Paul Henare has run out of patience with his New Zealand Breakers players following their 90-75 home-court humbling from the Adelaide 36ers in the NBL.
A fourth loss from five games was notable for what coach Henare described as a "soft" and "unacceptable" final quarter on Friday in which his team was outscored 34-11.
Tall Adelaide guard Ramone Moore was shown a saloon passage to the basket in the final stanza on his way to a career-high 27 points.
At the same time, the home side inexplicably turned to three-point shots rather than the all-purpose offence which had helped them open up a 14-point lead.
Henare kept his players in the locker room long after fulltime, addressing the reasons for a mid-season dip that leaves the second-placed club with a 10-5 record and in danger of losing touch with the Perth Wildcats (10-3).
"I think it was time to have a good chat," Henare said.
"We've got the weekend off so I didn't want to sit on that until Monday. While it was fresh in everyone's mind, we hashed out a few things and talked them over.
"Hopefully we'll see some change because obviously we're hurting a little bit."
Henare didn't want to be overly-critical because his team had played well for 25 minutes before things began to turn "crappy".
Good output from the bench was led by Finn Delany's 11 points but the starting five were largely off their game, most notably Thomas Abercrombie, Mika Vukona and import guards DJ Newbill and Edgar Sosa.
"How we finished the game was a sign of how we've been the last few weeks," Henare said.
"A little bit of softness about us and accountability is lacking right now. We had to talk that through."
Their next two games are across the Tasman, against the last-placed Sydney Kings on Thursday followed by another chance to beat third-placed Adelaide (8-6).
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