KEY POINTS:
The Tall Blacks head into tonight's crucial Olympic-qualifying series opener against the Boomers in buoyant mood despite some less-than-impressive results in their lead-up campaign.
Nenad Vucinic's side won just five of their 14 warm-up matches, with three of those wins coming against Venezuela. But a build-up that included
that home series against the South Americans and tournaments in China and Croatia was more about getting the team to gel than results.
"These are the games that matter," Vucinic said of the pending series.
A series win and the Tall Blacks secure a spot in Beijing. Defeat means a tough repechage tournament early next year.
"Right now we have 12 players who can really contribute if and when they are called upon," Vucinic said.
Key shooting guard Kirk Penney said a morale-boosting win over a highly fancied Croatia side in their second-to-last tour game had come at the right time.
"It was great getting that win," he said. "We need to turn it on to that level every time we step on the court."
With the Tall Blacks having arrived in Australia on Friday after a marathon 40-hour journey from Croatia, the biggest question will be whether they have emerged from their gruelling schedule battle-hardened or exhausted.
"We are battle-hardened," Penney said. "It has been a long tour but a good tour. We have played a lot of very good teams and now it is coming down to the most important part."
If the Tall Blacks are to win, Penney will likely be the key figure. The former NBA player was the top scorer in four of those warm-up wins.
The Tall Blacks have established impressive first-quarter leads in many of their matches before fading badly in the later stages.
Vucinic wasn't overly concerned about the trend, citing a mixture of experimentation and a lack of big-game intensity as the cause.
"Basketball is a game of momentum and I'd really rather have a good start than a bad start," he said. "We would like to have continued with it, obviously, but the reality was we were playing some very good teams.
"The key is playing good-quality basketball. That means execution on offence and a hard-nosed defence. In some games where we didn't come to play on the edge we suffered.
"But I am 100 per cent sure that, when we play Australia, being on the edge is not going to be an issue."
Penney, too, didn't believe second-half blues would be a factor against Australia.
"We have had some really good starts and then just had lapses at times that have ultimately hurt us," he said.
"We have had some quality wins, and some teams we should have put away we didn't. But that is all part of being on tour."
NZ V Australia
All games live on Maori Television
Game 1: Today (9pm), Melbourne.
Game 2: Wednesday (9pm), Sydney.
Game 3: Friday (9.30pm), Brisbane.
NEW ZEALAND
Mark Dickel, Paul Henare, Phill Jones, Kirk Penney, Lindsay Tait, Paora Winitana, Dillon Boucher, Craig Bradshaw, Pero Cameron (c), Casey Frank, Mika Vukona, Tony Rampton.
AUSTRALIA
David Andersen, Wade Helliwell, Russell Hinder, Luke Kendall, Sam Mackinnon (c), Darnell Mee, Patrick Mills, Brad Newley, Damien Ryan, Glen Saville, Jason Smith, Mark Worthington.
