Basketball On The Internet.

MAKE no mistake. With their respective teams each only one win away from an encore showdown in the NBL Grand Final, Andrej Lemanis and Rob Beveridge both know they are likely auditioning for the Boomers coaching job.

No-one at the Basketball Australia selection table would have said: "Boys, this is a real winner-takes-it-all'' situation but you have to wonder why any announcement won't come until after the iiNet NBL Championship series is concluded.

Having clearly ruled out the usual coach selection methods - a coin toss, two-up, paper-scissors-rock, which hand? - it was probably Drewy or Luc who came up with the idea: "hey, why don't we wait and give the job to whoever wins the championship?''

New Zealand took its first step by swamping a gallant Sydney 81-64 in Game 1 of the semi-finals, Mika Vukona setting an immediate tone with two quick baskets that were all class.

So was Dillon Boucher's touch pass and Cedric Jackson's entertaining drive-and-dunk which inspired a mostly subdued crowd of 8,400 at Vector Arena to find voice.

The Kings hung tough but shooting at 36 per cent was a killer against the Breakers' defence.

"Their shooting percentages weren't great. By the same token, ours weren't outstanding either, but our defence gave us the opportunity to win that basketball game,'' Lemanis said.

The teams meet again in Game 2 on Easter Monday and now it really does look like a sweep.

The Breakers are not under any pressure now and the Kings not only have to win but wrap their heads around having to do it twice to advance, and do it a second time back in Auckland where they just got clocked.

I fear their time may be up.

So too the Hawkers of the Gong, who gave the Wildcats some hurry up at Perth Arena before fading out completely and being slapped around 93-65.

Now Wollongong has to not only win on Sunday at The Sandpit just to keep the semi final series alive, but come to terms with then going back out west to do what they haven't done since Gordie McLeod had an afro.

With that thought buried in their psyche (not the image of Gordie with an afro, but beating Perth twice), when the going gets tough, you have to wonder how strong the belief will be.

The only hiccup for the Wildcats was centre Matt Knight suffering a late ankle injury but he returned to the game and should be passed fit for Game 2.

"I feel like we've gone 25 rounds with the master blaster and that's what we knew we would have to go through,'' McLeod said.

"What we have to do is stop the bleeding tonight, lick the wounds, bandage it up and get back on the plane to head home and come up with a game plan of how we are going to compete with these guys.

"If we don't address the rebounding situation or address handling the pressure, then it's going to be the same result come Sunday afternoon.''

So jumping back to where we began, McLeod did not put his hand up for Boomers' consideration but my (e)mail is someone at BA did make the call and ask him whether he was interested.

That's something, at least.

Not casting the net far and wide remains typical of the BA budget.

BA's Steven Icke chaired the selection panel, which included Andrew Gaze, Luc Longley, Jan Stirling, David Crocker and Paul Roos.

Don't be surprised if the man with a hand on the Dr John Raschke Trophy at season's end is soon calling the Boomers' shots.

Semi Finals Game 1

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 81 (Abercrombie 15, Corletto 12, Jackson 11) d SYDNEY KINGS 64 (Madgen 15, Harvey 10, Garlepp  9) at Vector Arena.
(New Zealand Breakers lead 1-0)
PERTH WILDCATS 93 (Lisch 17, Knight 15, Tovey 11) d WOLLONGONG HAWKS 65 (Deleon, Coenraad 16. Gruber 11) at Perth Arena.
(Perth Wildcats lead 1-0)