Are the Breakers the NBL Finals' "biggest threat"?

The New Zealand Breakers are finishing the NBL24 season strongly. So strongly, in fact, they’ve thrown a cat amongst the pigeons in the race for the top six.

While all 10 teams still remain in contention for a Finals position, it’s conceivable to strike a line through South East Melbourne, Adelaide, and even Cairns, which means there are likely seven teams competing for six spots come season’s end.

The Breakers did their chances of not ending the campaign as the odd team out with a lockdown win over Perth in Round 18, even without the services of star import Anthony Lamb for much of the game.

Although they currently sit in seventh position and have four games to play, Derek Rucker believes New Zealand’s current form makes last season’s runner-up as Championship Series contenders.

“I thought getting the game against Perth was massive, and now they can really grow. They’ve increased their margin for error slightly by winning today and now they’ve got a couple of games back in New Zealand that I would be fairly confident they’re going to win,” Rucker said on Moments That Mattered.

“I think they’re flying back to Auckland feeling really good about their position going forward knowing all they have to do is get in. If they get in, they can win.

“They’ve got athleticism, they’ve got shooting, they’ve got point guards that can hit you in a number of different ways, and they’re well coached. Right now they’re one of the biggest threats in a league filled with a lot of threats.

“I think they have the attributes and amongst their players they have the versatility to really be a problem now and get themselves into the top six which would be a miraculous effort considering where they were a month ago.”

An apparent lower-leg injury to Lamb did sour the win for the Breakers, who had only just put a season of injury problems behind them.

However, every cloud has a silver lining, and Rucker believes New Zealand’s ability to win without the services of their All-NBL First Team candidate will give the remainder of the roster added self-belief heading into the final two rounds.

“It is a big loss but they’ve shown to themselves they can still go out and play effectively and do enough to win basketball games, even without him in the lineup,” Rucker continued.

“The other thing is when he does return to the lineup I don’t believe he needs to be 100 per cent, full Anthony Lamb for them to win games and potentially be in the Championship Series. I think there’s a lot of pressure off of him from a healing perspective because he knows the strength of the team.

“He can work himself back into the lineup, he doesn’t need to play 25-30 minutes a game as soon as he comes back for them to win games. Obviously, they want him to be available for that, but it’s not mandatory.”

The Breakers will continue their season when they host Illawarra on Friday night at 5:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo, and Sky Sport in NZ.