KEY POINTS:
Harbour Heat coach John Dorge won't know if three-point expert Oscar Foreman will be fit for Sunday's NBL semifinal against Hawkes Bay until the forward arrives back from Australia's tour of China on Friday morning.
Foreman has been receiving treatment for an injured hamstring, which has ruled him
out of further participation on the Boomers' tour.
"There may be an outside possibility he could play but we just don't know," Dorge said. "Right now, we are not planning on it."
Foreman's likely absence means both teams could be without their premier three-point shooters.
Hawkes Bay's reigning MVP Paora Winitana will miss the match as he does not play on Sundays for religious reasons. Winitana, a Mormon bishop who ranks second in the league in three-point shooting, with a 50 per cent success rate, sat out last year's 88-82 semifinal win over Nelson.
Foreman's 46.1 per cent success rate from beyond the arc ranks him 7th in the league.
The Hawks can at least turn to Australian import Andrew Rice, a 40 per cent three-point shooter ranked 20th in the league.
The Heat don't have another player ranked in the top 35.
Most perimeter shooting duties will likely fall to co-captain Hayden Allen, who has been hot late in the season, shooting five of six attempts in the Heat's final regular season defeat by Waikato Pistons.
* The Pistons will host the first semifinal against Nelson at the Te Awamutu Events Centre on Saturday night.
The Waikato side had seemed likely to lose the hosting rights to the semifinal after a suitable venue could not originally be found. However, another booking at the events centre was shifted to accommodate the match.
But that venue is still a marginal proposition as a semifinal venue and will not be awarded a finals fixture if Waikato win on Saturday night.
"We agonised long and hard over this, and decided we could not take the semifinal away from a team that had worked so hard to earn home advantage," NBL commissioner Bryn McGoldrick said.
"But the finals are our showpiece and demand a high standard of presentation, a standard we cannot achieve in Te Awamutu."
NBL regulations require venues to be within the home team's catchment, suitable for TV broadcast and with seating capacity of 2000 plus corporate boxes.
The Te Awamutu Events Centre does not meet any of those criteria.
The only other option in the Waikato region would be at Mystery Creek.
But that is unlikely to be available so soon after the Fieldays Agricultural Trade Show.
NBL SEMIFINALS
Waikato Pistons v Nelson Giants, Te Awamutu Events Centre, 7.30pm Saturday
Harbour Heat v Bay Hawks, North Shore Events Centre, 7.30pm Sunday
