Basketball: Breakers see next games as practice

Kirk Penney finished with a season high 35 points. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand Breakers, runaway leaders in the Australian National Basketball League, see their double-header against Gold Coast as excellent preparation for a playoff campaign.

The two teams meet again in Auckland tonight, three days and a transtasman journey since the Breakers won a double-overtime clash 123-115 in Surfers Paradise.

The quick turnaround and the home-and-away nature of the fixtures is similar to the structure for the finals.

"It's very much like a playoff situation and how we're doing this is great preparation for us," star shooting guard Kirk Penney said yesterday.

"We need to make adjustments and we need to be able to do that in a game."

The Breakers are on an eight-match winning streak that has taken their season record to 18-3 and put them five wins ahead of second-placed Townsville.

They have had to battle some spirited opposition in their recent outings and being able to close out tight contests has brought with it plenty of confidence.

"Any coach in the world would say it's great for a team to go through close games," Penney said.

"It's good for them to be in those high-pressure situations and come through on top because it does breed confidence - knowing that, when you really buckle down and really want to get it done, you do.

"Those close games we're having right now is fantastic for us down the road and I'm really happy we've been able to pull them out."

Penney played a huge part in the Breakers' ability to pull through against the Blaze, contributing a game-high 35 points.

It was his clutch three-pointer when his side were down 101-95 with just under two minutes of regulation time left that helped to keep them in touch.

Fellow guard CJ Bruton added a three-pointer in the final scoring action before the fulltime buzzer.

Gold Coast Blaze player Mark Worthington and Melbourne Tigers captain Cameron Tragardh are the latest sports stars in trouble for Twitter comments after they were fined for criticising referees during Sunday night's Blaze match against the Breakers.

Worthington was fined $1000 and Tragardh was handed a suspended $500 fine for his comments. The NBL found both players guilty of publicly criticising the referees in the Breakers match.

Worthington, who is sidelined with injury, wrote: "Worst refing ever in the first 5 mins. What's nbl rule for players tweeting during games?"

Tragardh tweeted his frustrations with the officials just over an hour later.

"NBL refs stop calling so many unsportsmanlike fouls on good hard fouls! Please!" Tragardh said.

- NZPA and AAP