Patterson Sidelined: "We Can't Walk Away from this Challenge," says Shamir

There will be no rash decisions about replacing players on the Breakers roster in the wake of star import Lamar Patterson being sidelined through injury for the remainder of the NBL Cup in Melbourne.

Patterson, who is yet to show Breakers supporters his undeniable game-winning pedigree consistently, is out for at least four weeks after falling awkwardly during the third quarter in the loss to the Hawks on Monday.

Despite Patterson’s injury initially not appearing too serious, an MRI scan has turned up a mild strain to the MCL ligament in his knee.

Patterson’s injury is the second body blow to the Breaker’s roster in less than a week, with Centre Rob Loe returning to New Zealand for personal reasons last Friday.

The timing could not be worse for Head Coach Dan Shamir, with a glut of games scheduled during the Melbourne hub, including a further two this week, and the team at the foot of the points ladder.

“There is no magic solution; we can’t walk away from the challenge,” Shamir says frankly.

“It’s another setback for Lamar personally and us as a team.  As everybody knows, we are struggling, and we’re not playing well.  One of the things we needed is a game from Lamar Patterson, now he’s going to be out for a few weeks and we’ll have to manage without him.”

Shamir says there have been no discussions about injury replacements just yet.

“The first thing we have to do is rely on the people that we have, we’re not ruling anything out, but the first thing to do is build on what you’ve got.”

There remains incredible depth to Shamir’s roster, so he has the luxury of being able to replace Patterson with Tall Blacks World Cup superstar Corey Webster in the starting five against the Sydney Kings.

It means the Webster brothers will start alongside each other for the Breakers for the first time.

They have no time to feel sorry for themselves with Thursday’s game against the Kings, followed by a return match-up against the 36ers on Saturday.

The Breakers should’ve won their opening game of the season in Adelaide, which went to overtime. They were five points up with five to go in Sydney before fading at the end.

However, Shamir says nothing can be read into that Sydney result with both the Breakers and the Kings starting vastly different line-ups for this game in Melbourne.

While the Breakers are without Patterson and Loe, the Kings are missing their NBA star Jarrell Martin but have Next Star Didi Louzada available again.

Shamir’s message to the fans is simple.

“Although our record is very bad, we (still) have a team that can play much better and can win.”