-
Mika Vukona rises over Julian Khazzouh - Source: Photosport
The New Zealand Breakers play ANBL table-topping side Perth Wildcats tomorrow night at the Northshore Events Centre in their most important game of the season so far.
The team's riding on a high after a solid run of four straight wins, highlighted by last Thursday's 93-64 thrashing of the Sydney Kings in front of a sold out crowd at Auckland's Vector Arena.
The Breakers and the Wildcats are equal on points at the top of the table, only separated by Perth's superior points for differential.
The Northshore Events Centre will welcome back the defending champs tomorrow night (7.30pm tip-off) for the crunch match, and see who will go into the finals in a superior position.
Forward Thomas Abercrombie knows the importance riding on the game.
"Obviously this game might have some impact on seedings going into the playoffs but we're not thinking about that we're just thinking about getting the win," Abercrombie told ONE Sport today.
The Wildcats smashed the Breakers 86-62 in Perth when the two sides met just before Christmas Day but the Breakers know playing in front of a home crowd is a game changer.
"It's a massive advantage, everybody says it," Mika Vakona said. "They're (the home fans) are the extra man out there."
"There's a reason we've only lost one game at home this year and they're a big part of that and we need them to come along and be as loud as ever," Abercrombie said.
Support for the championship-winning Breakers has continued to swell, and after this season's successful experiment with playing three home games at the much larger Vector Arena, the club are in negotiations to try and secure five matches at the venue next year.
"We're quite far down the track and we're trying to hash out some of the details now but it's all looking very encouraging and I'm pretty keen to come back and we're just got to try get it sorted out as soon as possible," Abercrombie said.
"The club has a great foundation here. They've got a great fan base and this is where I'm from and hopefully we can get something sorted out soon," Vukona said.
For now though the priority is to win tomorrow and stretch their unbeaten streak to five.
