Koponen hails Breakers’ “beautiful” basketball

Petteri Koponen has been waiting for the New Zealand Breakers offence to catch up to their defence, and it finally did so in spectacular fashion on the Gold Coast.

He described the Breakers' second quarter as "beautiful."

New Zealand's defence has been one of their strengths throughout NBL26, consistently giving them a chance to win. Offensively, though, they came into Round 9 ranked only ahead of the Cairns Taipans.

Last week they delivered two strong performances against Adelaide and Sydney, but could only put up 79 and 72 points in losses that were decided by a combined 11 points.

Everything shifted on Wednesday night in the Ignite Cup clash with the Brisbane Bullets on the Gold Coast. By half-time, the Breakers had already scored 68 points and led by 32.

They went on to win 113 to 84, fuelled by a second quarter that may have been the best basketball any team has played this season. New Zealand poured in 41 points, shooting 15 of 18 from the field and 6 of 7 from beyond the arc.

It was all built from their defensive effort, where they forced the Bullets into six turnovers, zero offensive rebounds and 6 of 13 shooting for 18 points. Koponen loved what he saw.

"It was beautiful basketball and we did it collectively, and everybody was alert at the defensive end and we got stops," he said.

"Then we got to the open court and we shared the ball, we made quick decisions and sometimes basketball is also simple.

"When you get open shots, it is about if you can knock them down and today we shot the ball pretty well and we also got to the paint."

"It was a solid 40 minutes and especially that first 20 minutes was really good, we set the tone from the beginning and we got to our pace, and got exactly the rhythm of how we want to play."

Two of the Breakers' best three wins of the season have now come on Wednesday nights during the Ignite Cup, with both being 29 point victories over Illawarra and Brisbane. Koponen joked that he might need to find new ways to motivate his players for regular season games.

"I guess the guys really love to play this Ignite Cup so I guess I have to talk with our management to give some kind of bonuses for the rest of the regular season games if the guys only show up like this," Koponen joked.

"Last game we had a great performance and again, the guys were hungry to go after it so it is something we might have to talk to our club and management about if this is the thing."