Basketball: NBL breaks into haves and have nots

By PETER JESSUP

The basketball league is splitting into two tiers: teams with Tall Blacks, Breakers and imports and teams without.

After the weekend's games, the Hawkes Bay Hawks, Nelson Giants and Waikato Titans lead with five wins and 10 points apiece while the Wellington Saints, Manawatu Jets and Auckland Stars all have four wins and eight points, though the Stars have played two more games than the Saints and Jets.

All those teams have more than two star players. The strugglers - North Harbour Heat (two wins and four points from six games), Canterbury Rams, Taranaki Mountain Airs and Otago Nuggets (one win from six) - do not.

The Jets' Aussie league player and Tall Black Miles Pearce fouled out with five minutes to go in a rough game, in which Auckland came from behind for an 88-85 win in Palmerston North on Saturday.

Centre David Cooper collected four fouls, Jonathan Southey and American Anthony Lever three each to stifle their momentum.

Breaker and Tall Black Lindsay Tait turned the game with three consecutive three-pointers in the last quarter when they were 15 points down after going 24-24, 34-45, 57-72 at the breaks.

The Stars played with seven men against 11 after Aaron Olson was injured in the third quarter of their 74-92 loss at Hawkes Bay on Friday. He had top-scored with 22 before going off in the last quarter, with Casey Frank getting 20 and Lindsay Tait 16.

Wellington beat Taranaki 69-64, the low scoring down to too many turnovers. Wellington shot 31 of 67 for 46 per cent accuracy, beating Taranaki's 40 per cent.

Harbour were without forward Rob Tuilave when they lost 80-85 to the Nuggets in Dunedin, but he'll be there to play Nelson at the North Shore Events Centre on Friday.

The Giants play Auckland on Thursday, the Jets host the Hawks on Wednesday, Wellington host the Jets on Saturday while Taranaki go to Christchurch on Saturday and Dunedin on Sunday.