Basketball New Zealand

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Mika Vukona

A home play-off match is still in prospect for the Harvey Norman NZ Breakers despite a 103-93 away loss to the record-breaking Sydney Kings in the Hummer Championship NBL on Wednesday night.

The Breakers, in sixth place, would guarantee a home play-off by winning their last regular season match against the Perth Wildcats on Saturday night.

A Townsville Crocodiles win in Cairns on Saturday night would also ensure the Breakers headed home for the historic finals clash.

The Crocs, in a battle for a top-four placing with Perth and the Breakers, will have the most impact on final placings as their last two games are against play-off opposition, Cairns Taipans and the Gold Coast Blaze.

Breakers general manager Richard Clarke said three crucial matches last night did little to paint a clearer play-off picture.

“We can still finish anywhere between fourth and eighth,” Clarke said. “We’d finish fourth if we beat Perth and Townsville drop both games and fifth if Townsville win both games and we beat the Wildcats.

“We’d remain in sixth place if Perth and Townsville won their remaining matches and also if we lost to Perth, but Townsville beat Cairns. That Crocs-Taipans match is the critical one because even if the Gold Coast end up with the same number of wins as us, we’ve beaten them twice this season and would stay ahead of them on the table.”

There are two worst-case scenarios that would tip the Breakers out of the top six and the home play-off, leaving them with an away trip to Cairns in both instances.

If the Breakers lose to Perth, Gold Coast lose to the Crocs and the Taipans beat the Crocs, that would mean: fourth Wildcats (18-12), fifth Crocs (17-13), sixth Taipans (16-14, with series win over Breakers), seventh Breakers (16-14, series loss to Taipans) and eighth Blaze (15-15).

Another “nightmare situation” is the Breakers losing to Perth while Cairns and the Gold Coast pick up wins in their final outings against Townsville. That would leave the Breakers on the same number of wins as Townsville, Cairns and the Gold Coast, but eighth on a countback.*

Clarke confirmed that Vector Arena would be the venue for any play-off match next week as the North Shore Events Centre had a long-term booking that is unable to be rescheduled.

A fifth placing would have the Breakers at Vector next Wednesday night, a sixth placing would see them play on Thursday night and a fourth placing would give them a Friday night match.

“Logistically it is difficult because everything is still up in the air, but we’re working closely with Vector and our broadcast partner, Maori Television, to cover all eventualities,” Clarke said.

If a home play-off is secured tickets would go on sale from Ticketmaster on Monday.

The Breakers have already made the decision to keep prices at the same levels as their regular season games, with a small increase to cover additional ticketing fees and an NBL play-off levy.

A gold seat courtside will be $28, the silver section, side-on and elevated, will be $23 and bronze, end-on, will cost $18. Children seated outside the gold area will be $12.50.

“The increase on our regular season prices is just three dollars because we don’t want to penalise our fans because we’ve done well,” Clarke said.

“We’d much rather have it full and pumping. A play-off berth has been five years in the making and we want to celebrate with as many of our supporters as possible.”

Clarke said having Britomart so handy enhances the prospect of South Aucklanders and Westies rocking up on trains and the new Northern Busway, along with ferries from Devonport, can deliver plenty of North Shore fans.

“We’re primed and ready to go…we just can’t push any buttons until after the Perth game finishes in the early hours of Sunday morning NZ time.”

* Cairns would be fifth as they have regular season series wins over all three other teams. Because Townsville, Gold Coast and the Breakers have series wins over each other (the Breakers won 2-0 over the Gold Coast, but lost out to Townsville on points differential after a win apiece while the Gold Coast already have the series win over Townsville) their final placings would be determined by points differential with the Breakers definitely the poorest of the trio.