Stepping into the starting five to play Sydney in the place of an injured Tom Abercrombie, Te Rangi is set to be tasked with the unenviable prospect of battling NBA veteran Josh Childress.
While it will hardly be a one-on-one duel -- Breakers coach Dean Vickerman thinks no one player can guard the American -- Te Rangi will see significant time on the small forward at both ends of the floor.
On paper, it's a mismatch. One man has played 391 games in the NBA and leads the Australian NBL in a number of offensive categories; the other is an 19-year-old starting his third game at this level.
And Childress could very well torch Te Rangi and the Breakers to the tune of the near-triple-double he racked up against Cairns last week. But an alternative outcome could be the catalyst for Te Rangi to bust out of his offensive slump and give his all-round impact the final product it deserves.
Te Rangi currently averages just 2.2 points on the season and, while he can largely leave his teammates to assume the scoring load, that number is down on his career mark in limited minutes coming off the bench. Vickerman felt a couple of successes would see the floodgates open and Te Rangi agreed with his coach, hoping that downpour could come tonight.
"I'm all about that confidence," Te Rangi said. "When I come in the game, I'm usually confident that I'm going to make my shots.
"But this year the boys have been talking to me about that. I've turned a few down, so it's just to take those open shots.
"When one goes down the next one's going to feel just as good, so I'll put those up and that time will come when they start to go down."
Te Rangi has been providing enough in the other areas of his game to justify the billing the teenager has already received. Whether it's on defence, running off screens or making good cuts to the basket, he's been a pivotal piece in the table-topping Breakers' 8-3 start to the season.
"It's just about being confident -- going out there, playing assertive and getting rebounds," he said. "Doing the things that help the team. We've got a lot of scorers, so I take a back seat on that one, but just helping out on defence, getting stops and bringing that energy."
It would be understandable if Te Rangi's energy levels and confidence had been knocked by the events of the offseason. A barroom brawl while with the Southland Sharks saw Te Rangi convicted of assault on sentenced to community service but now, with that dark cloud cleared, he hoped a brighter impact on the court was just around the corner.
"I got a big backing from the club and my family. Having these boys around me, they help me every day just to regain that confidence and believe in my shot."
Vickerman hoped Te Rangi, along with Duane Bailey, could find that shot tonight, with a goal to get Childress out of the paint and prevent his influence as a shot-blocker and rebounding presence.
"Their ability to run him around and get him outside of the paint and have both of those guys respected from the three-point line would really help us this week
And at the other end? "I don't think anyone can guard him one-on-one right now," Vickerman said. "He's got to see a wall of people every time he catches it."
- Kris Shannon of NZME. News Service
