KEY POINTS:
Skipper Paul Henare feels as "fresh as a daisy" despite a heavy workload for the New Zealand Breakers in this season's Australian National Basketball League.
The point guard has averaged 39 minutes in the Breakers' 11 games this campaign, making him equal with American import Carlos Powell as the Breaker with the most time on court.
"I guess it's a little more than usual for me, but there are others as well," he said.
"Carlos has also got some huge minutes this year. It's just one of those things. It's what we do."
Henare said he had no problems with his body holding up as he looked ahead to the Breakers' next assignment, hosting Cairns at the North Shore Events Centre tomorrow night.
"I'm feeling fine -- fresh as a daisy," he said.
"They've been smart with our training schedule and giving us plenty of opportunities to be as fresh as we can."
The Breakers are sitting just outside the top eight as they look to turn the tables on the Taipans, who beat them 113-99 in Cairns last month.
A key challenge will be shutting down prolific scorer Martin Cattalini, who has been averaging 27 points a game this season.
The 2.02m Australian forward was on fire last month when he grabbed a league season-high 51 points against Brisbane.
"They have a lot of focus around Martin Cattalini, and he's playing some great basketball at the moment," Henare said.
"Just in terms of trying to fix what we did last time in Cairns, it's making sure we stick to our game and take away some of their stronger options."
The Breakers might be excused for looking beyond the upcoming clash and ahead to the daunting road trip that will follow.
After facing the Taipans, they will have away matches against Perth, Singapore, the South Dragons and Melbourne over an eight-day period.
But Henare said his players wouldn't have any problems keeping their minds on the job at hand.
As tough as the upcoming journey seem, it was "quite tame" compared with the roundabout Townsville-Perth-Adelaide-Brisbane itinerary last season.
"It's important we do focus on this game instead of getting too far ahead of ourselves," he said.
"It is a long road trip, but every team has one and this is our one."
The Breakers are coming off a 106-90 defeat at Brisbane, but have won their last two in Auckland to go ahead 5-4 in games won and lost at home this season.
Henare conceded that the club's home record historically wasn't been great, but the Breakers were doing "a reasonable job" this time around.
"It's not perfect, but it's definitely something we've picked up on."
- NZPA
