Dan Fotu Comes of Age in Brilliant Breakers' Win over the Champions

While the injury woes haven't subsided for the BNZ Breakers, their form is building and the offensive firepower was on show led by former NBA gun Anthony Lamb in the 109-101 home win over Sydney.

It was the second grand final rematch this season between the two teams, and on Friday night at Spark Arena the Breakers were on top virtually all evening with the on-going defensive concerns for the Kings continuing as they could do little to slow the home team.

That was despite New Zealand having lost forward Finn Delany to a calf injury this week, exciting import forward Zylan Cheatham still yet to return from a leg fracture and Australian guard Will McDowell-White back after missing five matches.

The Breakers raced to a 21-6 lead with Izayah Le'afa (15 points) landed one of his four three-pointers for the game. Lamb was on his way to a game-high 24 points and by quarter time it was 29-17.

Le'afa hit another pair of threes midway through the second period to stretch the lead to 10 again. While the Sydney defence might be struggling, they don't lack scoring punch and by halftime drew level at 53-53.

New Zealand blew the game open to start the second half with a 9-0 run made up of triples from Lamb and Next Star Mantas Rubstavicius, and a three-point play from the Lithuanian 21-year-old on his way to 17 points.

That turned into a game-deciding 23-8 run to start the second half for New Zealand and they held on to win by eight to improve to 6-9 on the season.

Sydney are now 9-7 with Kouat Noi scoring 19 points, DJ Hogg and Alex Toohey 15 and Jaylen Adams 14.

They host the Illawarra Hawks on Christmas evening. And while they scored 101 points in Auckland, coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah will be upset after conceding 109 and committing 20 turnovers for 27 Breakers points.

NEW ZEALAND 109 (Lamb 24, Jackson-Cartwright 17, Rubštavi?ius 17)
SYDNEY 101 (Noi 19, Toohey 15, Hogg 15)