KEY POINTS:
The Auckland Stars and Harbour Heat face daunting double-header road trips as the NBL kicks into top gear this weekend.
The Stars play big improvers Taranaki in New Plymouth tomorrow night before heading to Hamilton to play the undefeated Pistons on Saturday, while the Heat play the Saints
in the capital tomorrow before backing up against Nelson the following night.
Having had their four-match winning-streak snapped by an overtime defeat in Nelson last weekend, the Stars (4-2) will be keen to get back to winning ways against Taranaki (4-3) before attempting to stop the increasingly impressive Pistons (4-0) juggernaut.
"It is going to be a pretty hard turnaround but we are just focusing on the first game," Stars forward Dillon Boucher said.
"On Saturday morning we'll start thinking about what we've got to do against Waikato."
Taranaki, who have already notched wins over Wellington and Hawkes Bay this season, will be no pushovers. But the Pistons (4-0), with imports Brian Wethers and Jason Crowe in dominant form, have been in a different league.
Boucher said he would likely spend most of his night trying to shut down Wethers but both imports would need to be double-teamed if the Stars were to limit their influence.
"They have already showed this season how dominant they can be. Wethers is leading the league in scoring and Crowe is leading the league in steals and assists.
"Crowe isn't doing as much scoring as last year but that's only because he's got a guy like Wethers to pass the ball to. They've also had the luxury of resting key players at the end of games because they have been beating teams by so much. These guys have got fresh legs and they want to play."
The Stars boast just the one import in Larry Bratcher and are still without key players Lindsay Tait and Reece Cassidy but Boucher said they were still a force to be reckoned with.
"We are as strong as any team out there and on any day we can beat any team. We do have to play well and we probably don't have the depth we did in the past, but I still believe we are a top team and we have proved that already this season by winning some games."
Harbour Heat (3-2) have an equally tough assignment, taking on the Saints (4-3) on Friday before heading to Nelson (4-2) to tackle the defending champions.
Round six tips off tonight, when Waikato put their undefeated record on the line against Hawkes Bay in Napier.
Canterbury host Manawatu, also tonight, while the final game of the round sees the winless Otago Nuggets host Manawatu in Timaru.