Abercrombie and Breakers Set to Repay Fans' Faith

New Zealand captain Tom Abercrombie is keen to repay the faith shown in the side by the Breakers’ fans, and says he and his teammates let themselves down with their seven-point loss in Game 2 of the NBL Championship Series.

After grabbing an emotional win in the first clash of the best-of-five series on Sydney’s home court, the Breakers returned to Auckland and took on a depleted Kings line-up, however the home side crumpled to a seven-point loss as it struggled to get things moving on the offensive end.

“The loss at home hurts a little bit,” Abercrombie said. “It’s no secret coming home and playing home games this year has made a huge difference for us.

“We thrive playing at home in that environment and that’s why games like Sunday’s hurt a little bit more – because you feel like you’ve let the fans down a little bit with how we played.

“There were a lot of things we could have done better, and a lot of things we did do well but we just didn’t finish off … we let ourselves down.

“It’s very disappointing but ultimately you have the choice to continue dwelling on it, or you focus on the next one. It’s a long series and Sydney is a very good team – they’re the defending champions who challenge you in a number of different ways.

“One of those is mentally, both in the way they play and in the context of a Championship Series … how we deal with those going forward will determine the success we have.”

From the difficulties the Breakers endured as an organisation across the last two seasons, to the ability to bounce back after a potentially season-defining four-game losing streak through early January, is well documented.

Abercrombie has ridden the highest of highs and experienced the lowest of lows within the Breakers organisation in his over decade-long tenure at the club, and he believes this current group of players will find a way to get back to the quality they showed in Game 1 of this series.

“At the end of the day we’ve put in the work,” he said. “We know we’re more than capable of knocking down the shots we need to knock down and getting the stops we need to.

“It’s just about trusting we’ve been there and done that many, many times throughout the season.

“Obviously the scenario is a little different but the execution is no different, we just have to go out and do it like we always have.

“We’ve got a lot of competitors, a lot of hungry individuals that have played in big games all over the world at different levels – international, domestic, and you draw upon those experiences. You draw upon those instincts.

“I have no doubt we’ll bounce back the right way in this game.”

Abercrombie and the Breakers take on the Kings in Game 3 of the NBL23 Championship Series on Friday, March 10 at 7:30pm AEDT – live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.