Basketball: Five more rounds and league table's tight

One-from-two returns on the road were not good enough for Nelson Giants coach Nenad Vucinic or the Waikato Titans' Tim McTamney at the weekend as they reviewed a tight National Basketball League table and tough rounds to come.

The Giants remain just outside the playoff four but have yet to play Wellington, Waikato and Taranaki away.

The Titans are setting the pace, with the Auckland Stars, but the latter have arguably the best run home in the five rounds to come.

The Harbour Heat are pressing into playoff contention through their defence, which was enough to out-hustle Nelson.

Breakers triallist Brent Charleton has joined the Heat and scored 16 against Taranaki yesterday, but the road trip on top of the Giants game proved too much for Harbour as they slumped 80-64 in New Plymouth to complete a third one-from-two result.

Link Abrams top-scored for the Airs with 19, Tall Black forward Tony Rampton shot 18 and guard Brad Davidson 16 as they scored inside and out.

Nelson beat Auckland 79-70 on Friday night, the Stars' first loss at the Trusts Stadium in Waitakere, before falling to a more competitive Harbour 64-61 on Saturday.

Vucinic was disappointed the Giants did not adjust to the Heat's hassling tactics until it was too late.

He complained to the referees about their letting the Heat get away with what he considered fouls on Saturday night but didn't want to push that issue yesterday. "We didn't adjust and we paid the price."

Imports Matt Lottich, 22, and Mike King, 19, led the scoring for the Heat. Breakers development player Mika Vukona shot 13 for the Giants, import Jacob Holmes 12 and captain Ed Book 12. On Friday night, Book was hot, with 23 points from 10 of 13 field-goal attempts, Holmes scored 20 and bench man Michael Fitchett contributed 16.

The Stars had led 21-10 after the first quarter then went to sleep, allowing Nelson 27 second-quarter points, including a 17-0 run. The nine-point gap was maintained as the third quarter was Stars 19-18 and the fourth 23-points all.

"I'd like to think we're getting things together," Vucinic said. Their replacement import, Tyrone Barley, was still finding his way and would improve. They were getting good contributions from their juniors.

McTamney was not so convinced the Titans are tracking right. "We have bigger issues than win/loss," he said after they went down to the Hawks 102-90 then scraped home over the Jets 88-85.

"We're not playing well, we're not in sync offensively and we're finding it really hard to stop people.

"We lack intensity - we found it for 10 minutes last night [against the Jets] but we left it pretty late."

Pero Cameron scored just six against the Hawks, Titans imports Kantrail Horton (41) and Mike Bauer (21) leading the way. But Tall Black and Breaker Paul Henare was in sensational form, shooting 28, Dusty Rychart shot 20 and there contributions from many others.

Horton scored 26 against the Jets, Bauer 22 and Cameron 11, with import Mike Coleman's 21 the best for the home team, the Jets shooting with accuracy.

McTamney felt that Cameron would not be happy with his form but would bounce back for key games against the Titans and Hawks after they had the week off in round 10.

Otago took their first win from 11 games, beating the Canterbury Rams 73-60 in Christchurch, with Aussie Scott MacGregor scoring 15 and taking a critical 15 rebounds.

The Stars host Taranaki on Friday night and Manawatu go to Wellington; the Heat host Taranaki on Saturday night and Manawatu go to Nelson; and Hawkes Bay travel to Otago, then Canterbury.