Mike Fitchett's been around a while and he knows there's nowhere to hide on a basketball court.

As the starting point guard for the Fico Finance Giants, he's got a busy night ahead of him tomorrow as he and his Nelson team-mates travel to Auckland's North Shore to play the unbeaten Harbour Heat.

While the Heat have plenty of offensive firepower, what has set them apart so far this season has been their pressure defence.

The Heat have totalled 59 steals at an average of 19.7 a game in the early stages of the Bartercard national basketball league, with guard Corey Webster ripping six steals an outing. Forward Dillon Boucher isn't far behind at three a night.

"That's a ridiculous number of steals," Fitchett said. "They like to press and they generate a lot of points off the turnovers they create."

That's where Fitchett, a New Zealand Tall Black representative in the past two winters, will need to be on his game.

"It'll be tempting to throw the ball to JB [team-mate Josh Bloxham] and say `good luck' but against that type of defence, it will be a case of everyone pitching in."

The Giants have worked on moves to beat the defence and to share the ballhandling load that would normally rest on Fitchett and Bloxham. The guard tandem have committed just five turnovers each in Nelson's first four games – but they haven't come up against anything close to matching Harbour's long and aggressive defenders.

"They like to send Boucher or one of the big guys forward to pressure the inbounds pass and harass the guy with the ball, then they have Corey [Webster] and Kavossy [Franklin] hunting from the wings, looking for a loose pass under pressure," Fitchett said.

"We've looked at the tapes, though, so we are as prepared as we can be."

The Giants have been down on numbers in recent training sessions, with injured players Darryl Jones (kneecap) and Bronson Beri (ankle) still making their way back to fitness and captain Phill Jones taking advantage of last weekend's bye to attend a wedding on the Gold Coast.

The promising news is that Darryl Jones has returned to training and had his first scrimmage earlier this week. In his absence, Bloxham and Sam Dempster have played significant roles but Jones, a Tall Black triallist last year, gives the Giants a better player rotation and crucial depth.

Meanwhile, Fitchett has been deliberately low-key in his first four matches, averaging seven points and three assists. He's taken fewer shots than four team-mates, including his backup, Bloxham.

"There's been no need," he said. "At this point, it's better for the team to be getting stuff inside for Mika [Vukona] and Ramps [Tony Rampton] or have Phill shooting it but, when the moment arises for me to be selfish and get a few shots up, I will."

He's also been spotted signalling to Giants coach Chris Tupu for a sub at stages in the two wins in the Trafalgar Centre. While Fitchett's no quitter, he says it is in the team's best interests to get as many players comfortable on the court as possible.

"There's times when I'm just getting tired, too," he said. "There's not many of us who can go a full quarter at our best so I'm happier to go as hard as I can, give someone else a go, then get back out there rested. I'm not getting any younger, you know [27]."

Harbour and Waikato are the only two teams with a clean slate entering round four of the NBL and have already been anointed by many as this season's likely finalists. That rests comfortably with Fitchett and the Giants, who lurk one spot back in third place.

"This game's a good marker for us. We will probably have DJ [Jones] back, we've had that week's rest and we're back into it seriously at training," he said.

"Harbour have got a good record and a squad that looks great on paper, but we haven't seen them in the flesh. We're happy to have Harbour and Waikato catching all the attention at this stage of the season because I'm fairly confident we'll be there when it matters."

Guard Chris Duthie, a Giant last season, led the scoring for the Junior Tall Blacks with 18 points and added 10 rebounds as they lost 56-98 to the Greek juniors in Athens yesterday