Basketball: Hawks and Saints game will go ahead - without the crowd

A Hawks and Saints match 4 years ago, with Jarrod Kenny in action. Kenny recently returned from Australia to headline the Hawks in the current season. Photo / File

The Taylor Hawks' crucial return match with Sal's NBL league favourites, the Wellington Saints, will go ahead in Wellington on Sunday, but without spectators.

The plans were confirmed on Thursday by basketball league general manager Justin Nelson, ending concerns that the Covid-19 level 2 alert in the capital might cause postponement of the match, one of the biggest of the season and set for tip-off at 5pm on Sunday in Wellington's TSB Arena.

It's the second of two weekend games for the Hawks, opening with a home-court, full-crowd Pettigrew.Green Arena match against the Pukekohe-based Franklin Bulls on Saturday, starting at 7.30pm.

But the Saints' Friday night game away to Nelson Giants has been rescheduled to Wednesday night next week.

There are 18 matches for each side in the regular season before the top 4 playoffs on July 22-23.

The Hawks beat the Saints 88-82 at the PGA last Friday, and go into the week 9 matches with nine wins from 12 matches. The Saints have nine wins from 11, but the Southland Sharks top the ladder having played more matches – 13 games for 10 wins.

Sal's NBL manager Nelson was ready for the challenges of the latest alert, following the plans which had to be made last season amid a level 4 lockdown. They saw the season replaced by a "showdown" missing the Hawks, Sharks and the Saints, with seven teams involved and played over 40 days only in Auckland.

"In light of the current rise in alert level in Wellington, together with our teams, we have acted swiftly to ensure every measure is taken to look after our community," Nelson said.

"While we don't want to play in a closed stadium, we have no choice but to do this on Sunday in Wellington when the Saints host the Hawks," he said. "No doubt this will be a very popular game on Sky Sport."