Basketball: Penney trains with Breakers, will play

Breakers guard Kirk Penney. Photo / Getty Images

Star guard Kirk Penney gave his troublesome back a solid workout today and then declared he was good to go for the New Zealand Breakers' Australian National Basketball League title decider against Cairns in Auckland tomorrow night.

Penney's back tightened up in practice yesterday, forcing him off the court for treatment, but he trained fully with the team in a closed-door session this morning.

"I feel good, ready to go," he said.

"I'm really happy with how the back has recovered. I had spasms yesterday and it caught me by surprise. Now it's about tomorrow and being ready and focussed and I'll be good to go."

Penney has had back spasms before and he admitted he felt nervous when the latest episode occurred, but he also played down the injury.

"At this time of the season, you have niggles, whether it's with your back, your ankles, a contusion in your thigh," he said.

"They're little things you deal with and that's how I look at this. You just have to make sure it's loose and once the game tips off, who cares. Your adrenaline is rushing and you're trying to win this thing."

Penny, 30, is the league's more prolific scorer with 20.7 points per game and grabbed a season-high 38 points in game two of the Breakers' semifinal series against defending champions Perth.

He was again the top scorer with 25 points as the Breakers ran out comfortable 85-67 winners over Cairns in game one of the final last week.

However, he was restricted to just 12 when the Taipans struck back to tie the finals series after an 85-81 double-overtime thriller on Sunday night.

Instead, it was American Ron Dorsey who finished with a game-topping 22 points, including two long-range three-pointers late in the first period of overtime that kept Cairns alive.

"We're certainly conscious of him, we know what he's capable of doing and the shots he's capable of making," Penney said.

"Obviously, he's got some confidence and rhythm and he's making shots, some crazy shots. We have to make sure he doesn't do that again."

Meanwhile, Penney didn't appear fazed by the prospect of the Cairns defence targeting him as the Breakers' primary danger man.

If they did that, it would meant others on the court would be free and be getting open looks.

"It's just responding to how they're playing and making sure we win," he said.

"However we get it done, whoever steps up, whatever the case may be, we just want to win this ball game."

Penney said the Breakers came away from the Snakepit disappointed with their performance.

The believed they had the talent to lift the trophy if they produced their best basketball.

"We have to go out there and play with that unbelievable urgency and mental awareness," he said.

"In Cairns, we let ourselves down and we were very disappointed with how we played. Now's our chance to respond and to win this thing the way we know we're capable of."

Victory would make the Breakers the first New Zealand team to win a trans-Tasman league.

It would also provide a fairy tale end to point guard Paul Henare's career.

Henare, 32, is the only player to have been with the Breakers for every one of their eight seasons and he will bring up 250 appearances when he runs out in front of a sell-out crowd at the North Shore Events Centre.

- NZPA