Basketball: Cameron shooting with both barrels

By PETER JESSUP

A fully fit Pero Cameron is about to be launched into the NBL final round and his presence tonight should ensure Waikato dump Nelson out of the national league playoffs.

Cameron has struggled with a series of injuries he carried and played on with for Chester Jets in England, the same groin/thigh/calf strains that kept him out of game one of the three-test series against the Czech Republic.

But this week he completed all trainings for the first time since returning from England more than two months ago.

That included work for the Breakers and the Titans.

Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin rang his Breakers/Titans counterpart Jeff Green to check progress with his national team captain.

"I was happy to tell Tab that if the Tall Blacks were flying out today, Pero would be 100 per cent," Green said.

Despite having the country's best player returning for the last round, and the assured spot the Titans have in the semifinals next weekend, Green is nervous.

"I'm never comfortable in a one-off game. It's easy for them to get up for it."

Win or lose at the Hamilton YMCA tonight, the Titans have the first playoff place, their 30 competition points from a season with only two losses putting them well out from the pack chasing the other three semifinal places.

If they win they knock Nelson out of contention, a prospect Green relishes because he fears the Giants most. "They're too tough a team, we don't want to give them any opportunity."

He will play his top 12, who are all fit. "We have to get into finals mode. We can send a message to other teams that we're still the ones to beat."

Then he contradicts himself: "I hate the favourites tag, but it's our title and they have to take it off us."

The Titans will take their semi - against Auckland, Nelson or Manawatu according to the results this weekend - to the Mystery Creek Events Centre in expectation of a major crowd, and that will also be the venue for the final if they win the first playoff.

Nelson come north with a fully fit complement, too.

Tall Black Ed Book's fitness is improving and he and import Darnell McCulloch have been in dominant touch as the Giants have strung together seven wins on the trot since the return of Phill Jones from Italy.

"Pressure is coming on other teams now - we've had pressure for eight weeks," Giants coach and Baldwin's assistant Nenad Vucinic said.

He takes some blame for the slow start to the season after returning from a job in Belgrade a week before the opening round.

"It takes a team time to settle into the plan. We started late, from scratch.

"We've improved throughout the season. But with two overtime losses lately, well, a win in either one wouldn't have us desperate now."

He would not rate the Giants' chances, but with one of those late losses being to Waikato, they give themselves plenty.

"We have to play well. We know what the danger is from Waikato. We need our best performance of the season to take it.

"If they establish the tempo they want, they will just rotate players on and off and we'll never stop it."

Book and McCulloch offer them penetration inside, but Jones cannot afford the cold start he had to his outside game last weekend. In former Tall Blacks Damon Rampton and Judd Flavell they have some back-up.

But the Titans have more. It is the home team bench that should make the difference - if Cameron has not already.

Auckland, on 22 points, should secure a semi spot with victory over North Harbour at Unitec tomorrow night and Wellington, also on 22, are expected to win in Hawkes Bay to wrap up a third.

The Palmerston North Jets face the South Island away double against second-last Canterbury tonight and seventh-placed Otago in Dunedin tomorrow.