Basketball: Breakers players hit by stomach bug

The New Zealand Breakers have been hit by illness during the most crucial stage of the season. Photo / Greg Bowker

Illness has prevented Breakers Gary Wilkinson, Dillon Boucher and Dion Prewster from training today ahead of Friday night's second finals series basketball match against the Wildcats in Perth.

The trio were recovering from a stomach upset at their homes, but coach Andrej Lemanis hopes they will be available for training tomorrow. The Breakers will make the long journey to Perth on Thursday.

Wilkinson and Boucher are crucial to the Breakers, especially with question marks remaining over Tom Abercrombie's involvement due to an ankle injury. Prewster is a development team player.

"As if there are not enough challenges in a week like this, we seem to have been hit with a bit of a stomach virus,'' Lemanis said.

"Hopefully it is just a 24-hour thing and we'll all be good to have a good session tomorrow because we need one.

"Obviously it affects practice, with Tom [Abercrombie] out and BJ [Anthony] out as well, but I thought we still had a good practice. We got something out of it, we went for an hour and we went pretty hard.''

Abercrombie did not train again today, with Anthony ruled out last month due to stress fractures in a lower leg.

Lemanis said Abercrombie, who took no part in last Thursday's overtime 104-98 victory over the Wildcats at Auckland's Vector Arena, would probably play on Friday night.

"He won't be 100 per cent but hopefully he will be able to contribute more than he contributed on Thursday night. With that week [off] it should give him a chance to at least be in a position to play some minutes.''

The Breakers will claim consecutive NBL titles if they win on Friday night. If required, the third game in the series is at Vector Arena next Tuesday.