KEY POINTS:
Breakers star Brian Wethers will be keeping his one good eye on the West Sydney Razorbacks tonight - despite the biggest danger to his well-being lurking within his own team.
Bruising Tall Black forward Mika Vukona has once again caused the American import plenty of pain, striking Wethers with an elbow at training yesterday and opening a cut above his right eye.
Wethers has had a few stitches to close the cut and says he'll be fine for tonight's game at the North Shore Events Centre - as long as Vukona doesn't bash him up at the pre-game shoot-around.
"He dislocated my nose in a game earlier in the season and now this. Why is he taking it out on me?" said Wethers. "It's hard to stay mad at him because he's such a good guy and he trains and plays so hard.
"But I am going to take him aside, pick a player from the opposition and ask Mika to go to work on him so he leaves me alone for a change."
Vukona's rebounding will be crucial as the Breakers gear up for a battle of the boards against the young and athletic Razorbacks.
Breakers back-up point guard Adam Darragh, who played for the West Sydney team last year, said they placed an emphasis on crashing the boards hard and had a run-and-gun offence.
Vukona himself knows he and the Breakers' other big men - Ben Pepper, Tim Behrendorff and Carlos Powell - will be in for a tough night, especially as the Razorbacks look to build on their round four win over the New Zealand side.
Vukona said: "I love to compete on the boards and I especially enjoy that sort of challenge when the opposition prides itself on getting those rebounds."
Fiji-born Vukona, who will play his 50th successive NBL game tonight, said the Breakers expected plenty of passion from the Pigs under their new coach, NBL Hall of Famer Cal Bruton.
"It will be interesting to see if they play a different style - but we certainly know their personnel and will be sweating on their go-to guys."
The Breakers have a three-wins, one-defeat home record against the Razorbacks but lost at West Sydney 104-97 earlier in the campaign.
That win over the Breakers is one of only two for the Razorbacks in 13 matches this season and they anchor the championship points ladder, having lost their last nine games. The NBL wooden-spooners from last season also have a dreadful record on the road, having now lost 20 straight - the eighth worst streak in league history and eight short of the all-time record held by the Canberra Cannons between 2000 and 2002.
The Breakers, with a five-wins, seven-defeats season to date, can leap back over the Dragons into the top-eight with victory tonight.
* Carlos Powell will head into the game buoyed by his success at the NBL All-Star game in Adelaide last weekend. Powell's World team not only edged out the Aussie All-Star line-up 136-133, the power forward won the Slam Dunk title - 12 months after Breaker Everard Bartlett's triumphed in the event.
