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Breakers point guard CJ Bruton applauds the crowd - Source: Photosport -
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The New Zealand Breakers remain hopeful a rowdy full house and some inspired words from key men CJ Bruton and Tony Ronaldson can signal a monumental Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) turnaround on Friday.
They certainly need it, after Thursday night's listless 99-117 away defeat to a fired-up Melbourne Tigers in the opening game of the best-of-three semifinals left them on the brink of playoffs oblivion.
The Breakers travelled back to Auckland on Thursday nursing bruised egos from a contest which was all over soon after halftime as the Tigers outplayed the visitors in all facets.
Breakers general manager Richard Clarke put up a full house sign on Thursday for the 4200-capacity North Shore Events Centre, and the nothing-to-lose approach remained.
"Nothing's really changed for us, we've got to win two games to earn a grand final spot. We're hoping a full house of screaming fans can get them going," Clarke said.
"Melbourne shot the lights out last night and when they get going they're a hard team to stop, but we're a good team as well and we play well on our home court.
"The senior guys like CJ and Tony will have done a lot of talking."
Recent history is against a Breakers turnaround, with the sobering statistic that 11 of the past 12 ANBL best-of-three semifinals were won 2-0.
The third match, if required, is back in Melbourne on Sunday.
Australia's TAB Sportsbet quickly declared the title a two-horse race, with the Tigers into $2, just behind South Dragons at $1.80, while the Breakers blew out to $26.
The Breakers are 11-5 at North Shore this season but notably lost two of their last four there, to the top-two Melbourne sides, including an 85-103 defeat to the Tigers on January 22.
With last night's result at The Cage, the Tigers now own the Breakers' worst two defeats this season - each by 18 points.
Phase one for the Breakers is fixing their sluggish start on defence which gave the Tigers' outside shooters plenty of open looks.
Melbourne's 16-of-32 three-point haul was their best of the season, with David Barlow (four-of-four), Luke Kendall (four-of-five) and Ebi Ere (four-of-nine) the main contributors.
The Tigers' giant international Chris Anstey, carrying a knee injury, was hardly a factor.
The Breakers shot 14-of-35 from beyond the arc, with Kirk Penney, Phill Jones and Oscar Forman kept well in check while star point guard Bruton led the way with six-of-11 three-pointers in his 22-point haul.
"We gave them a little bit of their own medicine," Tigers coach Al Westover said.
"They've been winning games all year by shooting the three-ball. They shot it pretty well themselves but I think it's probably our best game from the perimeter this year ..... they're the type of team you've got to keep attacking because they can score so quickly."
Veteran Ronaldson, a two-time ANBL title winner playing his 637th game tomorrow, said the formula for a quick turnaround wasn't rocket science.
"Against the Tigers we have to play a certain way and we, more or less, played into their hands. We have to change that for Friday, pretty quickly," Ronaldson said.
Coach Andrej Lemanis, who was fuming at his team's lack of playoff intensity early on, said aggressive defence was their key must-improve.
A quiet night from his leading scorer Penney in Melbourne (seven-of-17 from the field and 19 points in total) was less of a concern.
"We still scored 99 points, so offensively we were okay. We've obviously got to do a better job on making them miss sometimes," Lemanis said.
