Breakers dunk Taipans
Breakers coach Dan Shamir had no doubts that his star import Lamar Patterson would break out of his early Australian NBL funk and deliver a signature performance. As they say, form is temporary, and class permanent.
That it happened in game three, a much-needed 85-79 victory over the Cairns Taipans in far North Queensland on Saturday night, was still a relief for the Breakers mentor as he got his team off the schneid for the season, with a chance to claw back to .500 against the same side on Monday night.
The Breakers’ first victory of their stop-start campaign – there had been 10 days between their second straight defeat to the Adelaide 36ers and this one, a health scare and an aborted trip to Perth – improves them to 1-2. The Taipans, though, remain on the slippery slide with a sixth straight loss leaving last year’s surprise semifinalists teetering on the brink at 1-6.