Basketball: Breakers not worried by 36ers' golden run

Tom Abercrombie believes the Breakers' form means little ahead of the playoffs. Photo / Getty

Breakers forward Tom Abercrombie believes the Adelaide 36ers' golden run of 10 straight victories means nothing ahead of their opening NBL semifinal at Vector Arena on Thursday.

Similarly, the 27-year-old says the Breakers are not concerned by their own patchy form after losing four of their final six regular season games. He says the team are focused only on what lies ahead.

"The beauty of the playoffs is you get to start afresh," Abercrombie said.

"We certainly know what we're capable of and we've certainly shown in patches that we're the best team in this league, we feel.

"We've just got to put a full 40 minutes together and we get a great chance to go and do that and put what has happened behind us and come out on the front foot and really put in a strong performance on Thursday."

The Breakers are well aware of the threat posed by the visitors, after they fell 88-93 in their last encounter almost three weeks ago, but Abercrombie denies they are daunted by the challenge ahead.

"No. They're playing well, they come into the playoffs with a lot of confidence and a lot of momentum but it means nothing now.

"Ten in a row, whatever their record is, whatever our record is, it doesn't mean anything. We're happy, we've worked all season to get to the position we are now. We have home court advantage, it's up to us to make the most of that and come out and play really well on Thursday."

Abercrombie says there has been a notable shift in his side's intensity as they prepare for the first of three playoff games, and the players realise they are at the crunch time of the season.

"For sure. There's a good energy in the gym today. The guys know that this is it. The last few weeks we've had that spot sewn up and we've been waiting for this. This is the time now, we've just got to go out there and deliver."

Going into Thursday's game, Breakers coach Dean Vickerman denies his side is feeling the pressure after missing the playoffs last season and is confident his side can produce the goods.

"No more pressure than any semifinal series," Vickerman said. "We know they are a good team and they're hitting great form right now but we got to a point on the ladder where we earned home court advantage and we just want to come out and play great.

"We played them a couple of weeks ago at home, we were within a shot of knocking them off and hopefully we can make a few improvements from that game."

Vickerman isn't fazed by the team's final round 77-81 loss to the Cairns Taipans and believes their tough run in will aid their cause throughout their finals campaign.

"We've had tough, close games and we couldn't have asked for a better preparation going in," he said.

"They have that little patch where they run and you can't get stressed about it. You've just got to make sure that you deal with the early pressure and they come hard and aggressive that first quarter and how we come out and match that early on is going to be really important."