"No time to cry": Breakers seek quick response

A few short weeks ago, the New Zealand Breakers were one of the form teams of the Hungry Jack's NBL26 competition, having rattled off three straight convincing wins.

Since then though, Petteri Koponen's side have lost five of their past six contests, including Friday night's 41-point defeat to Sydney at Spark Arena.

That result marked the Breakers' heaviest defeat of the campaign, which included conceding their second-highest score of NBL26.

Following the game, coach Koponen apologised to the Breakers fans, but was also quick to encourage his side to put this game behind them.

"We have to say sorry and apologise to the fans on how we looked. It was the first time this season we were not competitive and we couldn't really find the solutions," Koponen said in Friday's post-game press conference.

"They packed the paint and they forced us to take shots outside. It wasn't our night. We couldn't make shots and then we let it affect also in the defensive end. It got ugly.

"There is no time to cry, because we play in less than 48 hours. We leave tomorrow morning to play Illawarra at 2.30pm on Sunday. We need to regroup and find the confidence to shoot the ball. And when you are open, that's it. But you know, if we can't make shots, we can't let it affect us.

"We also got murdered on the rebounds underneath the basket, as they had a game plan to force us to shoot outside shots.

"It was a tough and frustrating night and the whole locker room is disappointed, but we need to forget this, move forward and be ready to play with some pride next game."

As Koponen touched on, the eighth-placed Breakers now travel to Wollongong to face the seventh-placed reigning champions Illawarra, who are fresh off an overtime loss to South East Melbourne on Thursday.

"We know Illawarra are much better now with Sam Froling back, shown by how they are playing," Koponen said.

"It's going to be a different kind of challenge than Sydney is, but we can't get too into our own feelings and need to regroup. It's moments like these where your true character shows up depending on how you respond. It's up to us to stick together.

"It's up to us to focus on the right aspects of the game and how that impacts winning, because we need to bring a totally new energy if we're going to compete with Illawarra."

Sunday's Round 16 fixture tips off at 2.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN and Channel 10.