NZ Breakers coach Mody Maor eyeing more after NBL playoff spot all but clinched

Addressing his New Zealand Breakers team following their 103-87 win over the Brisbane Bullets on Friday night, coach Mody Maor didn’t waste words when summing up the weight of their achievement.

“To be in this situation after where we were six weeks ago, it’s f***ing awesome. You should be very, very proud of yourselves.”

That’s not hyperbole on Maor’s part either. Six weeks ago the Breakers had just got their season off life support with four wins on the trot. They went on to drop their next three, leaving them sitting near the bottom of the table with an 8-13 record needing to win six of their final eight games to have a hope of reaching the post-season.

After their win over Brisbane in front of around 7000 fans at a sold-out Spark Arena, they brought their record to 13-14. Now, it would take a loss of more than 100 points against the Adelaide 36ers in their final game of the regular season on Sunday to miss out on the post-season.

The Breakers assembled a talent roster this season, but between a disrupted preseason, a trip to the States after the NBL season had started and a plethora of injuries, they’ve had plenty of obstacles to overcome.

But throughout the season, whenever the topic of the team’s playoffs hopes was brought up, Maor responded with something along the lines of ‘I love what we have here’. After the win over Brisbane, he reinforced that.

“This season brought a lot of challenges with it and it was very important for all of us that we come out of these challenges playing the right way; playing good basketball and playing good basketball when it matters,” Maor said.

“All of these things came down to a game just how you want it to be: head-to-head, you win you go up, you lose you go home, and our guys brought it.”

“I really, really like this team, and I love these players in this locker room. We have enough to beat anyone but it’s not without margin. We need to bring our A-game and I trust these guys to bring it.”

While it would take a loss of monumental proportion for the Breakers to lose their spot in the playoffs, they still have a chance to finish as high as fourth.

If the Breakers win in Adelaide and the Illawarra Hawks lose to Melbourne United, the two would finish even on wins and points percentage would be the tiebreaking factor. The Breakers are currently the equivalent of a 10-point win behind Illawarra in that category, though they play after the Hawks today so will know what they need to do if a fourth-placed finish is possible.

A win by any margin over the Hawks would guarantee the Breakers a fifth-placed finish at worst.

Seeding will play an important role in the first round of the post-season as teams ranked from third to sixth go through the play-in structure. Third plays host to fourth while fifth hosts sixth. The latter’s loser is eliminated, while the winner meets the other’s loser in a do-or-die fixture. The winner of the third v fourth play-in game moves into the semifinals.

“The ladder is so complicated,” Maor said.

“It doesn’t matter. Winning this means a lot. Fourth place is alive, fifth place is alive. It’s a great thing for us, so this game carries significant weight.

“We still have something to prove to ourselves in how we perform in back-to-backs. We’ve taken steps forward and it’s time to take another step forward that ends with a win.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.