By Huw Beynon
Plenty of fireworks are expected tomorrow night as the Breakers' quest for a third Australian NBL title tips off.
Last year’s championship banner will be raised before the game, and watching from the other side of the court will be the team who came so close to winning it.
“They're going to unveil that banner tomorrow night, and that's going to be motivation for us as well, because we want to win a championship,” says Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge.
“We would have, could have, should have won the championship last year but at the end of the day they got us.”
Recent games between the Breakers and Wildcats have been nothing short of hostile, but this season there's no Gary Wilkinson on the New Zealand roster to fire things up.
“He was always one to incite I guess, but we talk a lot about the Perth team, it gets physical, they do some dirty things and sometimes they get under your skin,” says Breakers forward Dillon Boucher.
The Wildcats have been knocked out of the playoffs by the Breakers two years in a row, but despite the on-court rivalry the Wildcats say it's not personal.
“Off the court they're great guys, [we’ve] got a lot of respect for them, but step over the line and it’s Wildcats versus Breakers,” says Wildcats forward Shawn Redhage.
But the Breakers don't exactly agree.
“I think there's a little bit of personal dislike in there, it's all undercover or whatever, but when you're that competitive obviously there's going to be something there,” says Breakers forward Mika Vukona.
And it seems it'll be no different tomorrow night.
“They always come in and play hard, and that's the way we like to play too,” says Vukona.
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