The Breakers out-rebounded the visitors 38-29, snaring an impressive 17 offensive boards and capitalising with a sizeable chunk of second chance points in a lop-sided matchup at the North Shore Events Centre, which has put the odds are firmly in their favour as they seek one win from the remaining two matches, in Cairns on Sunday and, if needed, in Auckland again next Friday.
"It's probably been one of our weaknesses all year and tonight I think we did a great job of it, we got a lot of second chance points," Breakers forward Dillon Boucher said.
"That's all you can ask for in finals, just that hustle basketball and finished off by some great shooting."
Sizzling second and third quarters from the Breakers -- at one point they stretched out to a 30-point lead -- set up the victory as shooting star Kirk Penney again provided the hot hand, landing four from eight from beyond the three-point arc in a game-high haul of 25 points.
American forward Gary Wilkinson had 15 points while centre Alex Pledger was outstanding in his 13-point contribution and swingman Thomas Abercrombie also featured prominently in what was a top team performance, the Taipans outmuscled across the court and frustrated by a poor shooting night.
"We proved against Perth we could step it up defensively and we did but the job's not done, we're not settling for this," said Wilkinson, who heaped praise on Penney's allround performance.
"Kirk's going to draw a lot of attention because he can put the ball in the basket so the fact that he's looking for guys around him makes him that much better. He's an MVP in my mind."
Taipans centre Ian Crosswhite, the visitors' leading scorer with 15 points, was at a loss to explain their mid-match meltdown.
"The first quarter we did a good job but the second quarter we died off and the start of the third quarter, we didn't know what was going on," he said.
"We're going to have to work on shutting down Penney and Wilkinson and guys like Pledger getting 13 points. You can live with Penney getting 25 but we've got to do better on some of the more peripheral players."
Cairns made the early running in the first quarter, pressing the Breakers with their league-leading defence and forcing the home team into early foul trouble as the Taipans scored nine of their first 11 points from the free-throw line.
But that was where their joy ended.
The visitors were woeful from the field in the first half as the Breakers started to get some momentum which they continued that into a defining second stanza, winning the quarter 24-13 as the Taipans' shooting percentage from the floor dropped to a dismal 11 per cent at one stage in the face of a concerted Breakers defensive effort.
Taipans coach Aaron Fearne bemoaned the fact his team were being "outworked" and it was certainly difficult to argue with his assessment, the Breakers showing more hunger for the loose ball and on the boards to completely dominate the second 10 minutes and take a 41-27 lead into the major break.
The Breakers jumped out to a 63-33 lead during the third quarter but the margin was reduced courtesy of a hot streak from former Breaker and Tall Blacks legend Phill Jones, who nailed a trifecta of three-pointers as Cairns closed to 70-52. It was a brief respite only for the visitors, however, the Breakers regaining their composure in the final quarter as they seek to become the first New Zealand-based team in any sport to win a professional Australian national league.
