Defending champions New Zealand Breakers face their first challenging road trip of the new NBL season with games against the Townsville Crocodiles and Cairns Taipans on back-to-back nights.
On Friday they face the Crocs, who lost their season-opener to the Taipans 102-93 last week. The three-time champion Breakers then travel to Cairns to play the Taipans on Saturday.
Coach Dean Vickerman pinpoints a continuation of good form at both ends of the floor as the key to success on the road.
"Going to Townsville and Cairns, we've had pretty good success over the last few years so we go with some confidence," he said.
"But they've always held us to fairly low scores up there as well, so keeping our offence ticking over as it has over the past few weeks will be important."
Vickerman says scoring is something that comes as a by product of good defence, and players like shooting guards Daryl Corletto and Corey Webster are vital to the team's offensive productivity.
The pair play a key role in opening up the court for Alex Pledger, Darnell Lazare and Mika Vukona, and are also important in providing a target for point guard Kerron Johnson.
"The whole league is about stretching people out, we feel like we have one more extra shooter than we had last year so we feel we can spread the floor a little bit more," Vickerman said.
Defence is another key area, he added, with the challenge there to repeat the defensive effort of the last three quarters in their opening 92-73 win over Wollongong Hawks last week.
"We have gone back and looked at it, and it's more a mentality than anything. We don't want to be passive thinking we might pick up fouls.
"We have to stay aggressive from the start, that has been the message."
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