Abercrombie positive ahead of NBL finals

Updated April 10, 2012 17:08:29

Tom Abercrombie says he probably will not be 100 per cent for the New Zealand Breakers' first NBL grand final match on Thursday, but he still wants to be on the court.

The injury to the NBL All-Star's ankle in the Breakers' semi-final victory over the Townsville Crocodiles has been a talking point ahead of the first match of the best-of-three final series against the Perth Wildcats on Thursday.

It is a familiar story for the Breakers, whose other All-Star Cedric Jackson had an ankle injury ahead of game two of the Crocodiles series but took the court and played a big part in their victories.

Abercrombie, who sat out Tuesday's training session, says he is not feeling much pain in the ankle but it is still very swollen and he is getting plenty of ice and physio.

"If I play I'm probably not going to be 100 per cent so for me it's just about going out and contributing in any way that I can to the team," he said.

"I might not be able to do some of the things I usually can, but I'll be going out there and giving everything I've got with what I've got."

Abercrombie's ankle is big enough news that it has its own Twitter account, though the player has no idea who is behind the tweets.

"I'm a bit jealous, it's getting more followers than me," he joked.

"He's a comedian, that's for sure."

Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis said the team will not know until Thursday whether Abercrombie will be available, but they were still backing themselves.

"One of the strengths all year for us has been our depth, so regardless of who we're playing, who we have on the floor, we feel confident we can get the job done," he said.

AAP

Tags: nbl, basketball, sport, new-zealand, perth-6000, wa, australia

First posted April 10, 2012 17:08:29

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Martin return boosts Perth ahead of final

Corbin Middlemas

Updated April 24, 2012 18:15:16

Two-time NBL best defensive player Damian Martin is playing in game three of the grand final series tonight in Auckland despite spending the past few days in a moon boot.

Martin tore ligaments in his ankle during Perth's come from behind victory in game two last Friday but the Boomers guard trained with the group this morning in a shoot around after missing yesterday's session due to the injury.

Martin completed a fitness test on his troublesome ankle under the watchful eye of Cats' physio Dave Philpot.

"We ran him today in the shoot-around, it's noticeable that's he got an injury there but he did function reasonably well," Philpot said shortly after practise.

"He's got a mild to moderate strain of a couple of ligaments high up in his ankle, which really stabilise the whole joint, and as a result it's obviously very painful. We had all the scans done which showed the instability there is only very minor, which means that's he able to play."

In contrast to what was initially thought, Martin will not have an injection to numb the pain before tip-off.

"Unfortunately because the ligament is a weight baring one, so you really cant inject it with a local because if he does anymore damage you really want to know about it," said Philpot.

"You can't afford to let him run around on a ligament that's busted, and at any stage there is that risk he's going to go out and do more damage, hopefully we've done enough to keep that risk pretty low. But it's always there. I'm pretty confident that he'll play and have his usual impact."

The Wildcats appeared in good spirits after arriving at the arena this morning, as Cameron Tovey and Shawn Redhage re-enacted the latter's game winning block from game two.

Compounding coach Rob Beveridge's injury concerns though is the health of Greg Hire, who played a pivotal role off the bench in game two.

"Right now, Greg (Hire) is very sick," Beveridge said six hours before tip-off.

"He couldn't train yesterday, he's had migraines and been vomiting, things like that, again this morning he couldn't do a whole lot either."

Hire hit a season-high 12 points, and played considerably greater minutes after Tovey found himself in early foul trouble.

Victory tonight for Perth would deliver the club a record sixth NBL championship in its 26th consecutive play-offs campaign.

Coverage of game three from Auckland can be heard live on ABC Grandstand Digital and online from 5:30pm AEST.

Tags: basketball, sport, perth-6000, wa, australia, new-zealand

First posted April 24, 2012 15:38:18

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