Koponen calls on Mooney to control emotions

Foul trouble has denied Matt Mooney the chance to play match winner in the last two games for the New Zealand Breakers and while you can't deny his passion, his coach needs him to better control his emotions.

After Wednesday night's loss in Brisbane, the Breakers have now lost 10 of their 11 matches since the FIBA break and over that stretch the free-throw differential they have been battling has been stark.

Across the last 11 games, the Breakers have gone 165/224 at the free-throw line themselves opposed to giving up 215/298, and only once have they been on the right end of the ledger.

The bigger concern is that key players are getting in foul trouble and Tacko Fall again found himself with three first half fouls against the Bullets, and so did Mooney.

That was on the back of Mooney fouling out of Sunday's loss against Perth at Spark Arena with just over four minutes to play. The Breakers were leading at that point, but the Wildcats went on a 14-5 run without him the rest of the way.

Then in Brisbane on Wednesday, Mooney was having another significant impact and he hit two late threes to bring the Breakers back within five, and he ended the game with 21 points as his team's only player to score in double-digits.

The problem was that he only played 22:20 and there's every chance New Zealand could have won the game had he played 10 more minutes.

"We talk with Matt about this and with some guards out, he's way too important for us to make those stupid fouls sometimes, and then to take the technical," coach Petteri Koponen said.

"It's about foul discipline and he's one of those guys who can create that advantage for us. He can play the pick-and-roll, make the reads, get to the basket and hit some shots.

"Obviously it hurt us again for the second game in-a-row and he needs to be better with that and he knows this. I think he's ready to go again in Illawarra."

With Parker Jackson-Cartwright out suspended and Mojave King also sidelined with a calf injury, extra reliance is being placed from the Breakers for Mooney to be a playmaker, scorer and ultimately match winner.

That's why he is growing frustrated when calls aren't going his way, and he has picked up a technical in the last two games.

The balancing act is the passion he has is also a strength because it shows how much it means to him, and over the last three games he is averaging 24 points.

"You do love to see that passion, of course, but also you have to have cool heads," Koponen said.

"You let your team down when you take those kind of stupid fouls early on and he can't get three early fouls like that.

"He knows how important he is especially now with Parker out so he needs to have more discipline and avoid those stupid fouls, play clean defence and get better. You can't change some calls, but at the same you need to be better and play cleaner defence."

The Breakers head straight to Wollongong to take on the league-leading Illawarra Hawks on Saturday before playing Melbourne United in New Plymouth on Monday.

Ultimately Koponen knows they can't keep letting players like Bryce Cotton score 41 points or Casey Prather 31, but they also need to score plenty more than the 74 they did against Brisbane.

"It has to start from our offence also, we need to control the tempo, take care of the ball, execute and take good shots," Koponen said.

"If you want to play our pace then obviously we have a different style and need to play a different way, so if we want to compete we firstly have to take pride in defence.

"Bryce Cotton just had 41 against us, Prather 31 and I know they are talented players, but still we can't let them get going that easy. In this league there are many talented scorers and we need to be ready for the next challenge with Trey Kell and Tyler Harvey.

"They're not going to be any easier so we need to be ready to play, contest every shot, get the stops and control the game. We also need to execute our offence better and not have too many empty possessions."