The playoffs have not quite slipped away.
A big finish will be required for the Otago Nuggets to get there, though.
They were well in contention for a spot in the National Basketball League’s final four heading into last weekend.
But a loss to the Auckland Huskies, coupled with the Huskies’ win over the Southland Sharks on Saturday, has left them on the outer.
It brings the Huskies level with the Nuggets on an 8-6 record as they compete for the last top four spot with just four games to go.
However, the run-in for the Nuggets is harder. Much harder.
The league’s top three teams — the Hawke’s Bay Hawks, Southland Sharks and Wellington Saints — loom over the next two weeks.
Meanwhile, an increasingly talented Canterbury Rams team will be Otago’s final opponent.
In contrast, the Huskies have to face the Manawatu Jets, Taranaki Mountainairs, Nelson Giants and Saints.
There are three games they will be hot favourites to win among those — all except the one against the Saints.
That means to edge the Huskies out, the Nuggets will likely need at least three wins of their own.
Not only will that be tough, it means reversing a trend they have shown all season.
The Nuggets have looked fantastic against average to poor teams.
However, they are yet to deliver a good performance against a good team.
In games against the Saints and Hawks, they were thrashed, while a late comeback against the Sharks flattered the Nuggets in the final score.
Sunday’s loss to the Huskies joins that group. This was a much stronger Huskies team than the one the Nuggets beat in Auckland earlier in the season.
However, it is not those tough games that the team will look back on with the most regret.
It is the losses to the Taranaki Mountainairs and Nelson Giants that really hurt Otago’s position.
The Mountainairs loss hurts the Otago team the most.
On that night, the Nuggets — who were without an injured Sam Timmins — lacked energy and consequently got thrashed by a Taranaki team that has won just one other game.
The overtime loss to the Giants at home came as a result of an awful start.
But even following that, the Nuggets did enough to get back into a winning position and could not close the game out.
It was always going to be a tough finish, and having enough wins on the board was going to be key.
They remain a playoff chance, but the Nuggets will just have to be better than they have been all season.
