Perfection is still possible for Saints

The streak continues.

The Wellington Saints forged ahead with what is the National Basketball League’s longest winning streak after knocking down an energised Nelson Giants side 95-78 at the Trafalgar Centre in Nelson last night, taking their unbeaten run to 19 games dating back to last year’s regular season.

They are now 15-0 for this campaign, meaning that a perfect season still a real possibility for a team setting the standard so far.

But they certainly had to work hard for the win in Nelson, the Giants producing their best quarter of 2017 as they stormed out to a shock 31-22 lead at the first break before holding the Saints 44-43 at halftime.

‘‘It’s a good ride to be on,’’ Saints coach Kevin Braswell said after coming from behind to notch another milestone.

‘‘From the start of the season we knew we had a good team and everyone has bought into the principles that we laid down, they’ve bought into the culture and bought into what we are trying to do on the court.

‘‘We’ve just got better and better every game, and even though we were down at halftime in this game - because we are getting everyone’s best shot, everyone wants to give us our first loss - we showed what they are made of in the second half.’’

The Giants welcomed back import guard Kyle Adnam from injury and Melbourne United duty and the young Aussie looked every bit an ANBL level player. He ended the night with 21 points and should be high priority when it comes to recruiting next year’s squad.

But there’s a reason the Saints haven’t lost a game this season, and their depth is a luxury no other team can match, particularly not the Giants and their local-heavy roster.

A 9-2 run after halftime put the Saints in front and they continued to build on that, outscoring the Giants 30-13 in the third quarter to increase the lead to 73-57.

Tai Wesley (23) and Corey Webster (21) were Wellington’s biggest contributors, keeping their names well and truly in the MVP conversation, while three others; Jordan Ngatai (14), Josh Duinker (13) and Leon Henry (10) also hit double digits.

Giants coach Brendon Bailey probably wished he could multiply that first quarter by four but he was still proud of his team’s valiant performance.

‘‘We showed in that first half that we can compete with any team,’’ he said.

‘‘The guys ran out of puff a wee bit but they busted their backsides for three quarters of that game and stayed with them, so I was proud of the effort.

‘‘We just don’t have the depth in our rotation like those guys, who can play down to 10 deep.’’

With Sam Dempster still sidelined with an abdominal injury, and on the back of a breakout performance against the Bay Hawks last week, Tom Ingham was reinstated in the starting five alongside Adnam, Finn Delany, Dion Prewster and Morgan Grim.