Basketball New Zealand

NZ Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis knows his team has to prove they can win away from The NSEC this week (Photosport)

Marc Hinton, Fairfax Media
Tonight’s Australian NBL road trip opener against the Cairns Taipans should in theory be a breeze for the table-topping New Zealand Breakers.

The last five times these clubs have met the travelling team has prevailed, with the Breakers winning both times they visited the Snakepit last year and the Taipans scoring a third-straight victory in Auckland just a few weeks ago when they inflicted the only dent in the Kiwis’ five-game home stand to open the season.

This theme of the road team dominating has not been lost on Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis either.

“The away team seems to have a lot of success in this series so let’s hope it continues for at least one more game,” he said on Monday.

The 4-1 Breakers are rightly regarding tonight’s match against the 4-2 Taipans, the first of a two-game road trip that concludes in the Gold Coast on Saturday, as somewhat of a litmus test.

For starters after five straight at the North Shore Events Centre (NSEC), it will be the first time they’ve been away from the comforts of home.

And then there’s the minor matter of a score to settle after the Taipans slithered up and bit them on the backsides on October 9, winning 122-111 despite being without the services of Aussie sharpshooter Martin ‘The Cat’ Cattalini.

“It’s obviously nice to play a team relatively close to when you lost to them. There’s a little bit of chance at redemption I guess,” said Lemanis. “Everyone’s pretty excited about getting up there and having another crack at them.”

This time with skipper Cattalini back, where he will come off the bench for a second straight match, the Taipans present an even more formidable obstacle. In Ian Crosswhite and Larry Abney they have a couple of bigs capable of pounding it inside to create open shots for the likes of Stephen Black, Dave Thomas and Cattalini.

“They came out focused last time and had a bit of a point to prove coming off a big loss the weekend before,” said the Breakers coach. “Cat coming in presents its challenges, and gives them more of a threat from the three-point line. Last time they really pounded it inside at us.

“But we need to control what we can control. We’ve talked about the defence a lot and I thought the effort was much better against the Gold Coast, and we’re aiming for that to continue going into this game.”

The Breakers won their final home match against the Blaze 120-108, but held the Gold Coasters to just 20 fourth-quarter points. Lemanis, who has implored his men to play better D from the tip-off this year, was rapt with that.

“It’s consistency at the defensive end,” he added. “We’ve shown in patches we can be very good. We’ve just got to apply it over the full 48 minutes.”

The road factor traditionally makes things tougher for any sporting side, but the Breakers are hoping the end of their “Groundhog Day” home stand may actually lift them.

“It just changes things. We had to be at Atlas Place at 6am and still haven’t got to Cairns,” said Lemanis yesterday. “It’s just the travel factor. Instead of practising today and getting some rest we’re on the road.

“[But] it’s come at a good time for us. After five games in a row at home it was getting a little monotonous for everybody. This will just change the environment and force everyone to spend a bit more time together which is always a good thing.”

The Breakers have left behind the crocked Adam Tanner and taken development player Tom Abercrombie in their 10-man travelling troupe. Backup centre Tim Behrendorff is over his ankle troubles and has trained well this week.

With Kirk Penney (averaging a league-best 29.4ppg), Phill Jones, CJ Bruton and Rick Rickert providing the quality hoops of late, the Breakers will be keen to get veteran forward Tony Ronaldson and spot-up man Oscar Forman back in the flow of things on this trip.

There will also need to be a quick refocus after tonight with the desperate 0-7 Blaze presenting a dangerous obstacle at home on Saturday night.

“They’re playing with a desperation right now. They’ve got some good players in that group, played us tough at our place and that’s going to be another good challenge for us,” said Lemanis.