Basketball: Breakers opponents have motivation to burn

The stakes have escalated ahead of Thursday's crucial Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) match in Auckland, with the New Zealand Breakers' opponents handed a giant financial incentive.

The Breakers' hopes of a top-four playoff berth will end if they lose their penultimate match, against the Wollongong Hawks at the North Shore Events Centre.

Victory also won't guarantee anything for the fifth-placed Breakers, who boast 12-win 13-loss record, while their fourth-placed rivals are 13-11, but will leave their hopes alive going into the final round.

The Breakers have won their last three matches to breathe life into their campaign and will need more of the same to beat a Hawks side who have trumped them in their three meetings this year.

Also, the Hawks players will have an extra gleam in their eye after news that a Wollongong club benefactor has offered the players a giant prize if they win the ANBL crown.

Indian mining magnate Arun Jagatramka will give the players and coaches more than $100,000 in share options in his company as prizemoney if they go all the way.

The Hawks are the only New South Wales team remaining in the competition and it was Jagatramka effectively saved the ailing club last year by putting up the $1 million guarantee required by the ANBL.

The Breakers won't have such a carrot but will be determined to continue a late season burst which could leave them in contention going into their final match at home to the Gold Coast next week.

Veteran forward Tony Ronaldson says the only game occupying the minds of the Breakers is this Thursday's.

"We are not concerned with how many games we have won, how many we might win or how many we need to win," Ronaldson said "Our only focus is on winning the next game and working hard in practice to give ourselves the best shot at achieving that. And that means all of our energy is on scouting the Hawks and preparing to play them at home."

The Breakers are likely to still be without athletic swingman Tom Abercrombie, who is still recuperating from an ankle injury.