Basketball: Four cement positions at top

By PETER JESSUP

The Auckland Stars were dealt a lesson in the school of hard knocks, the Nelson Giants got dumped by Otago Nuggets and the Palmerston North Jets narrowly held on to the fourth playoff spot, as the national league rolled towards its last month of round play.

Four games to go and it is hard to see the Canterbury Rams, Waikato Titans, Giants and the Jets being overtaken now and the Stars certainly look to have blown their last chance, given a hard run home.

With the Harbour Kings also struggling and having to meet three of the four top sides in the run home, it would be the first time in a decade the city has not had a team in the finals series.

Titans coach Jeff Green said he told his older, more experienced guys to go out and "knock the young fellas around, hurt them and get them off their game", and they did for a 108-90 win on Auckland's court.

The addition of import Dwayne McCray helped them immeasurably. The visitors' scoring was well spread thanks to his inside work, with five players in double figures. They shot 56 per cent of their field goals.

The Stars relied on their import Casey Frank, who managed 23 points despite some fierce marker work, not least from Dillon Boucher who ran with a new aggression. But in response Stars player/coach Kenny Stone had three fouls after the first quarter, which slowed his game and he eventually fouled out in the last quarter.

Green earned a technical foul against his team late in the game after a verbal assault on officials, and called a time-out with less than a minute to run to show a lead in intensity.

"We played like pussies last week," Green said, referring to their loss to the Nuggets. "So it was good they turned up to play today. I kept my starters off for long patches and we still worked them over."

And that was without Tall Black captain Pero Cameron, who rates himself a "slim" chance of making the Hungary test series that starts in two weeks, as he struggles with a calf injury.

"It's important we have him for Indianapolis so I'd hope they would rest Pero through the whole series," Green said.

He wouldn't be using his star until the finals series - "or maybe in our last game against Otago".

The Nuggets kept the ball away from Giants star Phill Jones in the second half after he scored 22 by the second break.

Jones constricted to four in the third and fourth quarters and the home side was taken down 85-75. The Giants missed Tall Black Ed Book, who also has a calf strain.

The Jets beat a late comeback by Hawkes Bay to win 94-87.