The Breakers have proved their ANBL title aspirations are for real, crushing competition favourites Melbourne Tigers 120-111 in Auckland on Thursday night.
Ahead by just one point at halftime, the Breakers hit a hot streak late in the fourth quarter to deal out the upset of the competition so far.
Oscar Forman had a career-best night, scoring 23 points with a second half three point blitz. He was 7-of-13 from beyond the perimeter for the game.
Forman had great support from CJ Bruton (23 points, nine assists) and Tony Ronaldson (23 points, six assists) who both played brilliantly. Star guard Kirk Penney had an off night but was bailed out by the sublime team performance.
Chris Anstey was the chief threat for Melbourne with 32 points
and nine rebounds.
The Breakers ultimately won the game from long range, scoring 60
points in threes with stats of 20-of-39 (51.3%).
"I think Oscar's playing with more confidence, he's letting that
thing fly," a happy Lemanis said of Forman after the game.
"He's done a lot of work on his defence during the off-season -
he's getting into the rebounding and that's helping him with his
confidence at the offensive end.
"Whether we shoot 39 [attempts] every game remains to be seen but
we did pretty well tonight. Bringing in someone like CJ has a lot
to do with it, it's getting them the ball at the right time. The
three-point line is going to be a strength of ours this
season."
The win has New Zealand firmly atop the ANBL ladder with two wins from two games while giving a reality check to the star-studded Tigers.
It wasn't looking good for the Breakers pre-match - Paul Henare absent due to a family matter and last week's superstar Penney under an injury cloud with a cut finger on his shooting hand.
But Bruton got things underway with a bang, knocking down consecutive three-pointers to put the Breakers ahead early.
The Tigers had aggression in their eyes and through big man Anstey came storming back to build a sizeable lead.
Bruton copped the brunt of it midway through the quarter, several elbows to the face by David Barlow knocking a front tooth out.
After giving the Melbourne bench a verbal serve and then a few minutes on the bench, the gutsy Breakers point guard was back in action.
And in the face of a rampant visiting side New Zealand hung tough, Forman drilling his second triple of the quarter right on the buzzer to have the hosts one point behind (33-34) at quarter time.
Throughout the second period the Breakers proved they weren't going to take any bullying from the Tigers.
Bodies were hitting the deck all over the court but fouls allowed the Breakers to score freely from the charity stripe.
The Breakers fought so hard they were even able to nab the lead for the first time in the game six minutes into the quarter.
It was a lead the hosts kept as time wore on, going into halftime with a 59-58 advantage.
Ronaldson had a team-high 13 points for the Breakers at the split while at the other end of the floor Anstey proved his devastating presence with 22 points and four rebounds.
New Zealand looked to be hitting a flat patch in the third quarter until Forman and Bruton rained down a barrage from three-point territory. Forman had three and Bruton two all in the space of three minutes.
That gave the Breakers just the spark they needed, taking back the lead and carrying a 91-89 lead into the final quarter.
Ronaldson got things rocking with a three on the hosts' first shot of the period, the Breakers in the driver's seat.
It was a tight grind throughout the fourth although New Zealand was up by as many as eight points early on.
Forman was on a hot streak from beyond the arc - his sharp-shooting had the Breakers up by five with two and a half minutes remaining.
And the boys never let up, sending the Tigers crashing to their first loss of the season.
The Breakers (2-0) play the Adelaide 36ers at the North Shore Events Centre next Thursday.
Breakers 120: (Forman 23, Bruton 23, Ronaldson 23)
Tigers 111: (Anstey 32, Ere 21, Barlow 17)
Halftime: Breakers 59-58
