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Dillon Boucher has more than personal reasons for wanting the New Zealand Breakers to win the Australian NBL title.
Boucher was part of the Breakers' original roster back in late 2003 and went on to spend two seasons with them before heading to Australia.
In his first campaign back, the former Tall Black has helped the Auckland-based club go further than ever before, into the last four.
The Breakers fly across the Tasman today for game one of their best-of-three semifinal against defending champions the Melbourne Tigers on Wednesday night.
Boucher, 33, said it would be "huge" if the Breakers could go all the way and land a debut title.
"It would be so satisfying, not only because I was a foundation member, but it would also do a lot for New Zealand basketball and for the Breakers as an organisation," he said. "The owners and management have spent a lot of money and time trying to get this thing right and we really feel we've done a good job this year. Now is the time, so we might as well win it this year."
However, Boucher acknowledged that the Breakers face a tough hurdle in getting past the Tigers, who are set to have home advantage for most of the series.
While game two will be in Auckland on Friday night, the decisive third game, if needed, will be back in Melbourne on Sunday night.
"It's always difficult to win away from home," Boucher said. "We're expecting they will sell it out and they always have some pretty loud fans. It's a challenge, but we've been over there and won before. It's not unfamiliar territory."
The Breakers have been victorious just once on Melbourne's home court in 10 attempts, but that success came this season with an 86-84 result during a split 2-2 series with the Tigers.
The last two meetings between the sides ended in defeats for the Breakers and came during their dismal run of eight losses in nine matches from the beginning of January. Wins in their past three matches, including a last-up 131-101 thumping of Adelaide in their sudden-death quarter-final last Thursday night, have helped to rebuild some momentum.
Boucher, who won a title with Brisbane in 2007, is one of four present Breakers who have been in championship-winning squads, along with CJ Bruton, Tony Ronaldson and Oscar Forman.
He said the key to success was consistency.
Against the 36ers, Boucher came close to the first triple double in the Breakers' history, with 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
He goes into game one against the Tigers just shy of a couple of other personal milestones.
Four more assists will give him 300 for the Breakers, while two more steals would take him to the same figure for steals in his ANBL career.
- NZPA
