In the end it came down to the final game of the season. Had Melbourne been able to win at home against Perth then that woulda done it for the Breakers, but no, it wasn't to be.

This probably isn’t gonna be The Year for the Breakers. They’ve had a few of those in the past but it’s hard to imagine another one in 2017.

It’s never a good thing to lose one of your very best players to injury. In fact more often than not you’d have to say… it’s a bad thing.

The Breakers sit at 7-9, one win off the foot of the table and they’ve lost five of their last six. Across that stretch they’ve given up a lot of points. Like, A LOT of points.

The first sign that this was gonna be a terrible week for the Breakers was when Corey Webster got arrested. That was a bad start to the week, no doubt.

Sometimes you don’t win. Nothing dramatic, nothing to panic about. That’s just the way that sports go sometimes, especially over the course of a long season.

This was a weird week – the Breakers lost a game they were expected to win and then went and won a game that most people thought they’d lose.

A weekend double header saw the NZ Breakers head over to Melbourne and win in overtime then a quick dash back to Auckland where they beat on Brisbane and times are good.

Thus there comes a time when all the worries about combinations and potency are thrown out the window. 

The good news is that Kirk Penney was a lot better after being called out in the last FBR. The bad news is that he needed to be because Corey Webster didn’t get it done.

Raise a glass for Mika Vukona, 300 games for the Breakers... but just sneakily be a little worried about how Kirk Penney is playing (and what that means for Corey Webster as well).

So who was the smartass who put the NZ Breakers, Kiwis rugby league team and Wellington Phoenix all in Perth on the same weekend?

There are plenty of little things to watch with this new Breakers team, plenty of sneaky little factors that could have a big ol’ impact on how things go this season. 

Despite a season spent overcoming the toughest adversity, game three against Perth in front of a capacity crowd almost fit to burst… it was just one step too far for the New Zealand Breakers.

For the seventh season in a row the Australian National Basketball League title will be won by either the Perth Wildcats or the New Zealand Breakers.

For the fifth time in six years, the New Zealand Breakers are heading to the NBL Finals.

The win streak continues after the Breakers, fourth placed by a hair, strolled into Melbourne and beat the minor premiers on their home court.

And there it is, the Breakers may have done it the hard way following that six game loss streak but they finished strong, winning the next five and rolling to fourth place.

You know what that was? Clinical. Playoff standard clinical.