The Tall Blacks have been embracing the underdog tag this week at the Basketball World Cup as they head into their final group match against Greece.
"We are the smaller country, a lot of people don't take us seriously. I feel like this campaign, teams have opened their eyes to us," Tall Blacks forward Jordan Ngatai told 1News.
The winner of the match will go on to the next round of the World Cup while the loser will play in the classification matches.
New Zealand and Greece have met once before, at the last World Cup four years ago when Greece won by six points.
"Last World Cup they got the better of us, we were beating them, they got the better of us in the last few minutes or so. I don't think we have lost that feeling," Ngatai said.
Both teams lost to the USA but beat Jordan, setting up a final group game showdown for the final qualification place in the group.
The Tall Blacks can breathe a sigh of relief - especially the big men - given NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is out of the tournament with injury.
"The whole team is glad he is [not playing], he is obviously one of the top players in the world, kind of a good thing for us but we just know that Greece has some talent in all positions that can step up," Tall Blacks forward Isaac Fotu said.
Fotu is the seventh New Zealander to play at three basketball World Cups, joining the likes of Mika Vukona, Tom Abercrombie and Kirk Penney.
His experience will be needed tonight to keep the young Kiwi line up level-headed in such a high stakes game.
"Every game is do or die for us. We have to go out there with the Tall Blacks mentality, we are always the underdogs no matter who we play," Fotu said.
"It's obviously going to be tough but we have some belief in ourselves and that's all that matters.
"We are going to go out there and put everything on the line."
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