Basketball: NZ must get up again for Brazil

Brazil 90 Tall Blacks 80

The Tall Blacks arrived in Argentina yesterday and coach Tab Baldwin must somehow lift his players for another encounter with Brazil after they lost their fourth and final game in Brazil to the South Americans in Sao Paulo yesterday.

Today's match in Buenos Aires is part of a four-team tournament involving Venezuela and Argentina as well.

New Zealand lost all four games to Brazil in Brazil.

They led early, held a 52-46 advantage at halftime and were still ahead by two points early in the final quarter of yesterday's match.

But Brazil put on a 15-4 run that effectively squashed New Zealand's hopes of victory.

The Tall Blacks closed to within four in the final minute, but were fouling to catch up, a tactic that often sees the final score flatter the winners.

"We shot the ball very well in the first half and throughout the series we executed the offence very well," Baldwin said.

"But Brazil changed tactics and really disrupted our offence in the second half - we didn't respond very well to it."

It was a disappointing result for the Tall Blacks, who finished with no tangible reward for the steady improvement they had made over the week.

Phoenix Suns guard Leandro Barbosa, the player who had tormented his opponents in previous outings, had fallen ill and did not play in the final test, while Cleveland Cavaliers centre Anderson Varejao spent just 11 minutes on court.

"It was a pretty good opportunity for us, but they have some very capable players to back Barbosa up," Baldwin said.

"We're very disappointed, we really wanted to win this game tonight.

"We played probably our second-best game of the series.

"Not as well as we played in the third game - but there are still more things I expect from the guys that we're just not getting.

"I'm frustrated with them and frustrated with myself for not making tactical adjustments quicker."

While the Tall Blacks further cut their rivals' offensive output from 105 in game one, they themselves were held to just 28 points in the second half.

Forward Craig Bradshaw and shooter Phill Jones each scored 17 points for New Zealand, but after hitting 11 three-pointers in the first half, the Tall Blacks found the mark only twice over the remaining two quarters.

Baldwin was not amused at having to face Brazil again today.

"It's wrong and we're not looking forward to it. Things were already getting a bit testy out on the court there [yesterday].

"We've learned pretty much all we can learn from each other, now we've got to go out and bang heads again."

- NZPA