NBL playoff decider: Perth out to shut down Penney

The Breakers will be hoping Mike Vukona can contribute like in game two. Photo / Steven McNicholl

The Breakers won't be able to rely on the hot hand of Kirk Penney to close out a wildly fluctuating semifinal series against the Perth Wildcats on the North Shore tonight.

Penney poured in 38 points - the most by any player this season - in Sunday night's thrilling game two reversal in Perth.

Having been burned once, Perth won't allow the Breakers' star scorer the same sort of latitude tonight, insists Breakers point guard Kevin Braswell.

"Kirk won't be able to breathe," Braswell said.

With Penney attracting suffocating double teams from the rugged Wildcats defence, the onus will fall on the likes of CJ Bruton and Thomas Abercrombie to light up the scoreboard, Braswell said.

"It opens CJ up and I am waiting for CJ to have his 25-point outing. Tommy can do the same thing. Those guys will have their open shots. And, as far as the big guys go, we are going to pick-and-roll a lot and they are going to be open in the paint a lot."

Scoring points, though, has seldom been the Breakers' problem. Even in an abject game one, when they shot just 43 per cent from the field and landed just 7/31 three pointers, they racked up 78 points. The problem was in the 101 they conceded. Sunday's effort in restricting the Wildcats to 89 - and shutting down key Wildcats scorer Kevin Lisch - was a vast improvement.

Tonight would definitely be more like game two than game one, Braswell said.

"Knowing that we have got a sold-out crowd, there is no way we can come here and disappoint," he said.

"[In game one] we didn't play with any intensity. It didn't look like we played play-off basketball. That third quarter when we fell apart, it looked like we quit.

"[On Sunday] nobody wanted to go home. But we are still in the same boat right now. If we lose this game we are going home. Everybody knows that."

The series may have defied predictions of home advantage proving crucial, but the Breakers should receive the full benefit of their top seeding tonight.

They hopped on the first plane out of Perth on Sunday night and arrived back in New Zealand on Monday morning. Although there were plenty of yawns at yesterday's light training session, they will have had another 30 hours to recover by tip-off.

Perth, meanwhile, arrived late on Monday night. It was their third crossing of the Tasman in six days, but the Breakers insist they aren't expecting anything other than a fully fizzing Wildcats side to take the court.

"I don't see nobody showing up fatigued," Braswell said. "The adrenalin will be flowing. But they definitely wanted to end it in Perth, we know that. It is a tough flight but we are not expecting them to come in here tired. I am expecting them to be fully energised."

Having made a shock return on Sunday, key forward Mika Vukona pronounced himself 100 per cent fit for tonight's game. The new knee brace he was sporting suggested otherwise, but Vukona was confident he could do the job his side desperately needs, namely help level the rebounding battle.

Coach Andrej Lemanis said Vukona was just as important to the side as his nine team-mates. Games one and two suggest otherwise. In game one Vukona played just 3min 56sec. He contributed one rebound as the Breakers were smashed 47-26 on the boards.

In game two Vukona played 21 minutes, pulling down 10 rebounds as the Breakers closed the gap to 34-38.

If the rebound count is that close again tonight, the Breakers' scoring power should carry the day. That, however, is a pretty big if. The question is whether the Breakers are the team that bullied the league in the regular season but fell flat on their faces in game one, or whether they are team that scrapped for their lives in Perth? Tonight they get to answer it.

SEMIFINAL CLASH
* Game one: Perth 101 Breakers 78
* Game two: Breakers 93 Perth 89
* Game three: Tonight, North Shore Events Centre, tip-off 7pm.

Winner advances to three-game finals series against Townsville or Cairns