KEY POINTS:
"Get that thing out of here," barks coach Alan Westover at a TV production worker, who is dangling a microphone into a Melbourne Tigers time-out huddle.
It's Thursday night on the North Shore and Westover is fuming. His team, one of the favourites for the NBL title, aren't just losing to the Breakers, they are getting smashed to pieces.
The Tigers are a good side. Very good. Time and again they rally, cutting into a double digit lead. But the Breakers don't panic, they hound their opposites on defence, hustle for rebounds and knock down the big shots to stay in front.
By the fourth quarter a packed house at the Events Centre is in party mode. The Breakers are going to win and win well. Westover, too, can see the writing on the wall. He isn't impressed. His annoyance is understandable.
It's one thing to lose, it's quite another to get thrashed. And by the Breakers? That just doesn't happen.
At least it never used to. In their first four seasons in Australia's NBL, the New Zealand team went 41-89, their 31 per cent success rate a monument to sporting futility.
This season, when they lost their first two games, both at home against moderate opponents, another season of mediocrity seemed certain to follow.
Instead, the Breakers have become almost unbeatable in their own gym - winning 11 of their past 13 - and are no slouches on the road either.
They are in the playoffs. They are contenders.
What, then, has gone so right?
"It is all coming together," admits coach Andrej Lemanis, a man not prone to excessive bursts of optimism. "We are a pretty decent team, particularly when we stay focused for 48 minutes. That has been the key for us, staying relentless for 48 minutes."
Sure, that's how you win games. But how does a team rated not far above a laughing stock turn into a contender in the space of a few months?
"It is not just this season, this is the result of plenty of hard work in the previous two seasons," Lemanis says. "Things don't happen overnight. There is a belief in setting a pathway, having a vision and sticking to that.
"Our values have been an important part in us being able to build a successful club. With that, you start to recruit players who are successful and can help you win."
It might not have happened overnight but, in comparison with other sporting codes, respectability in an Australian competition has come fairly quickly. It took the Warriors seven seasons to crack the playoffs, while the various soccer franchises haven't even got close in eight years.
There's no doubt recruitment has been key to this season's turnaround. Pretty much every player brought in has been an unqualified success. Several, such as star guard Kirk Penney, fellow sharpshooter Phill Jones and veteran forward Tony Ronaldson, would be contenders for best buy in the league.
Penney and Jones have produced the clutch baskets but it is Ronaldson who has provided the intangible element that has helped a group of talented individuals become a formidable team.
"Tony is an unbelievable example of that - the most winningest player in the NBL," says Lemanis, returning to the club's recruiting policy. "He could pretty much play wherever he wanted to. We were able to convince him to come over here because he believed in what we were doing.
"It's the same reason you get Kirk Penney and Phill Jones back, you create an environment and a culture where good people want to come."
For Ronaldson, a 19-season veteran who remembers the NBL when it was played in rickety, empty old gyms, the chance to make an impact at a fledgling franchise was enticing.
"When Andrej first talked to me about coming over it was all about building this team and building a culture that is conducive to winning," he says.
"But it is not just about this year, it is about every year."
They might be about to make their post-season bow but Ronaldson says inexperience won't be an excuse for failure.
"There's no reason we should use the excuse that we are an inexperienced playoff team for not succeeding. We have got some smart heads and some people who have been around.
"Most of the playoff teams I have been on have probably been further down the track than this one.
"We are a brand new team who brought in two new imports halfway through the year."
With two games remaining, the Breakers can still finish as high as fourth and as low as eighth. Their seeding will determine matters such as home advantage but Ronaldson, who has the most playoff experience in the league, believes form is more important than seedings.
"Last year with the Wildcats we finished third and we were knocked out in one game when we lost to Cairns in Perth.
"The year before I was in a team that finished seventh; we went to Brisbane and [won] and went to Wollongong and won and took Melbourne to overtime in the second game of the semifinals. "So you can make it from anywhere. The finals are set up for the fifth-to-eighth placed teams to do well."
The near sell-out crowd at the Breakers' final regular season home game showed the club's entire operation was progressing well, Ronaldson said.
"Everyone involved in this club has really put their heart on the line and put everything into it and we are starting to reap the rewards.
"In saying that, we are not sitting back and resting on our laurels and saying 'we are in the playoffs so let's just go out there and have some fun'.
"We want to work hard, get results and do well. We are not promising anything, but we are capable of mixing it up with the best of them."
