KEY POINTS:
A place at next year's Beijing Olympics is up for grabs when the New Zealand men's basketball team face Australia across the Tasman this week.
Game one of the three game series is in Melbourne tonight, with the Boomers favoured on paper.
The losers face a tough road through Europe in a second chance qualifying opportunity.
Australian guard Brad Newley is set to take part in his third series against the Tall Blacks but admits there has never been this much riding on it. Newley has won and drawn a series against the Kiwis, "but history doesn't matter", he said.
The Tall Blacks have just spent a few weeks in Europe in preparation for this series and captain Pero Cameron is not keen to go back.
He said they have been on the road for a month now so they are ready to get things underway.
Cameron said they have played a lot of games and have had mixed results but they will take away the positives and filter out the negatives.
Tip off tonight is at 9.30pm (NZT).
- NEWSTALK ZB
