Basketball: Wooden-spoon effort brings Breakers back to earth

Talk of a Breakers resurrection might need to be put on hold for at least another week.

The New Zealand franchise, so optimistic after announcing their roster a fortnight ago, were brought back to earth with a thump at the weekend following a wooden-spoon effort at the official pre-season tournament.

Beaten by Cairns and Sydney on Friday night, the Breakers bowed out of the Coffs Harbour scrimmage with a 61-49 loss to Townsville on Saturday, leaving them in joint bottom position, alongside expansion team Singapore.

The tournament was won by the Brisbane Bullets, who edged the Melbourne Tigers 53-49 in a reversal of last year's final, earlier dispatching Sydney and Woollongong, respectively.

The Breakers, also beaten by Townsville in a non-tournament game last week, will be tested further in Sydney, first at the hands of the Kings on Wednesday, then against the Razorbacks on Thursday.

Although proving competitive at Coffs Harbour, the Breakers were slow out of the blocks in the first 24-minute game, conceded 18 turnovers in their second, and while improving their ball control in the third, could not sustain their defensive intensity.

Translated, that meant a 74-61 loss against Cairns and a 54-49 defeat at the hands of Sydney, before the coup de grace was delivered by Townsville.

The Breakers' shooting was solid, their rebounding effort impressive and but for conceding 20 and 15 turnover points in the last two games they might have at least got off the mark.

Coach Andrej Lemanis opted for a starting five of Ben Pepper, Oscar Forman, Carlos Powell, Brian Wethers and Paul Henare in the double-header on Friday night but made one change against Townsville, using Aaron Olson instead of Forman.

Wethers, Powell and Olson provided the Breakers' main scoring edge, but there were decent contributions throughout the roster, particularly from Henare and back-up guard Adam Darragh, and forwards Vukona and Tim Behrendorff.

"We made a lot of mistakes and turnovers and I guess that's par for the course at the moment as the team comes together," Lemanis said.

"There were a lot of good aspects to emerge: our work on the boards was pretty good, we shot the ball okay and, in the main, hustled well on defence.

"But it always takes time to develop a sense of familiarity and cohesion when you're integrating new players, and that's probably our biggest challenge right now."