with a caveat: the club has been here before. Bossing the league with a 13-3 record, that is.

As fate would have it, 13-3 is precisely where the Breakers sat in 2008-09. There was a fair bit of title talk around then, too. But a quick flick through the record books shows just how quickly such optimism evaporated.

The Breakers made it to 15-4, but closed with a run of nine defeats in 11 games to stagger into the finals in third.

They disposed of Adelaide in the first round comfortably enough but were bundled out by the Tigers with two straight defeats at the semifinals stage.

Will it be any different this time? Well, it sure feels different.

"We've got a confidence and a swagger about us," says veteran point guard Paul Henare.

"Without being cocky, it is important that we do have a bit of arrogance about us. It is more a belief in who we are as a team."

That team looks vastly superior to the one that flattered to deceive two seasons ago. For starters, this incarnation has a first-rate import point guard in Kevin Braswell. Championships have seldom been won without one.

The club has attempted to go with just the one import in the past, producing mixed results. This Breakers team have a second well-performed import in Gary Wilkinson, a savvy, strong forward with the ability to score both inside and from the perimeter.

But it's not all about the imports. Not even close. Veteran guard CJ Bruton is the lone Australian. The rest of the squad is fully Kiwi, and full of this country's best players.

That's where the depth comes from - depth that is their biggest asset, and biggest advantage over their rivals.

"Our ability to just keep subbing people in and keeping fresh bodies on wears on the opposition," coach Andrej Lemanis said.

"Over time you end up getting them to take bad shots and getting cheap baskets in transition. That's a result of pressure that builds over time. Somewhere in the game it explodes."

Kirk Penney, Mika Vukona and Dillon Boucher are the wise old heads charged with doing much of the demolition work, but they are ably supported by the likes of young stars Thomas Abercrombie, Corey Webster and Alex Pledger.

Abercrombie and Webster were little-used development players when the wheels fell off in 08-09. Two years later they are among the league's most potent attacking players.

"We are 10 deep and we expect everyone to perform when they hit the floor," Henare said.

Those expectations are usually met.

If this really is to be their season, it's doubtful anyone will find the taste of victory more sweet than Henare. The club's lone foundation player to have served an uninterrupted tenure (Boucher was there at the start but spent several seasons in Australia before returning), Henare knows all too well what life at the bottom of the heap is like.

Thursday night's hammering of the Adelaide 36ers was his 100th win in a Breakers singlet, but he has also tasted over 100 defeats. Despite this season's successes the club's overall record is just 107-131.

To be winning games on a regular basis and topping the league ladder meant plenty, he said.

"It is pretty satisfying, personally. We have been through some tough times. I look across the ditch at Sydney [a team that has won just one game all season], at what they are going through at the moment, and I can literally say I know how they are feeling. It is tough.

"It is pleasing but I am not going to be satisfied till we are cutting down the nets at the end of the season. That is a long way to go."

With Henare having announced that this will be his final season, there would be a nice symmetry if he could round out his career with a title. Finishing first and earning home advantage through the finals will be key to the club's hopes but Henare won't be drawn on that scenario.

"We can't look that far ahead. There are 12 games to go which is a bloody long time. There are a lot of tough match-ups to face before that happens. We've all said it before and I know it is boring for you guys [the media] but it is game-by-game. That is how we have to do it.

"The most promising thing for us is that we still haven't put a polished 40-minute performance together. There is room for improvement and we are all about working towards the end of the season and trying to peak at the right time."