KEY POINTS:
Stop Shawn Redhage. That is what the Breakers must do tonight to beat the Perth Wildcats and avoid slipping back into a three-way tie for second on the NBL ladder.
The league's leading scorer, Redhage has made a habit of beating up on the Breakers since he was unceremoniously dumped by the New Zealand club 13 games into the 2004-05 season.
That the US-born naturalised Australian would prove such a nemesis for the Breakers seemed unlikely when he did little to impress during his brief stint at the club.
The Breakers had plucked the 2.03m forward from the Tasmanian Thunder and he was expected to return to the obscurity of the South East Australian League when he was bounced to make room for Marcus Timmons.
He did, too, turning out for the Bendigo Braves before being picked up by the Wildcats for the 2005-06 season.
Perhaps the best example of the Breakers' inability to get the best out of players during the club's formative years, Redhage is now one of the most feared players in the league.
His spell at the club predated current coach Andrej Lemanis, who certainly doesn't subscribe to the popular sentiment that in a Breakers singlet Redhage was fairly useless.
"I don't know about that," Lemanis said.
"I think Shawn has always been a pretty classy player and he is obviously putting up great numbers right now. He plays with a real aggression and reckless abandon, which makes him difficult to defend, but by no means is Perth a one-man show."
Tony Ronaldson, who tonight will tie Andrew Gaze's record of 612 NBL appearances against his former club, confirmed his former teammate never lacked motivation when playing the Breakers.
"He does like to [beat us] and I can see why - but that was the old Breakers," Ronaldson said.
"He is hard and hard to the basket and knows one way.
"We need to get on top of him. He is great in transition and gets a lot of easy transition baskets because he runs the floor so well."
The job of stopping Redhage, who also likes to crash the boards and is fourth in the league in rebounding, will mainly fall to Breakers 3-man Oscar Forman.
The sharp-shooting Forman has been in sparkling form so far this season. He notched a career-high 24 points in Saturday's win over the Gold Coast, including six of eight long bombs to return to the top of the league in three-point shooting percentage.
Forman's shaky defence is also improving but it will be severely tested by Redhage tonight.
"It is going to be a big challenge for Oscar but this is good for [him]," Ronaldson said.
"He has had a great start to the season and he wants to take his game to another level and challenge for that Boomers squad. To do that he needs to be able to stop people like Shawn."
The Wildcats head into the match having won three straight after a slow start. Historically they have dominated the Breakers, winning 12 of 16 matches, although the Breakers won last year's corresponding fixture 93-83.
A win would keep the Breakers in clear second place before heading to Townsville on Saturday night. They then host the struggling Adelaide 36ers next Thursday before embarking on a three-game road trip that could define their season.
With Forman, Kirk Penney, CJ Bruton and Phill Jones continuing to pound the basket, the Breakers remain easily the highest-scoring team in the league.
But it is their improved defence, particularly in the overtime loss to Cairns last Wednesday, that has most encouraged Lemanis leading into their torrid schedule.
"I think we are in a pretty good position to attack it," Lemanis said.
"The team is feeling good and certainly the defence has improved in the last week and a half. And on offence we are starting to see a little bit more consistency with the flow of the basketball."
MATCH DAY
Breakers v Wildcats.
North Shore Events Centre, 7.30 tonight.
