A couple of weeks ago the Sky City Breakers upcoming double header on the road appeared difficult, but now it’s downright tough.
On Friday night the Breakers take on the Hawks in Wollongong and on Sunday the Adelaide 36ers. At the beginning of the month the Hawks encounter looked the easier proposition but they have won their last three games by comfortable margins. Firstly they beat Adelaide and last weekend secured victories over Sydney and Townsville on consecutive nights. Guard Rotnei Clarke has been in superb touch culminating in a massive 39 points against Sydney Kings last Saturday. Arguably he and Breakers big man Gary Wilkinson are the two form imports at present and both sets of coaches will be focusing on these two scoring dynamos when preparing their scouting reports this week.
The Breakers don’t have a great record at Wollongong having won only 6 of 18 encounters but they were victorious, 97-89 at the ‘Gong’ back in round 4. Clarke scored 36 points that night and fellow import Kevin Tiggs 18 points but still the Breakers came away with the win.
On this occasion the Breakers will not have to worry about Tiggs as unfortunately he suffered a knee injury in the win over the Kings. The injury was serious enough to require surgery and he is ruled out of this weekend’s clash – hopefully it’s not a season ending.
Three wins out of three this season against the New South Welshmen will give the Breakers confidence but they will still have to be at their best to gain the W.
The Breakers record against the Adelaide 36ers is the complete opposite, 3 losses out of 3. The Breakers were embarrassed on their last visit to Adelaide going down 99-73 but the other two losses were by a single point and three points. The single point defeat at Vector Arena, 95-94 probably still haunts the Kiwi club – in bounds possession intercepted with 4 seconds left on the clock – Gary Ervin completing the lay-up to win the game.
The 36ers are not in the vintage form they were in the first part of the season when they won 8 of their first 10 games, but they still sit second on the NBL ladder with a 14-8 record.
One win from these two fixtures is the minimum requirement for the defending champions.
LACEY LOWDOWN 