Tall Blacks to shake things up
NEW Zealand will look to share the scoring burden more widely in their Commonwealth Games opener against Nigeria in Cairns tonight.
The Kiwis are without World Cup qualifiers big names Tai and Corey Webster, and Isaac Fotu, who are instead plying their trade in the United States or Europe.
Coach Paul Henare said their absence means the Tall Blacks’ offensive plays will look a little different.
“We’re going to have to do it a little bit by committee – we’ve lost a lot of talent and natural scoring ability,” he said.
“But with the group we do have, we’re going to be a team that gets after it defensively and hopefully we can create some points through pressure.
“We can crash the boards really well and pick up points that way.
“We’re going to have to be a little bit creative.”
Henare isn’t having a bar of talk that New Zealand and Australia will be battling it out for gold in 10 days.
While world no.10 Australia are the Games favourites, Canada (23) and Nigeria (32) are all ranked ahead of the world No.38 Tall Blacks.
Henare says the Nigerians, in particular, have proven tough to scout, with a bevy of unknowns among their players.
“We’re just going to have to play our best basketball,” he said.