Bolden: Time to Break the drought

New Zealand Breakers star Jonah Bolden says his team needs to regain its “physicality, resistance and consistency”, on the back of a six-game losing run.

The Breakers loomed as one of the surprise packets of NBL25 early in the season, with a 7-3 record seeing them on top of the standings.

But amidst a change of personnel, following the departure of Freddie Gillespie and arrival of Tacko Fall, they’ve dropped all the way down to ninth place in a matter of weeks.

The positive – New Zealand is just one win off fifth place. 

“It’s a collective thing. Our resistance level kind of dissipated, our all-round physicality kind of dissipated, and the endurance throughout four quarters dropped off,” Bolden told The Post.

“It’s consistency and trusting your team-mates defensively. We’ve got the biggest player in the league (Fall), he’s a weapon but it also needs physicality, resilience and consistency.”

Petteri Koponen boasted one of the best defensive units in the league across the first ten games, but the Breakers have conceded an average of 106 points in their six straight losses. 

"It’s about getting back to who we were,” Bolden added.

“It’s a little bit of adversity, a different system. I truly think that each game over the last six we’ve gotten better, and we’re going into this next game positive. Nothing changes. We have to get ourselves out of this rut. It’s the middle of the season, it’s adversity you expect, but it doesn’t feel good to go this deep down the loss column.”

New Zealand returns to Spark Arena for the first time in 11 games on Friday night, hosting the Sydney Kings. 

A win, and the Breakers keep themselves right in the mix for Finals. A loss, and it’s back to the drawing board. 

Watch the Breakers and Kings, live on ESPN and TVNZ (New Zealand) from 5.30pm AEDT on Friday night.