KEY POINTS:
The mid-table dogfight in the Australian National Basketball League will ensure the New Zealand Breakers stay focused on the job at hand, coach Andrej Lemanis says.
The Breakers head back across the Tasman today buoyed by a record 126-93 thumping of the Gold Coast Blaze in Auckland last night.
The 33-point margin of victory was the biggest in the club's five seasons in the league, and eclipses by one-point their 113-81 away result against Victoria in their debut campaign.
It moved them up a spot to seventh on the ladder, with their next outing being against the team they climbed above, the Townsville Crocodiles.
While the Breakers have their destiny in their own hands as they try to make the ANBL playoffs for the first time, they also know the the remaining eight-match stretch is a treacherous one.
"From fourth down to 10th right now, when you look at it, it's like a game or two between them," Lemanis said.
"Six or seven teams are in an absolute war and a dogfight and you have to bring it every single night when you step out on the court."
While it was good to win big, Lemanis said what pleased him most about the performance against the Blaze was the manner his players had gone about their job.
Defensive intensity was something the team had spoken about consistently, he said, and the Breakers brought that with them on court against Gold Coast.
The Blaze, the league's leading three-point shooters, managed just eight baskets from beyond the arc, for a success rate of just 30 per cent.
"When you have that intensity at the defensive end, it makes offence that much easier," Lemanis said.
"You get flow more at the offensive end."
On offence, guard Kirk Penney was again a primary source of points with a game-high 32, while the two American imports, Derrick Alston and classy point guard Orien Greene, contributed 23 and 19 respectively.
Tony Ronaldson collected the eight points he needed to pass Derek Rucker's career tally of 9379 and move to sixth on the ANBL all-time scoring list.
Having achieved the feat, Ronaldson limped off with an ankle injury in the second quarter and early signs were that he could be out for two weeks.
The Blaze, who struggled with shooting accuracy, had two former Breakers on show in Pero Cameron and Casey Frank, who top-scored for his side with 21 points.
Lemanis agreed with the view that the Breakers' performance was their best of the season, at least in terms of being defensively relentless for the entire contest.
"In other games, we've had great patches," he said.
"But for 48 minutes of application at the defensive end, certainly the consistency from us was the best I've seen."
That said, as coach, he too would not be getting ahead of himself.
"Two games ago, we were 10 and 10," he said.
"Had we lost against West Sydney last weekend, everyone would have been sticking the boot in, so we just need to keep focusing on ourselves and what we need to do in order to be successful."
- NZPA
