KEY POINTS:
MELBOURNE - Just when you think it's time to take serious notice of the New Zealand Breakers, they put in a basketball performance like last night's.
Coach Andrej Lemanis walked away from Melbourne's Vodafone Arena as annoyed as he'd been all season after bottom-placed South Dragons upset them 102-90 in the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL).
Going into the weekend in sixth place and shooting for four straight wins, the Breakers emerged with nothing from their Melbourne sojourn after the unbeaten Tigers stormed home to win 115-90 on Saturday. They're now 3-4 and running eighth in the 13-team league.
"I was disappointed in the way we played tonight. Up until today we were making pretty good progress in a lot of areas but we looked flat and lethargic in that first quarter," Lemanis said.
"We had opportunities to establish a big lead in that first quarter and we missed a lot of easy stuff. We've been solid defensively but we fell away."
The lethargy could be put down in part to a tough game at `The Cage' less than 24 hours earlier, but the away double-header is nothing new for the Breakers.
Veteran Tall Black Phill Jones, whose shooting returned to its vintage best to snare a game-high 28 points, said the alarm bells were ringing early on.
"It felt a little bit messy and we didn't get into any structure. We struggled pretty much throughout the game.
"Maybe you can attribute some of that to the night before, but I've experienced double headers and you usually come out more battle-ready for the next game. It didn't seem like we were that way tonight and it hurt us."
The Breakers' shooting let them down with a poor 37 per cent success rate from the field including just eight-of-23 three-pointers, of which Jones hit five.
The two key men in their three-match winning streak, Tall Black Kirk Penney and import Rick Rickert, both had noticeable off nights.
Penney went from a 29-point haul on Saturday to just four-of-16 last night, a grand total of 11 points. Rickert also scored 11 and shot just three-of-11.
"I thought Phill stepped up and shouldered some of the load. Kirk's was just a case of sometimes you miss. It was the energy levels which was the issue for us," Lemanis said.
The Shane Heal-coached Dragons were 0-6 going into the game but played with more intensity on their home court, flashy guard Cortez Groves topscoring with 27 points.
The Breakers trailed 41-43 at halftime but looked to have the game in hand at 71-67 going into the final quarter, before being hammered 35-19 in the final 12 minutes.
It's back to Auckland to host the defending champion Brisbane Bullets on Thursday then Adelaide on Saturday as they try to avert the weekend's speed wobbles.
"Good teams respond and I think we're a good team," said Lemanis, who insisted during the week it was the best Breakers unit he'd seen.
- NZPA
