We're getting warmer but, no, something else was awry at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale - a different kind of coldness.
One that emanates from the stands where people wear outlandish costumes and hold banners with messages (such as Lets Be Gone) that make school teachers cringe.
Basketball spectators were pitifully conspicuous in their absence at the PG Arena, the House of Hawks, considering $20 an adult for four games (including Hawks Invitation v the Philippines) is pretty good bang for anyone's dollar for a weekend's sporting entertainment.
Organisers had prevented fans from finding a perch on one side of the arena, where TV cameras roosted.
Instead, they were herded to the opposite side of the arena in Saturday's night semifinals but even then they only managed about 35 per cent capacity at the 2000-seat venue, not counting volunteers. During the second semifinal that night, homeboy Paul Henare, the coach of Southland Sharks, cut a forlorn figure as he sat there scribbling notes in preparation of the grand final on Sunday with his generals on either side.
The grand final looked more compact on the chosen side, about 70 per cent full, but then the NBL committee wallahs had evicted the previous night's fans from the balcony.
The blue bucket-head brigade, Nelson Giants Wannabes, tucked away in the bottom far corner, had explicitly expressed their dismay with a placard that read: "Grrr, we were told to move from upstairs."
Ironically the cantankerous mob was what the NBL desperately needed in droves to inject some impetus into a peripheral sport demanding TV airtime on a national stage.
Fundamentally the NBL takes over the running of the playoffs from the host region which provides volunteers and some equipment.
In come national tier sponsors at the expense of regional ones and the NBL pockets the dosh although it does subsidise the expenses of travelling teams.
In stark contrast to the playoffs in Wellington for the past two years, the one here looked anaemic without frills such as confetti raining down on the champions.
Were they guilty of poor advertising and marketing or was there simply apathy among the locals because of the Hawks' absence?
Outgoing Hawks franchise general manager Paul Trass believes he has a plausible take on it.
"We don't have too many fans. Forty per cent are basketball fans and the rest are what I'd call bucket-list people," says Trass, adding New Zealand was a footballing nation that supports soccer, rugby or cricket.
He suspects if the Hawks had qualified it would have been a sold-out venue.
"I'd love to do it [host] again when the Hawks are there," Trass reckons.
He feels the region gets behind other Bay codes equally. "I do it myself."
"Since 2007 Basketball New Zealand have struggled and we're shooting ourselves in the foot," Trass says.
In the halcyon days of 2006, when coach Shawn Dennis and Bay-born Henare and Paora Winitana spearheaded them to their only NBL crown, oppositions dreaded coming here but that fortress mentality has progressively eroded.
It's rich that Tall Blacks should complain about lack of funding help but it begs the question:
"When was the last time the Tall Blacks played a decent test series in the country?"
Children are playing the sport but for how long in the face of having to fork out about $27,000 to attend a tournament in the South Island.
Franchises such as Hawks cough up $12,000 a trip to play the Deep South during their double-header weekend but at what cost to the southern franchises reciprocating.
Logically, for them to host the playoffs will mean fans will have to pay in the vicinity of $30-$40 to watch to ensure NBL can subsidise the franchises' travel costs.
The other debate is whether the grand final should revert to the yesteryear of a three-match series after the quarterfinals.
Trass reckons the concept is great but the cost will be the death of basketball.
Tv cameras captured Henare laying down the rules to his Sharlks in an expletive-ridden terms that would have broken down any language barriers.
Okay, not great for kids but how candid was it and none of the media blew it out of context.
Hawks coach Tab Baldwin is wary of letting scribes into his halftime sessions but the sport will be poorer for it.
For the record, some journalists felt Nelson Giants hitman Mika Vukona should have been sent off for his tangle with Southland Sharks import Brian Conklin in the dying minutes of the grand final.
"I'm an American. I'm not used to people holding me like that," Conklin explained to referee Melony Wealleans with the innocence of an athlete testing positive for taking a banned substance "inadvertently".
Having seen the replay on TV, I disagree.
Vukona and Conklin incessantly needled each other but Conklin takes the Oscar for winning over the referees.
The first things imports learn on arriving in New Zealand is that we play our basketball like rugby - adapt or sayonara.
I'd say Conklin is a clever boy.
