Basketball: Henare confident Breakers can fulfil their part of bargain

Point guard Paul Henare has few doubts the in-form New Zealand Breakers can fulfil their side of the bargain in their late bid to make the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) playoffs.

But whether victories in their last two matches will be enough to haul the Breakers into the top-four remains in the lap of the gods.

The Auckland-based franchise, fifth on the ladder with a 13-13 record after four wins in a row, host third-placed Gold Coast Blaze tomorrow night.

Ideally they would want to beat the Blaze by eight points or more to claim what would be a 2-2 split series on countback.

They then head back across the Tasman for a Saturday night meeting with Cairns, who are out of playoff contention.

However, even if they get past those hurdles, they still need other results to go their way.

Henare said he wasn't thinking too much about the various equations that would determine whether the Breakers made the cut.

"It's not something we can control," he said.

"All we can control is winning and our main focus at the moment is the Gold Coast Blaze and trying to get a win." Henare was upbeat about the Breakers' ability to come up with the goods against the Blaze and the Taipans.

"We're the in-form team in the whole competition and we have complete confidence we can get the job done," he said.

"We don't want to look too far ahead, but if we do make the playoffs going in with a six-game winning streak, I think the other teams are going to take notice."

Less than a month ago, the Breakers' post-season hopes had looked dead and buried after they fell to a fourth defeat in a row.

Henare said there was no magic formula that kick-started the run since then.

"It was a matter of staying with our game plans and continuing to believe that we could get the job done," he said. "As a team, we stayed tight and we stayed together. There was no finger pointing and that helped to get us through."

One thing the Breakers have managed to turn around, as evidenced by their 88-60 thumping of fourth-placed Wollongong last week, is what happened when they held a significant lead.

On at least half a dozen occasions earlier in the season, they have dropped matches despite opening out double-digit margins.

"One thing we did talk about was staying aggressive offensively in the fourth quarter," he said.

"Previously we were sort of trying to slow the game down, almost protect a lead. I guess that would be one difference."

The winning streak also began after veteran Tony Ronaldson told his team-mates that he planned to retire from the ANBL after two decades in the competition.

Whether the change in fortunes was coincidental to Ronaldson's decision, which was made public last week, or whether his team-mates were digging deeper for him, Henare wasn't sure.

However, there was bound to be a bit more emotion on court tomorrow night in what will be Ronaldson's final home game for the Breakers if the club don't make the playoffs.

"There will be and should be for such a great player," Henare said.

"For us as a team, we've known about it for almost a month now. All we can do for him is go out and give him our all."