Breakers chase Christmas cheer in Sydney
The New Zealand Breakers. (Getty)
New Zealand Breakers coach Dean Vickerman hopes their embarrassing loss to the Illawarra Hawks snaps them out of a mid-season NBL lull.
The second-placed defending champions are away to the bottom-placed Sydney Kings on Sunday, hoping to erase the memory of a 107-83 thrashing from the Hawks last week.
Vickerman reckons that performance, which ended the Breakers' unbeaten home record this season, was coming.
"We haven't played unbelievable basketball over the last few games. We've played in patches and you can't do that against a good team," Vickerman said.
"We have prided ourselves on holding people to some of the lowest totals in the league, but we didn't start with the right intent (against the Hawks)."
The Kings lost by 19 to the Hawks in their last start, continuing a troubled season which sits at four wins and 13 losses.
The Breakers are 10-6 but have slipped to three wins behind red-hot leaders the Perth Wildcats in the race for top spot.
