Basketball: Breakers must look on the bright side

The Breakers' season is likely to close tonight with defeat in Adelaide, a painful introduction, but not half as painful as most others in the Aussie NBL.

The other new franchise, the Hunter Valley Pirates, have secured only two wins this season and the Breakers are the first side admitted to the competition to have pushed close to a finals spot in their inaugural year.

Hunter played Townsville late last night and were expected to struggle, meaning the Breakers would have to secure a monumental win in Adelaide in order to slip past the 36ers into the eighth and final playoff spot.

Without centre Ben Melmeth and away to a team that has featured in the past six finals series, that looked like an impossible mission.

There has been some sledging back and forth this week, a measure of the intensity with which both teams are taking their final roundplay game. Adelaide coach Phil Smyth claimed Breakers' captain Pero Cameron used illegal foul tactics to take Brett Maher out of the 2001 world championships qualifying game that sent the Tall Blacks to Indianapolis.

The Breakers released press from Adelaide newspapers that suggested the Breakers' season was all over. The 36ers fired back.

Which all sets up a confrontational atmosphere for tonight.

The Breakers should take heart from the season regardless.

They started without half the squad, away with the Tall Blacks, and injuries to Melmeth and Cameron have blighted their year. With a decent build-up, they will be a different proposition.

Despite the preparation and lessons learned from the experience of the Warriors in travelling to Australia, the new professionals have found it tough coping with the schedule but will have hardened up from the experience of 2003.

Next step for them is determining a 2004 roster. Only Mike Chappell, signed for two more years, Phill Jones, Cameron and Dillon Boucher, all contracted for one more season, have job security.

The rest go on the transfer list, though some will be retained.

It's also sure some will go as coach Frank Arsego balances his side. Clubs cannot talk to players until a week after the finals series ends, unless they approach the existing employer and get permission to start negotiating.

TEAMS

NZ BREAKERS: Pero Cameron (c), Paul Henare, Lindsay Tait, Aaron Olson, Phill Jones, Paora Winitana, Dillon Boucher, Mike Chappell, Pero Cameron, Blake Truslove, Iona Enosa.

ADELAIDE 36ers: Charles Thomas, Brett Maher, Martin Cattalini, Dusty Rychart, Oscar Forman, Mark Nash, Jacob Holmes, Darren Ng, Jason Williams, Nathan Hawkes, Todd Gower, Nick Hambour.