Australian sports fans face the very real possibility of a New Zealand club winning an Australian-run competition for the first time after the New Zealand Breakers claimed game one of the National Basketball League grand final series against Cairns.
The Breakers thrashed the rank-outsider Taipans in Auckland 85-67 on Thursday and can create history by claiming the best-of-three series with victory in Cairns on Sunday.
The closest a previous local team had come to claiming trans-Tasman bragging rights in Australia was the New Zealand Warriors, who lost the 2002 rugby league grand final to the Sydney Roosters.
The Breakers will arrive in Cairns this weekend full of confidence thanks to a 4-0 season record against the Taipans and 9-1 overall.
