Basketball New Zealand

Bay Hawks point guard Aidan Daly (Photosport)

Easy LPG Bay Hawks (11-7, 4th) vs CPS Nelson Giants (10-8, 5th)
Pettigrew.Green Arena, Taradale, 7.40pm
Referees – Tim Brown, Dallas Pickering, Gavin Zimmerman

In a 2007 NBL Finals repeat, the Easy LPG Bay Hawks and CPS Nelson Giants will contest the first game of the 2008 Dominion Finance NBL Playoffs in Taradale tonight.

Prior to Friday night’s 90-87 win to the Hawks in the final round of the regular season at Pettigrew.Green Arena, the Giants had won the previous five meetings between the two franchises, including two games in last season’s championship series.

The bulk of both squads return from 12 months ago - 2007 MVP Josh Pace, Ed Book and Mika Vukona the notable exceptions from the Giants and Australian Andrew Rice from the Hawks – while the G-Men have added American centre Michael Harrison and the Hawks, import forward Kevin Smith.

Behind the play of Tall Blacks Paora Winitana and Paul Henare, Americans Kareem Johnson and Smith, and guard Aidan Daly, the Hawks will be looking to reach the semifinals for the fifth straight year, while the Giants are led by recently retired Tall Black Phill Jones, current national teamers Chris Daniel and Michael Fitchett, and imports Harrison and Jamil Terrell.

The match-up puts two of the most-balanced offenses in the League head-to-head, with both teams featuring five players averaging double-digit in points, Winitana leading the Hawks with 18.7 and Jones 19.3 for the Giants.

Nelson features a strong inside and outside game – which ranks number one in the NBL in both points in the paint and three-point percentage - which has proved difficult to defend, making the job the Hawks bigs of Johnson, Smith and Tall Black traillists Callum Baynes and Calum MacLeod do on Harrison and Terrell inside an important factor.

Bay Hawks vs Nelson Giants

Head-to-head

2008
Round 15 (June 6)
Easy LPG Bay Hawks 90 CPS Nelson Giants 87

Round 13 (May 24)
CPS Nelson Giants 90 Easy LPG Hawks 79

2007
NBL Finals Game Two (June 29)
Giants 96 Hawks 83

NBL Finals Game One (June 28)
Giants 76 Hawks 67

Round 14 (June 4)
Giants 95 Hawks 86

Round 8 (April 28)
Giants 105 Hawks 91

Last 5 Years
Giants 9-7

Last 10 Years
Giants 17-7