Basketball: Breakers' coach points his critics to the 20-win scoreboard

Coach Andrej Lemanis. Photo / Sarah Ivey

"Enjoy the championship run," said Kings forward Ben Knight as he departed the press conference after his side's narrow defeat by the Breakers.

It was a nice sentiment from a player whose team had just been vanquished by a Breakers side that notched a record 20th season win. Or was it? A hulking forward who talks faster than he runs, Knight's good wishes came with a sting in the tail. "You should be," was his response when a journalist admitted he was nervous about the Breakers' post-season prospects.

Like most folks around the ANBL, Knight has noticed a decline in a Breakers team that has bossed the league from day one this season.

"The last few weeks they have been very gettable. The last month, you look at some of the losses they've had and how they've gone about it, it's interesting," he said.

Sydney coach Ian Robilliard didn't say much to ease any concerns. "They are a good team, no question," he said, before raising questions such as how the Breakers will fare against teams who match them in size and aren't, say, missing three of their best players and sitting at the foot of the ladder?

His side's apparent decline may be a common topic of discussion but it isn't one that finds much favour with coach Andrej Lemanis.

If an outsider who knew nothing about the game - something Lemanis believes of his critics - attended Thursday's press conference they would have been hard pressed to pick that the Breakers had won. And they would have been flabbergasted to learn that the Breakers were enjoying the most successful season in the club's history.

"We've got 20 wins," Lemanis said when asked if a slide that now includes three scratchy wins and three losses in their last six matches had taken the gloss off the season. "I'm not sure what is tainted about having 20 wins. I don't know the exact stats but since they have gone to a 28-game season I don't think anyone has ever had 20 wins before. We are in top spot and we are going to take the number one seed into the playoffs. It is not a bad place to be."

But that doesn't change the fact that the answer to the question of whether the Breakers look like a team likely to win a championship is no - and has been no for a while.

Having that frequently pointed out has clearly become a little annoying. "As much as you guys [the media] want to paint the doom and gloom picture, we are in a pretty good spot," Lemanis said. "Where else would you want to be, honestly?"

Lemanis' frustration is understandable. He's getting results the club could only have dreamed of not all that long ago but his coaching ability has come under heavy fire, with radio analyst Tom Hyde particularly strident.

Hyde's theory that the Breakers succeed in spite of Lemanis rather than because of him would appear to overlook the fact Lemanis recruited every player bar Paul Henare. For a coach who allegedly lacks basketball smarts, he seems to have compiled a fairly decent team.

"I don't hear it, it doesn't bother me," he said of the criticism. "Sometimes people who don't understand the game and don't understand sport make comment. I guess that is their right but it doesn't mean they are right, it just means they have made a comment."