Basketball: Breakers still battling after the buzzer

Dean Vickerman believes every point counts. Photo / Getty Images

The scrap between the Breakers and Perth continued after the buzzer on Thursday and it could continue all the way to the playoffs.

The top-of-the-table clash at Vector Arena in Auckland was akin to the battles of old between the teams who have shared the last five titles, full of physicality, dominating defences and with a terse exchange of words.

It certainly seems, halfway through the season, as though the Breakers (10-4) and the Wildcats (9-4) will both reach the post-season, and that prospect came to the fore in the final exchanges on Thursday night.

With the Breakers up by 11 as the clock neared zero, Cedric Jackson threw up one last three-pointer, leading to a confrontation between the two coaches.

Perth coach Trevor Gleeson thought the Breakers were guilty of running up the score, an unwritten rule that stretches across all American sport. Breakers mentor Dean Vickerman, though, stressed the need to play every possession in a league where teams are sometimes separated only by aggregate score. After all, the Breakers and Perth meet twice more this season and the Wildcats could easily win both to level the ledger, which would leave playoff implications decided by a points spread and leave Jackson's shot of potential importance.

Both coaches played down the incident post-game, and it was little more than a footnote in the Breakers' big win. But the message was clear - every basket counts in a rivalry that is as fierce as it is closely-fought.

"Trevor was just mad that we took a shot when the game was over," Vickerman said. "There has been an etiquette in basketball that if the game's over you don't need to shoot that last one. I just spoke to him and he understands this league is all about the points spread, so you've got to play every possession all the way out. If you get an opportunity to shoot the last ball and get a little bit of a points spread, that's what I've instructed my team to do."

Gleeson, calling himself "old school", begged to differ, though he accepted his emotions were likely stirred more by his side's loss.

Whether the points spread does come into play will be determined by two encounters across a fortnight later in the summer, with Vickerman declaring no advantage despite the Breakers' position of superiority.

"I don't get into the psychological edge too much," he said. "They're a good basketball team and we know that they're going to be there at the end of the season.

"It's nice that we've got a little margin on them at the moment but, to win the series, we need to win one more against them. They're going to come and get us."