KEY POINTS:
The Auckland Stars and Harbour Heat will have full-strength line-ups for their clash at the North Shore Events Centre today.
The game promises extra intensity since the Stars lead the NBL table and the vastly improved Heat are in second place.
Stars coach Kenny Stone does not concede a height advantage, bar Breakers back-up centre Tim Behrendorff, but admits they must win the rebounding contest if they are to play their usual running attack game.
Some players had missed training this week with niggling injuries but all would be fit, Stone said.
At Harbour, some players have missed practice because of a virus but all were clear yesterday.
"We're playing the team that has set the standards in the league in recent years, they know how to win games," said coach John Dorge. "Their core has been together for some time and they all know what everyone else is going to do."
But the Heat had been together since February, working hard, he said.
* Former Tall Black Sean Marks has rejected the latest approach from new coach Nenad Vucinic to return for the Olympics. Marks told Vucinic from his Phoenix Suns base that he wanted to spend more time with his family.
The Tall Blacks have been confirmed as starters at the Boris Stankovic Cup in China in July and Basketball New Zealand is negotiating for a tour to Europe and a home series against European opposition before their three-game Olympic qualifying series against Australia in August.
There is only one Oceania qualifying spot at Beijing. Twelve teams will qualify - the host nation and world champions Spain, along with one from each of five Fiba zones, with the best-performed of the rest playing off to fill five spots.
Beating Australia is the easy way through for New Zealand. Otherwise they face the prospect of having to beat European heavyweights in the repechage.
A squad of 16 will be named for a camp in Auckland July 3-5, with 12 players to make the final group for the away games to the Boomers.
