Basketball New Zealand

Ernest Scott (centre) and the Wellington Saints look to keep their unbeaten home record against the Giants (Photosport)

Century City Wellington Saints (14-4, 1st) vs CPS Nelson Giants (10-8, 5th)
TSB Bank Arena, Wellington, 7.40pm
Referees – Andy Thackray, Dallas Pickering, Gavin Zimmerman

With the excess of talent on the Century City Wellington Saints roster, it has the Dominion Finance NBL abuzz with questions of “Who can hang with the Saints?”.

Well, the CPS Nelson Giants will try to be that team when they visit the Capital’s TSB Bank Arena on Thursday night to meet the regular season champion Saints in the first semifinal of the Dominion Finance NBL Playoffs.

The Saints swagger into the postseason as the number one qualifiers, with a six-game winning streak and first undefeated home season in franchise history, while the Giants backed into the playoffs with back-to-back losses to end the regular season before their gutsy 78-75 road win over the Easy LPG Bay Hawks in the first NBL quarterfinal on Tuesday night.

Offensively, Wellington has the leading scoring offence, more than two points per game clear of second and they also rank first in field goal percentage and second, behind the Giants, in three-point percentages, and lead the League in total rebounds and assists.

With American forward Ernest Scott leading the way with 21.3 points per game, the Saints have five players averaging double-digit points, while three others average over nine points.

Wellington defeated the Giants 90-89 in Nelson in round three, but have since welcomed in five players – Scott, Kevin Owens, Lindsay Tait, Brendon Polyblank and Leon Henry – four who were on court as the Saints rolled Nelson by 20 points late last month.

The title-holding Giants have already proved they can win on the road in these playoffs, with recently retired Tall Black Phill Jones torturing the Hawks with 27 points.

Jones, along with other long-range bombers and Tall Blacks Michael Fitchett and Chris Daniel, will be crucial to the Giants chances of a significant upset, as will the ability of Americans Michael Harrison and Jamil Terrell, and former Tall Black Christopher Reay to limit easy baskets from Nick Horvath, Owens, Arthur Trousdell and Polyblank down low.

Jones is averaging 19.3 points per contest, just ahead of Harrison with 18.4, while the Giants have got valuable contributions from sixth man Reay since joining the team five weeks ago.

And the basketball public seem to like Wellington. As of 3pm Wednesday an online poll on Basketball New Zealand’s webite, asking “Who will win the 2008 Dominion Finance NBL Championship?”, the Saints had 54 percent of more than 300 votes.

Wellington Saints vs Nelson Giants

Head-to-Head

2008
Round 12 (May 15)
Century City Wellington Saints 107 CPS Nelson Giants 87

Round Three (March 13)
Century City Wellington Saints 90 CPS Nelson Giants 89

2007
Round 15 (June 14)
Nelson Giants 94 Wellington Saints 84

Round 12 (May 25)
Nelson Giants 85 Wellington Saints 83

Last 5 Years
Drawn 6-6

Last 10 Years
Giants 12-11