Basketball: Breakers off on character-building Aussie tour

Sean Marks

The Breakers head into a tough three-game road trip today, an exercise that could be character-building or confidence-destroying.

They play the Hawks in Wollongong tonight then shift north to meet West Sydney Razorbacks on Saturday and the Bullets in Brisbane next Wednesday.

After last Sunday's thumping by Cairns, the Breakers cannot be favoured to win any of the three.

Coach Andrej Lemanis is focusing on improving their transition from offence to defence, and their concentration in sticking to the team offence rather than going it alone.

When Cairns got on a roll the Breakers needed cohesion to disrupt that and instead played individually, Lemanis said.

And he admitted he should have thrown his offence at high-scoring Gary Boodnikoff to put doubt in the Australian's mind.

If they had made Boodnikoff worry about his defensive responsibilities, he might not have been able to maintain such a hot streak.

Lemanis was happy with the offensive power of the two new American imports and felt Brant Bailey and Rich Melzer would secure more points in coming games.

If there was adversity on the trip it would be a chance for them to stick together, learn and grow.

"It would be silly to make any promises bar improvement at this stage," Lemanis said.

The players were upbeat, knowing they had produced one good quarter in the second against Cairns and that the horror in the third robbed them of any chance of a win.

Melzer said he felt the team would be competitive once they better understood each other's play.

"We're going to have some fun. If you can't get on with this bunch of guys you couldn't get on with anyone."

Bailey admitted he felt lost at times against Cairns. After one game in the ANBL he was impressed with the standard. "We have to get it together or it's going to be a long season."

They go to Australia with 10 players and no injury concerns.

NZ Breakers: Lindsay Tait, Paul Henare (capt), Aaron Olson, Clifton Bush, Ben Pepper, Tim Behrendorff, Rich Melzer, Brant Bailey, AJ Majstrovich, Mika Vukona.

Frank for Razors

Auckland Stars captain and prospective Tall Black Casey Frank will join West Sydney Razorbacks for up to three months as replacement for their forward Nick Horvath, who damaged a knee last weekend.

Frank's first game will be against the Breakers.

Brisbane top poll

The ANBL players' poll has Brisbane as title favourites with 37 per cent of the vote of 74 players across all 11 teams. Sydney snared 19 per cent, but were also rated by 19 per cent as a team likely to slide this season.

Townsville Crocs guard John Rillie is rated best shooter, the Taipans' Darnell Mee as best defender and the Bullets' Mark Bradtke as best rebounder.

Townsville's "Swamp" is the place rated as the toughest away game.

Rallying for Ryan

The Canterbury Rams are rallying to help their import forward Ryan Prillman after he was caught in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"I'm in Baton Rouge and safe," he emailed the Rams this week. "We lost all our stuff in the storm and all I got to my name is a pair of fresh Air Ones [basketball shoes], lows [pants] and a bangin' polo button-up [shirt]. That's all I got. No ride, no clothes, no money and no knees."

Prillman had been playing in France but returned home days before the hurricane struck after suffering a bad knee injury.

The Rams are holding an auction on the Trade Me website (search for "Rams Hurricane").

Finals under way

The national second division playoffs start today at Trusts Stadium in Henderson, with local team Waitakere tipping off against Hutt Valley, winding up with the final on Saturday night.

Waitakere will play without their star Leon Henry after he flew out this week to junior college in Idaho.

Among those listed to play are Tall Blacks Phill Jones (Nelson) and Craig Bradshaw (Hutt).

Welcome back, Kareem

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who became the NBA's leading scorer as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, has been hired by the team as an assistant coach.

"We are pleased to welcome Kareem back to the organisation," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said.

Considered one of the NBA's greatest centres, Abdul-Jabbar, now 58, said he looked forward to working with Lakers 17-year-old draft pick Andrew Bynum, who has pledged to bring back his mentor's patented sky-hook.

Marks returns

Former Tall Black Sean Marks has signed a contract to return to the San Antonio Spurs.

Marks, a free agent, played only 23 games for the NBA-winning Spurs last season, averaging 3.3 points and 2.4 rebounds.

He missed the first 42 games of last season because of a sprained back and sat out a further 13 games with a sprained foot.