Basketball: Henare happy with short turnaround

Paul Henare. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand Breakers will go into their clash against the form team of the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) tomorrow night on the back of a shortened preparation, but long-serving point guard Paul Henare has no complaints.

The Breakers, competition co-leaders with Wollongong, are at home to Cairns, who have won their past five games to sit a close third on the table.

There hasn't been much time to catch breath for Henare and his team-mates, who arrived back in Auckland on Monday afternoon after their away victory over the Sydney Kings the day before.

"It's a short turnaround, but you ask any player," Henare said today.

"They would much rather play two games in a week than have a game and sit around for another seven or eight days to play again."

The scheduling also means another test of the depth in the Breakers' squad this year.

The strength of the bench is a notable feature of the club's roster compared with previous seasons.

The back-up includes the likes of American import Kevin Braswell and past or present Tall Blacks Dillon Boucher, Tom Abercrombie, Alex Pledger and Corey Webster.

Henare, who has been at the Breakers since the start in 2003, said there hadn't been so much talent at the club before.

"No never, we legitimately go one through to 10," he said.

"Any of the bench guys could be starters. We are pretty lucky to be in the situation we're in and that is probably one of our main strengths."

Henare admitted that the Breakers didn't make the best use of that depth during a three-match road trip last month, when they beat Adelaide to go out to a 5-0 win-loss record, but then lost to Perth and Wollongong.

"It was three games in a week with a lot of travel and, in those situations, you have to use your depth and we didn't do a great job of it," he said.

"Hopefully we've learnt the lessons from that trip."

The Taipans, skippered by former Breaker and Tall Black Phill Jones, are coming off an 80-62 win last Saturday over Wollongong, a result that helped the Breakers to draw level with the Hawks at the top of the table with an identical 7-2 record.

Henare described the Taipans, who are at 6-2, as "the hottest team in the league right now", with American point guard Ayinde Ubaka a key performer.

"He's one of the top players in the competition and he's definitely going to be a focus for us," he said.

"But they have other guys who are playing really well. Alex Loughton is a very solid forward, Ian Crosswhite is playing the best basketball he has played in a while and we all know what Phill Jones can do, so they have guys across the board who can do the job."

- NZPA