Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis says the game plan won't change too much for tomorrow's sudden death playoff against Adelaide. Photo / Getty Images
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The New Zealand Breakers see stingy defence as the platform for their hopes of making the Australian National Basketball League grand final.
The Breakers start their best-of-three semifinal against defending champions Melbourne tonight having managed to build some momentum with three wins in a row.
Their last outing,
the sudden-death quarter-final against the Adelaide 36ers, turned into a 131-101 romp, the total being the highest they have posted in their six-year history.
For coach Andrej Lemanis, the number of points they racked up was a result of work at the other end of the court, and he saw the same principle applying against the Tigers.
"Certainly for us, the defensive end, and our application to that end of the floor, our trust in sticking to the rules, is the big one," he said. "That tends to get our offence going. When we have our defence solid, our offence gets flowing."
The Breakers' change of fortunes over the past fortnight followed a horror run of eight defeats in nine matches.
The slump saw them drop from the top of the table and killed off their hopes of a top-two finish to the regular season. The return to winning ways coincided with the combined availability after injury of star point guard C J Bruton and prolific shooting guard Kirk Penney, the league's top points scorer.
While the Breakers have never been this far before, they have in Bruton, Tony Ronaldson, Dillon Boucher and Oscar Forman a quartet with experience of title-winning campaigns.
Melbourne, having finished the regular season second behind the South Dragons, get home advantage against the Breakers.
That means game one, and game three if needed on Sunday night, will be at The Cage. Game two is at the North Shore Events Centre in Auckland on Friday night.
The two sides split their regular season series 2-2, with the Breakers managing to win at The Cage for the first time back in September.
While Melbourne centre Chris Anstey, a former NBA player with Dallas and Chicago, might get plenty of the spotlight, Lemanis said the Tigers were far from a one-person roster.
"Chris is obviously a big part of what they do, but you have Ebi Ere, who can go off at any time, Stephen Hoare, Dave Barlow, who went 14 for 14 against us last season."
In October 2007, Barlow broke the NBL record for a "perfect game" by scoring 37 points at 100 per cent, including 14 successful attempts from the field, eight of them three-pointers.
Melbourne haven't been in action since February 14. Lemanis was uncertain what effect the rest would have on their performance.
"The intensity will be there from the mindset point of view. Let's hope they're a step behind the pace in the first quarter or so."
- NZPA
