Mika Vukona's national basketball league season ended on Tuesday. His Nelson Giants team-mates followed three days behind him.

A 74-62 defeat by the Waikato Pistons in Hamilton last night spelled the end of another hoop dream for the Fico Finance Nelson Giants, with Waikato progressing to next week's best-of-three finals series, where they will take on Wellington's Saints.

The loss of international forward Vukona, to a serious knee injury suffered in the quarterfinal win over Southland, wasn't the last straw for the Giants, but it certainly left a marked sway in the camel's back.

Without his rebounding and defence, the Giants were on the back foot against the tall and physical Pistons and, despite leading after the first quarter, and hanging close in the fourth, couldn't play their way into another finals series.

"We came up a quarter short," Nelson coach Chris Tupu said.

"I thought, at the start of the fourth, we were right in it, but we missed a couple of chances, had some calls go against us and that was all they needed to get their momentum back."

Neither side will win any prizes for their shooting accuracy last night. Aside from the two Mikes, Harrison and Fitchett, the Giants were well wide of the mark at 32 per cent from the field, but the Pistons, at 34 per cent, were in no position to gloat.

What did go the home team's way was the foul count. The Giants were called for 22, with Phill Jones fouling out with 1min 23sec to play and most of his team-mates flirting with their fifth. The Pistons, a team of players built like brick outhouses and about as yielding, somehow managed to stay on the good side of the officials, being called 14 times.

"Fouls were a factor," Tupu said. "The start of the fourth went 7-0 against us and that stops any flow you are trying to build."

And Vukona's absence told in the rebounding columns. Waikato outrebounded the Giants 52-39 and had 19 offensive boards.

"We missed Mika. We talked about how we weren't going to use his absence as an excuse, but you can't have a guy like that sitting out a game without it showing somewhere, somehow," Tupu said.

"Restricting them on the offensive boards was one of the keys we spoke about before the game, but they still got away from us in that area."

The Giants showed little sign of the playoff paralysis in the opening period last night, blasting out to a 23-14 lead, but Waikato made a defensive adjustment and dragged that back in the second, won by the home side, 27-12.

The Pistons hadn't been able to stay with Nelson man-to-man, but a change to a zone defence shifted the balance of power.

Neither team could get it going in the third, which went to Waikato 13-11, but the Giants threw all they had into the start of the fourth, getting within a point before fouls and more of those missed shots ruined their run.

"We battled, battled hard the whole game," Tupu said. "I don't want to give Waikato credit for anything ... Hayden Allen shot the lights out and they beat us on the boards but my guys were in with a real chance until the whistles started blowing."

Harrison, who has looked a more complete player with each of his last three matches, was outstanding with 18 points, 17 rebounds and six blocked shots, while Fitchett, who played for the Pistons in their championship run last year, was efficient and effective in matching Harrison's 18.

But Phill Jones, Darryl Jones (starting in Vukona's place), Tony Rampton and Josh Bloxham all struggled mightily on offence, combining for nine of 41 shooting.

"We had looks at the basket, it's not like we didn't have enough chances to score, but we couldn't finish them and we used so much energy trying to catch up with our defence that we came up short – maybe that one quarter short.

"So we are very disappointed right now, but I'm proud of the way we built through the year and I'm proud of the way we competed tonight. The result wasn't there for us, but it wasn't because the guys didn't try with all they had."

BOX SCORE

FICO FINANCE NELSON GIANTS 62: MFg-aFt-aRAPtsM Harrison408-142-56-17218M Fitchett406-123-30-1118T Rampton383-112-21-818P Jones383-141-20-137D Jones292-110-03-624J Bloxham111-52-20-004S Dempster21-20-00-003

WAIKATO PISTONS 74:MFg-aFt-aRAPtsH Allen368-177-82-6128A Pledger346-114-65-7116T Abercrombie382-129-101-9214T Ronaldson143-80-00-207R Tucker292-91-36-1455P Lenden242-50-02-824G Bowden120-20-00-010R Cameron90-00-01-210D Tawhiti0+0-00-00-000

Key: M = minutes played, Fg-a = field goals made and attempted, Ft-a = free throws made and attempted, R = offensive rebounds and total rebounds, A = assists, Pts = points.