Basketball: Tall Blacks expect bruising encounter

Dillon Boucher expects a tough match. Picture / Mark Mitchell

There will be as many bruises as points when the Tall Blacks and Australia meet in tonight's gold medal basketball match.

Tall Blacks forward Dillon Boucher believes the two sides know each other so well that it will turn into a physical, low-scoring match where defence will be paramount.

"You're going to see a lot of defences that know exactly what's coming. They know everybody on our team and we know everybody on their team so head-to-head defence is what's going to get it done," he said.

"This final is going to be a battle. Whoever wins it is going to win it with a whole lot of bruises. It's going to be a physical encounter and a good game to watch if you're a knowledgeable basketball person. It'll probably be a low-scoring game."

When New Zealand beat Nigeria in Wednesday night's semifinal it set up a final that was pre-ordained from the time basketball was introduced as a Commonwealth Games sport following Manchester 2002.

"I'd say they would have been sitting back at home hoping Nigeria would beat us," Boucher said.

"They know that when New Zealand's backs are against the wall, or when there's a big game, we come out and play hard and play strong."

And they will also need to play clever because it's what Australia does best. Over the years, when generally they have had by far the better of the meetings with New Zealand, Australia has been the masters of making the right plays at the right time.

Under Tab Baldwin New Zealand has become a smart side as well.

"You're dealing with two master coaches so there's always something up the sleeve that the coaches have got. But the general stuff, each team is going to know exactly what the other is running and know exactly how it's going to be."

Both sides are far from full-strength. Mark Dickel, Kirk Penney, Craig Bradshaw, Phill Jones and the recently retired Sean Marks are all missing from New Zealand while Australia are without class acts like NBA top draft pick Andrew Bogut.

"We've been affected a lot but Australia has got great depth in their basketball so they've had players fill the spots pretty easily," Boucher said.

"We're the same - we've managed to fill the spots with guys like Troy McLean who's stepped up big at this tournament.

"We've got guys stepping into big shoes and they've done the job so far so hopefully in the final they'll do the same thing."

Boucher, who said he had a new lease of life by going to the Perth Wildcats from the Breakers, dismisses talk that the Tall Blacks will be hot favourites to stand on the dais listening to Advance Australia Fair.

"It's 50-50 in a one-off game. We came over to these Commonwealth Games to get to the gold medal game and if we don't come away with the gold we'll be disappointed."