Perfection still possible for Saints as Giants fall
You don’t hear Kevin Braswell yelling from the sidelines anymore.
But silence is easy when your team, the Wellington Saints, do their talking on the court.
The Saints took a step closer to the National Basketball League’s longest winning streak after knocking down an energised Nelson Giants side 95-78 at the Trafalgar Centre on Friday.
They are now 15-0 for this campaign, moving to within just one game of equalling the Southland Sharks’ 16 straight record from 2015.
‘‘It’s a good ride to be on,’’ the Saints coach said after coming from behind to continue their dream start.
‘‘At the beginning of the season I was yelling a lot more. Now I walk in at halftime and it’s just structure talks, like ‘let’s get back to what we do well.’’’
The competition’s pacesetters 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.
Braswell said he welcomed the early battle.
‘‘You watch me on the sidelines, last year I was probably going crazy but now I’m more relaxed because you have to expect that every team will come out like that.
‘‘A little adversity is good going into the finals weekend because that level of basketball will just go up, and if we can get every game to be like this going into finals weekend we’ll be well prepared.’’
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