KEY POINTS:
The Breakers will need a repeat of last week's improved rebounding effort if they are to compete with the table-topping Sydney Kings tonight.
The 13-2 Kings head to the North Shore sitting astride the NBL ladder and leading the league in offensive rebounding.
Without injured import Rick Rickert, the Breakers were blown away by the Taipans on the boards two weeks ago. But they turned in a vastly improved team rebounding effort in last week's tense three-point victory over the Dragons and their coach, Andrej Lemanis, knows a continuation of that improvement will be crucial to his side's chances tonight.
"The week we played Cairns we were probably caught on the back foot a wee bit," Lemanis said.
"It was a bit of a shock for us in that we got the news on the Monday that Wayne [Turner] was out and then suddenly on Tuesday Rick was out.
"Last week we were mentally prepared that those guys would not be playing. Going into tonight's game is a similar thing."
The Kings also boast the best defensive record in the league, conceding a miserly 89 points per game, but the Breakers have started to make their mark on the league's stats charts.
After a slow start, the Breakers have lived up to their billing as a sharp shooting outfit and now sit third in overall field goal percentage.
Having lost the low-post threat of Rickert for a lengthy spell, the Breakers have turned more and more to long bomb exponents Kirk Penney, Phil Jones, Tony Ronaldson and Oscar Foreman and have climbed to second in the league in three-point percentage.
With the Kings also prolific long-range shooters, tonight's match promises to be a classic shootout.
"The Kings are committed to the offensive boards but they also shoot a lot of threes, which means there are a lot of long rebounds," Lemanis said. "That emphasises the fact that everybody has got to box out. No matter where your man is on the court you've got to put a body on him to come up with the ball for the team."
Much-touted point guard Orien Greene will make his Breakers debut but Lemanis will likely ease his mid-season recruit into the action.
In the absence of Rickert, Lemanis will be looking to the likes of Foreman, who snatched a career high 13 rebounds last week, to continue to step up their efforts.
The Breakers have won six of seven at home recently but Forman, who will play his 200th NBL match, knows the Kings present the toughest of assignments.
"They have been in great form and they're a good test to see how you're going to deal with pressure," Forman said.
"With Rick missing we are a smaller, faster team and that's much like Sydney, who are deadly from broken play and transition into attack mode so well."
Kings coach Brian Goorjian said the Breakers' injury situation made them hard to scout, but he was wary of their talented roster.
"I know that a real quality player has come in, so we don't know what to expect there," he said. "But when they put all 10 of their players together I think they're a top four proposition.
"Just watching how they played without their two imports [against the South Dragons], they can beat anybody. It's starting to appear to be more of the New Zealand national team, which I have a tremendous respect for. "I think they've won quite a few in a row at home and they play very well together, they execute together, they execute their half-court offence real well so they're going to be very, very good."
The Kings have an impressive record against the Breakers having won 10 of the previous 12 encounters, including all three games last season.
It has been more than three years since the Kings lost in Auckland.
* Singapore's Kiwi Hayden Allen is leading the league in three point percentage. Allen has connected with 12 of 19 (63.2 per cent) shots from beyond the arc. The Harbour Heat guard made his first start for the Slingers on Sunday night, helping them to an upset home victory over the defending champion Brisbane Bullets.
