Basketball: Nuggets could make it difficult

By PETER JESSUP

A loss tonight against Otago and the champion Auckland basketball team's playoff hopes will be all but slam-dunked.

Sixth place is an unusual position for the four-time league winners. It's not one they're comfortable in, with just three games left and their Tall Black players away in Taiwan.

The Nuggets sit in seventh place and without a playoff chance, but Auckland coach Tab Baldwin has told his players not to turn up to Unitec in any way complacent.

"We are going to have to do a great rebound job against Monte Hardge [the NBL's tallest player at 2.11m] and Andrew Parke."

Former Tall Black captain Glen Denham is likely to start for the second time this season. But Baldwin says he is confident that if they just play intelligently and defend as if their lives depend on it, they'll get home.

Auckland captain Dillon Boucher will be looking to lead a step-up on offence and to maintain his rebound stats, 20 last week, as the Rebels cope without Pero Cameron and Paul Henare.

Guard Haydn Smyth's season is over after he broke his wrist in the loss to Waikato last week.

The Tall Black contingent to the William Jones Cup in Taiwan will rob tomorrow's meeting between league leaders North Harbour and third-placed Nelson of some zip, with both sides missing star attackers.

The Giants are likely to suffer the loss of Nenad Vucinic, Phill Jones and Tony Rampton more than the Kings miss Kirk Penney and Brad Riley.

Likely to even that score is the absence of Harbour's top-scoring import Purnell Perry, who has a knee cartilage tear.

"That's taken the heat out of our frontline - we'll have to have some guys step up big-time," Kings' coach Tracey Carpenter said of their job at the North Shore Events Centre.

The Kings also have a flu virus going through the team. Carpenter hopes that will have blown out by tomorrow. They go in with some confidence after travelling to Nelson and winning earlier in the season.

Equal-first Waikato go to Palmerston North, the Warriors without guard Chris Tupu (in Taiwan) and the Jets at full strength.

Waikato have two home games to finish, hosting the Kings and Canterbury, and their coach, Jeff Green, is looking to this one to establish some momentum to see them through to the end with three victories that would guarantee at least a share of first and a home-court advantage for the playoffs.