The Hawks gave up a 19-4 run to start the match only to draw within three late in the second quarter, while they again trailed by 15 midway through the third term before miraculously taking their first lead of the match a minute and three seconds into the final term.

They again trailed by eight in the dying minutes only for development player Hyrum Harris to produce a steal and assist for a Todd Blanchfield slam that cut the margin to four with 95 seconds left.

The Hawks skipper had a three on his next journey up the floor to get within one with less than a minute to play before Sunday Dech produced a steal on Scotty Hopson and drew an unsportsmanlike foul for shots and possession.

He went one of two from the line to level at 89 apiece but missed a tough lay-up on the next play, with Hopson atoning at the other end with game-winner with just three seconds left.

Hopson produced the dagger but Sek Henry continued to be the Hawks worst nightmare, draining a pair of clutch threes at the end of the second and again in the fourth to see off the Hawks' runs.

It saw him finish with 21 points, just shy of the 23 he averaged across his two previous outings against the Hawks. Hopson finished with 21 points, eight boards and five assists despite early foul trouble, while Rob Loe (13 points) and Tom Abercrombie (10) were also on the doubles.

Emmett Naar was instrumental in both the Hawks comebacks, finishing with 17 points eight assists and at +21 in plus-minus as he continues his brilliant run in the absence of the injured LaMelo Ball.

AJ Ogilvy was also big in the absence of injured bigs Josh Boone and Dave Andersen, finishing with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Todd Blanchfield found his range with 19 points at 3-4 from downtown.

It was a roller coaster for coach Matt Flinn, but he said the overwhelming feeling was one of disappointment given their two shots at victory before Hopson's late heroics.

"Hindsight's a wonderful thing," Flinn said.

"Those set plays we ran at the end, we practice them a lot and we get good looks off them, that's why we run them. I can sit here with another five in the bag I could've run, should've done this, should've done that.

"It's easy to say 'we should've done this' but if that shot had gone in, we're all popping champagne corks. It's disappointing after what we produced in Adelaide but I was proud of the gritty style we played with.

"I thought the effort was there, particularly from that young Aussie crew that came in and really got us there, but being down 19-4 after the first three-four minutes of the game it was always a going to be a tough slog coming back from that. We gave up 14 points in four minutes at the start of the third to.

"Credit to New Zealand, they came in and hit some shots and that's what you've got to do on the road. It's disappointing when you lose games, given where we are on the ladder and given the challenges we've had this season, I really felt we deserved to come away with that."

The loss sees them fall short of what would've been consecutive wins for the first time this season, leaving them at 4-12 heading into Saturday's road clash with South East Melbourne.

The visitors opened with an 8-0 run that forced Flinn into a timeout after little more than two minutes. Dech grabbed his side's first points straight out of it but a three-point play from Loe kept momentum with the Breakers.

Hopson had seven points at the mid-point of the term to give his side an early 12-point lead. Henry extended it to 15 with his first three, but Billy Preston fired back and kept it going from the line to finish with six for the quarter.

Finn Delaney and Naar traded threes on a 10-4 for run to the hosts that only saw them trail by six after an awful start. Ethan Rusbatch opened proceedings with a triple in the second, before back to back buckets from Ogilvy and an and-one play from Blanchfield kept the margin at six.

Ogilvy moved his tally to eight for the the quarter and a transition three to Blanchfield on an intercept from Naar forced Dan Shamir to call time with the margin back at five. Preston made it a single-score game with two from the line but a three from Weeks and follow up from Henry again made it six.

Blanchfield had a treble from the stripe to get within three but a three from Tom Vodanivich and Henry's third triple in the final 23 seconds of the term saw the lead suddenly balloon to nine at the break.

Loe started the third term with a three-point play, with Hopson and Abercrombie hitting from the perimeter for a 15-point cushion. Naar proved instrumental in over-hauling the deficit, producing a buzzer-beating three and and an and-one play on a 16-4 run that drew the hosts within one.

Henry continued to twist the knife with a deep two and a pair of threes on a personal 8-0 run that put the lead back out to seven. The Hawks made their late run to draw level but couldn't find the go-ahead bucket before Hopson stepped up to snatch the win.