Basketball: Breakers refocused for Blaze

The Breakers will look to break a string of two straight loses when the face the Blaze tomorrow night. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand Breakers are ready for the Blaze and a return to winning ways at the North Shore Events Centre tomorrow night.

The early season pace setters in the iinet Championship have faltered in the last two games, going down on the road against Perth in the second leg of the 'doomsday double' and then dropping a home game against table topping Wollongong last Friday night when their offence failed to fire.

But after a weekend of rest and a week of hard practice, guard Paul Henare says the team is refocused and ready to get back on track.

"Yeah, the guys are in a good space this week. We all needed to refresh after a tough road trip, with the weekend off we all came back on Monday fresher and ready to prepare for the Blaze this week. We have had a great week of training, back at the levels we expect of ourselves every week."

The weekend off was needed in more ways than one, with Henare saying he and his team mates have benefited as much mentally as they have physically from the chance to rest for a couple of days.

"I think it probably did us more good mentally than physically although it was certainly a bit of both. It has helped us refocus after a good start to the season but to remind ourselves to take things one game at a time."

The Blaze have been a difficult side to scout this week, while much is known about the likes of Adam Gibson, James Harvey and Mark Worthington, the Gold Coast side brings two new imports to the Events Centre on Thursday night with little known about their style of game and possible impact.

"They are a different team already to the side we played earlier this year. Daryl Hudson and Ira Clarke are new to their roster now and will bring something a little extra. They will be hurting after a close loss to the Tigers and have lost a couple in a row like us. But our focus is us this week; we simply want to get back inside the winner's circle."

The Breakers though will be back to full strength with the return of development player BJ Anthony and shooting guard Corey Webster from injury and illness respectively.

Thursday night will see the Burger King Breakers play in their white away strip to recognise their support for White Ribbon Day. This is a day when people are urged to recognise and speak out against violence on women in the community and to say it is not OK to condone or turn a blind eye to any violence against women.

The Breakers are proud to be a part of such a campaign, with Gary Wilkinson offering his support to the message.

"We accept that we have a role to play in our community and that is a big part of who we are as players, individuals and as a club. White Ribbon Day is a message we all support, if we as sportsmen and high profile people through our sport can tell the community that it is not OK to be a part of any sort of violence towards women, nor is it OK to stay quiet about it. We will be wearing our white uniform proudly in support of this campaign on Thursday night and encouraging everyone to wear their white ribbon too."