Basketball: Breakers 'lack heart' in opening defeat

Maybe even more influential than the absence of Corey Webster was what else the Breakers were missing in their season-opening defeat. Photo / Anthony Au-Yeung

Maybe even more influential than the absence of Corey Webster was what else the Breakers were missing in their season-opening defeat.

The defending champions began their reign on Wednesday with all the assurance of King Edward, crashing to a heavy loss against Adelaide with an under-manned roster seriously over-matched.

Webster was one of three regular starters sitting out the season tip off, with Tom Abercrombie and Alex Pledger also sidelined through injury.

But while having three-fifths of a team unavailable is hardly a recipe for success, assistant coach Paul Henare was instead concerned about the shortage of a couple of other ingredients.

"The heart and the intensity wasn't there," Henare said.

"We need to take a good, hard look at ourselves.

"We're all in agreement that it wasn't anything other than a lack of pride and a lack of effort."

That deficiency was apparent during a horror second quarter that saw the Breakers blown out.

The Kiwi club have long prided themselves on winning the rebounding battle but Adelaide were handed an open invitation on the offensive glass.

"It all stemmed from that second," Henare said.

"We got outplayed, out-hustled, out-rebounded and, after that second quarter, we were pretty much digging ourselves out of a hole."

The Breakers brightened up in the second half, with new import Charles Jackson finishing with a handy contribution of 12 points and seven rebounds, but never managed to reduce the deficit below 15.

Both Abercrombie and Pledger could return for Sunday's home opener against Townsville.