Basketball: Tall Blacks insist belief alive

MELBOURNE - The Tall Blacks return tonight to the scene of their Commonwealth Games heartbreak, stung by another narrow loss but insistent the horse has not bolted on their chances of a first test win in Australia.

New Zealand eyeballed successive wins over Australia as they raced to a 17-point quartertime lead and 14 at halftime before being pipped at the post 78-79 in Hobart on Monday to trail 1-2 in the four-match series.

Coach Tab Baldwin cut a downcast figure afterwards, labelling his players "lazy" as they failed to grab their chance to seize control of the series against the world's No 9-ranked team, a month out from the world championship in Japan.

Their return to Vodafone Arena in Melbourne's sporting heartland tonight (9.30 start NZT) will revive memories of the 76-81 loss in the Games gold-medal match in March.

Said Baldwin of the Hobart match: "We had the chance to win our first game in Australia and possibly win a series. It's such a tenuous thing in sport, things you want so desperately are now up in smoke.

"We have to come back in Melbourne at a tough venue, a Boomers team that's going to have more belief than they had at halftime ... It just gets tougher."

Adding injury to insult was the sight of in-form sharpshooter Phill Jones being helped off with an ankle injury soon after his three-point play got New Zealand to 75-77 down with a minute left.

Yesterday, he was walking with a slight limp, and his participation will depend on how he gets through training today with heavy strapping on the ankle.

Jones was again hot from three-point range, his six-from-10 return helping him pot 23 points to comfortably top the Tall Blacks' scoring, while Boomers veteran Jason Smith shot four-from-seven outside the arc for a game-high 24.

A confident Tall Blacks, well marshalled by point guard Mark Dickel, shot 53 per cent in the first half to lead 45-31 at halftime, but that dropped to 33 per cent in the second half as the home defence improved.

The Boomers, 38 per cent in the first half, improved to 52 per cent after the break.

But it was composure in the dying minutes that won it for the hosts.

"You can list a huge number of excuses but they're all just background noise to performance," Baldwin said.

"A basketball team's job is to perform on every possession at both ends of the floor. We didn't do that against a team growing in confidence."

Dickel insisted the Tall Blacks had not blown their chance against a team finally starting to gel.

Rather, it was NBA star Andrew Bogut and the young giants among his teammates who made it tough for New Zealand's offence, and Smith hitting the big shots from outside.

"We just need to go back to what's been successful for us, pass the ball really well and take our open shots, control the tempo and minimise mistakes," Dickel said.

"It's still right there for us ... We've come back and stolen games in the past. The belief is still there."

* Tonight's match screens live on Maori Television at 9.30.

- NZPA