Breakers big man Ben Pepper accepts he will be the centre of attention in tonight's ANBL clash against the Singapore Slingers on the North Shore.
Pepper has been in good form this season and scored a career-high 37 points, in his 348th NBL game, against the Tigers inMelbourne last weekend.
He is averaging 16 points and eight rebounds a game, but his two poorest performances of the season have been against the Slingers, where he averaged just 4.5 points and four rebounds as the team suffered 17- and 13-point losses.
"We've had a bit of trouble with them, but we're on to that fact and working towards rectifying it," Pepper said.
The Breakers appreciated the enormity of their two games this week - the second is against the Hawks in Wollongong on Saturday - but they had every incentive to perform well.
"There's still hope to make the top eight if we win these matches and we desperately want to keep the dream alive," he said.
Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis said the team were playing sudden-death basketball this week.
If they won both matches they could be on the same number of wins as those two rivals, depending on the Hawks' match-up against 2nd-placed Perth and the Slingers' clash with the 3rd-placed Tigers this week.
"They're teams we're trying to catch, so they're doubly important games," Lemanis said.
"Lose to one of them and the gap is too big to make up, but if we can win both we're back in with a chance to slip into the play-offs."
The Slingers had been more physical than his side in their two matches and he didn't want a repeat.
"They've smoked us on the boards, shut us down and then run the ball with abandon.
"But the way we've played the last two games I'm confident our rebounding and defence have improved and that will make a difference."
