Le'afa Loving Breakers Life

For the first time in almost three years, the New Zealand Breakers have won three straight games.

After initially defeating the Tasmania JackJumpers in their first home game in 489 days, the Breakers have since registered strong wins over South East Melbourne and Illawarra, and the most impressive part is those last two wins have come without their star  Barry Brown.

Homegrown hero Izayah Le’Afa has stepped up in the absence of Brown, taking his place in the starting line-up over the last two games. He had the first 10-assist game of NBL23 against the Phoenix before restricting Hawks sparkplug Tyler Harvey last night.

New Zealand coach Mody Maor was so keen to have Le’Afa defending Harvey that he had his point guard follow the Hawk’s rotations. When Harvey went to the bench, so did Le’Afa. When Harvey came back on, so did Le’Afa.

Harvey struggled with the extra attention, shooting 5/15 for the game and finishing with five turnovers.

“Tyler Harvey is the key to their team and he’s tough to stop,” Le’Afa said post-game. “It was just trying to make it tough for him, give him tough looks and make everything hard for him, and contested.

“He’s a great player so you have to play defence for 40 minutes.

“Coaches get us ready, players watch film and see what it he likes and doesn’t like. [We] just tried to make everything tough for him.”

After trading in South East Melbourne for the Breakers this season, Le’Afa is part of an exciting home-grown contingent taking to the floor for New Zealand.

He’s linked up with fellow Tall-Blacks Rob Loe, Tom Abercrombie, Thomas Vodanovich and Sam Timmins at the Breakers, and after experiencing some tough times on the road in recent years they’ve surged to third spot on the NBL23 ladder.

“Everyone’s close on and off the court,” Le’Afa said of his teammates. “We build great chemistry and everyone’s out for each other.

“One game someone will make a bucket, but the next game it’ll be someone else. It creates good atmosphere.

“It was an awesome two years at the Phoenix and I’m very grateful for the opportunity, but going home was the main thing I wanted to do.

“Playing at Spark Arena – it’s amazing to play in front of the fans and to be able to play in front of my family.”

New Zealand will hope to extend their current win streak to four games on Thursday night when they host South East Melbourne at The Trusts Arena in Auckland.