KEY POINTS:
A tough assignment just got a little tougher. Kirk Penney, the Breakers' go-to guy, isn't going anywhere. Well, at least not to Australia for a crucial double-header against the Wollongong Hawks tonight and the Adelaide 36ers tomorrow night.
Penney, who was already suffering from a nose infection and was way off his game in last week's defeat by Souths Dragons, has been forced to sit out the trip after hyper-extending his knee in training.
After losing six of their last seven and facing a Hawks team that will be super-motivated after a midweek announcement that the club will be wound up at the end of the season, the loss of Penney is the last thing the Breakers needed.
"Right now I feel like I want to be with the guys and contributing, but the advice from the physio is to rest up this weekend and be ready for our final home game of the season next Thursday against Cairns," Penney said.
The only silver lining for the Breakers is that a midweek defeat the Dragons inflicted on the 36ers means the New Zealand team need just one win from their final four regular season matches to secure a home playoff.
"It is important also that we are all 100 per cent fit for the playoffs, which are getting closer by the day," Penney said.
"I wished the boys luck [yesterday] morning but I know they can do the job in my absence."
Penney has been replaced by exciting prospect Tom Abercrombie.
The athletic Abercrombie has impressed in his brief outings but, unquestionably a talent for the future, it would a surprise if he saw much game time during the trip.
Phill Jones, who returned to form last week with 28 points off the bench, is likely to assume Penney's spot in the starting line-up and receive most of his minutes
Penney's loss will be a blow, but resting him now looks like the right move.
Last week against the Dragons he turned in his worst performance in a Breakers singlet. Usually the silkiest of operators, Penney was struck down by a run of schoolboy errors. He frequently lost control of his dribble, even bouncing the ball off his foot a couple of times. He attempted just two shots in the first half, both of which missed, and did not notch his first points until late in the third quarter.
As Penney struggled, so did his team. When he finally rediscovered his mojo late in the game, the Breakers cut a 20-point deficit to four and could well have gone on to win.
They didn't, but it was that late rally as much as anything that has given the side heart ahead of tonight's showdown with a Hawks club that this week announced financial constraints had forced them not pursue a spot in next year's revamped league.
The only surviving foundation club in the league, the Hawks will be desperate to go out on a high note.
For the Breakers, the question is whether that rally against the Dragons was an indicator the team are ready to break out of their slump, or whether it was simply the death throes from a side that have completely lost their way.
"We've got four games to work with to get everything where we want it to be before it is do or die," Penney said.
"We need to not only win but play well, play the way we are capable of playing. In the second half against the Dragons I thought we put a really good effort in and played some intense in-your-face basketball."
The last time the Breakers met the Hawks they suffered a crushing 111-94 defeat, starting a slide that saw them tumble from 15-4 to their current mark of 16-10.
The injury-enforced absence of point guard CJ Bruton was the catalyst for a decline that halted the Breakers' momentum before a run of three matches out of four against fellow title-chasing Melbourne clubs the Tigers and Dragons.
Penney said the tough schedule had "just kind of magnified it into a bigger slump when really I feel like we are still fine, we are playing good basketball.
But with the amount of losses we've had it has been tough to swallow. We just have to keep working and stay positive. If anything, we have to come out of this and be a better and stronger team.
"You hear all the time about people who go through a period of adversity and I agree with that. But we've got to make sure it is true with us as well.
"We've talked too much really.
It gets to a point where you've just got to go out and get it done."
