South East Melbourne have shot from third place to lead the NBL standings and all but ended New Zealand's finals hopes in an Auckland offensive frenzy.
The depleted Breakers fired all their bullets in a first half that ended 52-52 but the Phoenix had plenty left in the tank, cruising to a 114-83 victory.
It improved Josh King's Phoenix to 21-9 and initially into second spot, one win ahead of third-placed Sydney.
But Adelaide's loss to Illawarra later on Thursday saw them concede top spot to the Phoenix on percentage on the eve of finals.
The Breakers (11-19) are two wins behind sixth-placed Tasmania with three regular-season games to play.
In-form Phoenix guard Nathan Sobey missed his first eight field goals but still finished with 21 points while Malique Lewis had 13 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks.
Projected first-round NBA pick Karim Lopez (lower leg) joined fellow front-court Breakers Sam Mennenga and Rob Baker II on the sidelines and Phoenix feasted with 17 offensive boards.
John Brown III (seven points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals) set the tone with another hard-nosed effort on a night where attack was otherwise the best form of defence.
"They (the Breakers) had a good game plan ... it took us a long, long time into the game to kind of crack them," King said.
"JB3 (Brown); he's a monster on defence. We follow his lead to start the game.
"For a guy like Malique, to see how hard you have to play ... what he does is world class.
"It's good for our younger guys to see and the whole team feeds off him."
Izaiah Brockington (19 points) enjoyed more offensive opportunity in a Breakers side dealing with injuries to key forwards while Parker Jackson-Cartwright (15 points, seven rebounds, five assists) threw plenty of punches.
Phoenix host the Kings in a top-two clash on Sunday before a date with the JackJumpers and then fourth-placed Melbourne to finish the regular season.
The Breakers at least have the in-season Ignite Cup final to look forward to, set to face Adelaide on the Gold Coast later this month to battle for a $300,000 winner's cheque.
Breakers coach Petteri Koponen hopes to have at least Lopez available but said post-game "it's not totally my decision".
"We'll see. I hope he's there to help us the rest of the year," the coach said of an injury absence the club described as a "cautious approach to prioritise his long-term health and welfare".
"We were there, had a lot of open looks ... but the whole game we had big problems with their offensive rebounding," the coach said.
"We'd play good defence, then couldn't collect the boards and they punished us.
"(Then) we lost our head."
