KEY POINTS:
BREAKERS V ADELAIDE
North Shore Events Centre, 7.30 tonight
Everything that could go right did for the Breakers in their record early season victory over the Adelaide 36ers but the signs ahead of tonight's rematch suggest that isn't about to happen again.
The Breakers go into the match without suspended sharpshooter Phill Jones, while the 36ers will be an entirely different prospect with starters Adam Ballinger and Adam Bruce and former Breaker Paora Winitana restored to their line-up.
The withdrawal of Bruce and Ballinger let the Breakers roll the 36ers in round three, with the 38-point winning margin eclipsing the mark set against Gold Coast last season.
The defeat sparked a run of five consecutive defeats for the Adelaide club but they halted that slide with a victory over Sydney Spirit on Sunday.
The Breakers are using Jones' suspension as motivation but the former Tall Black accepted the sentence without complaint.
"I am gutted I won't be there to help the boys and feel frustrated with myself ... " Jones said.
If there was an element of contrition in Jones' words, there probably deserved to be, after the roundhouse blow he landed on Perth Wildcats' star Shawn Redhage during last week's tempestuous victory.
Jones pleaded guilty to striking and was handed a mandatory one-match suspension.
While Jones and the Breakers made all the right noises about the incident, privately they might just be regarding it as a decent piece of business. The blow to what can politely be described as his lower abdomen unsettled Redhage.
Whether it affected the outcome was a moot point, but upsetting the Wildcats' key performer certainly didn't do the Breakers any harm as they stormed back from an 18-point deficit to take their home record to 5-1.
Jones' absence could result in more game time for local product Thomas Abercrombie.
With coach Andrej Lemanis sticking with his established veterans, the former Westlake Boys student has been glued to the bench for most of the season.
Regardless of who gets Jones' minutes, the Breakers will be down on firepower without a player whose three point explosions can turn matches and who is a nerveless performer down the stretch.
