KEY POINTS:
The Breakers will head into tonight's top-of-the-table ANBL clash against the South Melbourne Dragons with renewed belief after achieving what no other New Zealand team in an Australian competition has managed: becoming a genuine force across the Ditch.
The unbeaten three-game road trip that preceded tonight's match took the Breakers' record on Australian pine to 5-1, with their only defeat an overtime loss to the Taipans in their first match across the Tasman in round six.
They have since won five-straight in enemy territory. Putting that record in perspective, just three of the ANBL's 10 teams boast a winning away record - the Tigers (3-2) the Breakers and tonight's opponent the Dragons (4-1).
If there were any lingering doubts about the Breakers' bona fides as title contenders, they have been erased over the past fortnight as the New Zealand club claimed the scalps of the Tigers, Taipans and Crocodiles.
Once a whipping boy, it now appears the Breakers are such a feared opponent opposition clubs are going to great lengths to get an edge.
The mascot of the Townsville Crocodiles - "100 per cent Croc" - has apologised for attempting to disrupt a team talk during a crucial timeout.
In the fourth quarter of Saturday night's 119-108 Breakers' victory, the mascot dragged fans from their seats to gather around the visitors' huddle and shout at the players while banging a drum. Breakers' coach Andrej Lemanis was forced to move his players to centre court to conduct his team talk.
Breakers' general manager Richard Clarke said his players and coaching staff hadn't even mentioned the incident.
After receiving complaints from their own fans the Taipans apologised, issuing a statement that said the mascot's actions went "well beyond reasonable and acceptable behaviour".
The statement said the mascot was reacting to similar treatment dished out to opposition teams at Breakers' home matches - something denied by Clarke, who made no apologies for the fortress atmosphere at the North Shore Events Centre.
The walls of that fortress will be well tested tonight by a Dragons side that has won eight straight under new coach Brian Goorjian.
The Australian supercoach has a stranglehold over his opposite, with his sides having won eight of nine against Lemanis' Breakers.
The only win by Lemanis over his former coach was in Sydney in January 2006. Goorjian has won his past five in Auckland and has never lost a game at North Shore, his only loss in New Zealand coming at Trusts Stadium in overtime in October 2004.
Starting centre Rick Rickert, named the league's player of the week for standout performances against the Taipans and Crocodiles, will be a key figure but the Breakers will be without third-string big man Adam Tanner, who is out for a month after rolling an ankle in training.
The Dragons have an injury worry over naturalised Tall Black forward Nick Horvath, while former Breaker Mika Vukona makes his return to the club for which he played for five years.
Already with a three-game buffer over the third-placed Tigers, a victory in what shapes as a potential Grand Final series preview would see the Breakers leapfrog the Dragons and go top a game before the half-way point of the 30-game regular season.
BIG GAME
* Breakers v Dragons.
* North Shore Events Centre, 7.30 tonight.
