KEY POINTS:
BREAKERS V TIGERS
North Shore Events Centre, 7.30 tonight.
The Breakers will be without back-up point guard Paul Henare for tonight's showdown with the defending-champions Melbourne Tigers on the North Shore.
Henare didn't train yesterday, with coach Andrej Lemanis saying only that the 158-game veteran was "attending to a personal matter".
Lemanis would also not comment on the likely length of Henare's absence and no date has been set for his return.
With starting point guard CJ Bruton still settling in at his new club, the loss of foundation player Henare's experience is an untimely blow. Promising youngster Corey Webster will likely be thrown into the deep end against a Tigers club that has so far lived up to its title-favourites billing with comfortable victories over Sydney Spirit and Gold Coast Blaze.
Henare's ability to keep Bruton out of the limelight was a feature of last week's win over Wollongong. His absence following knee surgery in the early stages of last season affected the team's balance and the Breakers will be wary of that happening again.
But with star shooting guard Kirk Penney having made a red hot start to the season with an eye-catching 41 points against the Hawks, the Breakers will still fancy their chances against the Tigers.
Having stacked their already formidable roster with Boomers David Barlow and Sam Mackinnon and imports Ebi Ere and Ron Grizzard, the Melbourne side will certainly give the Breakers' dark horse credentials a stern test.
"The experts are saying they are the team to beat and they are defending champs so it's fair enough, they have earned that title," Penney said.
"So it is a good test for us. But this [the North Shore Events Centre] is our home and we want to protect this place. It is a good opportunity to pull together as a team."
Penney's 41 points against the Hawks included six-of-10 three-pointers, with five long bombs coming in a remarkable third quarter. That shooting performance earned him the league's first player of the week title but he was happy to deflect the praise his teammates' way.
"It is a nice accolade but ultimately it is a team award. Your team has to win for you even to be considered and I think all the guys know that.
"Especially in that game, everyone was playing their role really well."
Their ability to tighten things up after a poor start had been the key to turning a one-point half-time deficit into a comfortable 21-point victory.
"We limited their looks and didn't give them the easy lay-ups and open jumpers that we did in the first half and they had nothing to go to really.
"That is great for us, if we can lock a team up like that, especially in the crucial fourth quarter."
Shutting down the Hawks is one thing, but doing the same to a Tigers side bristling with offensive threats is quite another.
"What can you say, they are the defending champions, they've recruited well and the media has labelled them as favourites," Lemanis said.
"But we are ready for them and confident in our own ability to perform and lift again from last week."
