KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Breakers' hard man Mika Vukona says he is hurting and keen to take his frustration out on the Adelaide 36ers tonight.
Vukona is feeling the pain of a 10-game losing streak that has dropped the team from the top 8 to 11th in the 12-strong championship. The 36ers are ninth with 10 wins from 26 games.
The Tall Black power forward is beating himself up over the fall, wondering what more he and his teammates can do to improve their record.
"It's so frustrating," Vukona said. "I feel we should be doing much better than we are. We've got the supporters behind us and this year we've got the talent, but we just haven't been able to put the wins on the board."
Vukona says the players are striving to stay mentally strong and appreciate at last having a week between games. With 10 matches in the last four weeks, eight of them on the road, life has been wall-to-wall travel and basketball.
"If you're winning, everyone's happy and life's good. When you're losing, there's definitely more to think about and work on and even working harder and harder sometimes can't get you out of the tailspin.
"And when you're on the road, you don't get to escape it. You're away from your family and friends and don't have your usual support systems, but you just have to try and be positive."
Vukona says the Breakers' coaching staff has tried different approaches over the past few weeks to take the pressure off the players.
"We appreciate our situation and we're desperate to turn things around by continuing to work on our game, look at the positives and attack the weaknesses in the opposition.
"Everyone in the team talks and tries to help each other out. We're trying to keep the confidence up.
"We still have faith in the club and we're going to keep working hard. No-one wants to finish the season on a low. We've got eight games to make things a whole heap better."
The Breakers have beaten the 36ers in both encounters this season and a win tonight would complete a 3-0 series sweep for only the third time in the club's history. The last occasion the Breakers achieved this was in 2004-05 against West Sydney having also recorded three wins against Hunter Pirates in 2003-04.
Ben Pepper requires just five points to become the second Breaker to score 1300 points for the club. Aaron Olson is the leading scorer for the club with 1642 points.
Vukona needs another eight rebounds to take him to the 400 mark.
NZ BREAKERS V ADELAIDE 36ERS
North Shore Events Centre, 7 tonight
Current record
Breakers 7-18, 11th
36ers 10-16, 9th
Season series
Breakers lead 2-0
