Last season's NBL grand finalists, the New Zealand Breakers, have slumped to 2-6 with their latest defeat in Perth but coach Mody Maor is taking the responsibility upon himself to get their flagging season back on track.
There were high expectations on the Breakers coming into the 2023-24 season after being just minutes away from a championship, but there were always going to be growing pains.
Replacing the high-quality import trio of Barry Brown Jr, Dererk Pardon and Jarrell Brantley was going to take some doing, and things have just continued to conspire against them, culminating in Friday night's 18-point loss to the Wildcats.
The Breakers have plenty of reasons to make excuses for their record, including losing five of six matches since returning from playing the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz in the United States.
New Zealand have already had to replace one import, Justinian Jessup, and are currently missing another, Zylan Cheatham, with a broken foot.
Throw in a hectic travel schedule that included having to play the league-leading Melbourne United before even getting home from the US, and now being in the middle of another three-game road trip, and there are reasons for New Zealand's plight.
However, making excuses is never something coach Maor resorts to - and he was quick to take responsibility.
"This was a bad game and a lot of things we need to do better at," Maor said.
"It was bad specifically from the approach and that's something that we pride ourselves on, and we have been competing the right way.
"It's not like we haven't been competing the right way even when the results don't go our way so it's not like we need to throw everything out and rebuild now.
"But we definitely got a lesson in this game and it's something we all need to learn from - and the first person that needs to learn from it is me. That's how we're going to fix it, one step at a time moving forward."
The Wildcats have now won three straight to put a four-game losing run in the rear-view mirror with Bryce Cotton (37 points) and Keanu Pinder (21) starring in the 94-76 victory.
"Obviously I like and appreciate the way that we're playing right now, but to be 5-5 we dug ourselves a hole and we're getting out of it," coach John Rillie said.
"I'm excited where this team can get to but I never want to get too ahead of ourselves either at this point in time.
"We're progressing at a nice rate right now and there's a lot of room for growth in this team."
