KEY POINTS:
Forget about the top two, it's time for the Breakers to circle the wagons and ensure they get a home quarter-final.
Two wins from their remaining four matches should be enough, three will ensure it, while four, impossible as it might be to imagine for a team that has dropped six of its past seven, might rekindle slim hopes of a top-two placing.
But that can no longer be the priority. With Perth Wildcats (15-12) and Townsville Crocs (15-12) on winning streaks (both played late last night), the Breakers (16-10) need to ensure they slip no further than fourth on the ladder. If they continue to sink, they will face a one-off quarter-final at either one of those two inhospitable destinations.
It is a far cry from where the Breakers were sitting a month ago, when the only concern was whether South Melbourne might overhaul them for the 'minor premiership'.
But the Melbourne Tigers' resurgence and the Breakers' breaking have changed everything.
"Confidence certainly breeds confidence and lack of confidence can also hurt you, in the same way it can keep feeding on itself," coach Andrej Lemanis said recently.
"We are a good basketball team, we've got to keep believing in that and there's a few small adjustments (that have to be made)."
The Breakers have not looked a good team since CJ Bruton rolled his ankle. Even when he came back off the bench, the dynamic that had worked so well for the team in the first two-thirds of the season had been altered. Lemanis has to hope it has not been altered irreparably.
Dragons coach Brian Goorjian believed the Breakers were still a genuine title threat but everything revolved around Bruton's fitness.
As much as that is true, the Breakers also can't keep handing over the ascendancy from the tip-off. They conceded the first 10 points of the game against the Dragons and guard Paul Henare would later concede they did not turn up mentally for the first quarter.
Lemanis might be well served to work on a new pre-match speech for Friday's visit to Wollongong.
