Basketball: Breakers heading for Blitz tournament with full crew

Centre Ben Pepper and forward Oscar Forman have recovered from injury and will take their places in the Breakers squad for the pre-season Blitz tournament.

The two-day tournament, involving all 12 NBL clubs, will tip off at Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, on Friday.

Pepper dislocated the little finger of his left hand a week ago, but is back practising fully.

Forman is recovering from a quad muscle tear but will be available for court time in the tournament and in three pre-season matches on Australian soil.

The Blitz tournament is a shortened form of basketball with games consisting of two 12-minute halves.

The teams are divided into two pools of six and play three of the other five teams in their section in round-robin play, with the top four qualifiers in each pool progressing to the quarter-finals.

Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis said Paul Henare, Aaron Olson and Mika Vukona, the team's three New Zealand internationals who recently participated in the world championship in Japan, had quickly switched back into Breakers mode.

"They've added a new dynamic to training and they're all eager to rip into the games and get to know the new faces on the roster."

The four newcomers this season are American imports Brian Wethers and Carlos Powell and Australians Adam Darragh and Forman.

- NZPA