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the club's operation is its stability. With the exception of Mika Vukona, all of the key local players are contracted for next season and beyond, while injured imports Rick Rickert and Wayne Turner have also indicated their desire to return.
Lemanis, whose job must have come under scrutiny after the team went 20-45 in his first two seasons, is also on a long-term deal.
"Once you find a group you are happy with, keeping them together is the next key," Lemanis says. "The other challenge for us is the development programme, to make sure young New Zealanders keep coming through and adding to what we have."
Ronaldson believes the club is positioned to be a force in the league for years to come. If he's right, tantrums like Westover's could become a regular sight on the North Shore.
HOW THE BREAKERS TURNED THE CORNER
TURNING THE CORNER
1. RECRUITMENT
As the Breakers found out by watching Carlos Powell smash all manner of scoring records while helping the team to an 11-22 record last season, it doesn't matter how good your imports are if the rest of the team isn't up to it. This year the club successfully targeted "local" talents Kirk Penney, Phill Jones and Tony Ronaldson and brought in imports designed to complement rather than star.
That policy proved worth its weight in wins when both Rick Rickert and Wayne Turner went down within the space of a week. The team was wounded, but not fatally. The further recruitment of the classy Orien Greene straight out of the NBA and useful veteran Derrick Alston suggests the club is consistently in the market for a better class of player than has been the case in recent years.
2. X-FACTOR KIWIS
Penney came to the club with a massive reputation and an even bigger smile. Neither has shrunk as the season has gone on. He might blow a touch hot and cold but the cold spells pass quickly and he has a knack of heating up at the right time. The second-most productive player in the league, Penney's 24.1 points per game tell their own story.
New Zealand's version of autistic American teenage sharpshooter Jason McElwain, Phill Jones probably won't get invited to tea by George Bush. But there is a touch of the savant about Jones. Five minutes of Phill can turn a match, and there is no better player to have shooting from the line down the stretch.
Mika Vukona began as a development player at the Breakers but these days he's a match-winner. Sometimes provides a spark from the bench, but more often it's an out-and-out explosion. Not the greatest shooter but can defend, dunk and rebound.
3. STABILITY
It says something about a club when imports with season-ending injuries decide to stick around. Sure, a Kiwi summer is doubtless more appealing than a US winter, but Rickert and Turner have both indicated a desire to return next year. More importantly, though, the club's key locals - with the exception of Vukona - are all locked in for next season and beyond. All going to plan, the next off-season will be extremely dull.
4. INFRASTRUCTURE
You have to take their word for it, but the Breakers insist their Mairangi Bay training facility is the envy of the league. Two full practice courts, conference rooms, saunas, gyms ... the full works. Sure beats training down the Y, anyway. It also houses the club's administration, adding a level of professionalism that isn't the norm at every club.
5. FORTRESS NORTH HARBOUR
To be a force in the NBL you've got to win at home. After an 0-2 start while Penney nursed an achilles injury, the Breakers went 11-2 for the rest of the season. Few visiting teams have looked comfortable at the NSEC this season and the crowds have grown week-by-week, creating an intense atmosphere. Thursday's near sellout was reminiscent of the Warriors' final home games of 2007.
HOW THE PLAYOFFS WORK QUARTER-FINALS (Game 1 5th vs. 8th)
The team finishing 5th at the completion of the regular season hosts a sudden-death quarter-final game against the team finishing 8th.
(Game 2 6th vs. 7th)
The team finishing 6th at the completion of the regular season hosts a sudden-death quarter-final game against the team finishing 7th.
(Game 3 4th vs. winner G1)
The team finishing 4th at the completion of the regular season hosts a sudden-death quarter-final game against the winner of Game 1.
(Game 4 3rd vs. winner G2)
The team finishing 3rd at the completion of the regular season hosts a sudden-death quarter-final game against the winner of Game 2.
SEMIFINALS
(Series 1 1st vs. winner G3)
The team finishing 1st at the completion of the regular season has home-court advantage in a best-of-three semifinal series against the winner of Game 3. Series will be home-away-home subject to venue availability.
(Series 2 2nd vs. winner G4)
The team finishing 2nd at the completion or the regular season has home-court advantage in a best-of-three semifinal series against the winner of Game 4. Series will be home-away-home subject to venue availability.
GRAND FINAL
The winner of Series 1 plays the winner of Series 2 in the best-of-five Grand Final, with the highest remaining seed having home-court advantage. Series will be either home-away-home-away-home or home-home-away-away-home subject to venue availability.
