WELLINGTON (2015 FIBA Oceania Championship) - Legendary Australian coach and FIBA Hall of Fame member Lindsay Gaze famously turned the statement "operation successful, patient died" into a basketball catchphrase.

The hoops translation is the offense was run with precision but the shot didn't drop.

So it was for New Zealand in Game 1 of the FIBA Oceania Championship, executing superbly but shooting just 38 per cent from the field and 7-of-27 from three-point territory.

With guards Corey Webster and Jarrod Kenny combining to hit 5-of-10, the rest of the Kiwi team endured a long-range nightmare.

Small forward Tom Abercrombie - who shot 47 per cent from beyond the arc last NBL season - was the worst offender, missing all four attempts from outside, while the in-form Isaac Fotu went 0-of-2 after shooting 42 per cent from deep at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

"I thought we had a number of really quality looks we would normally knock down," Tall Blacks coach Paul Henare said.

"Tommy, I know for sure he'll bounce back, and Ike was struggling a bit with cramp so that might have affected his aggressiveness.

"We got great looks for Rob Loe out of the pick-and-pop situations and he goes 1-for-6, so we're based around Corey but the rest of the team can definitely step up."

Kenny was the surprise packet, scoring 12 points including a pair of clutch, final-quarter triples that kept New Zealand's hopes of an upset temporarily alive.

With so much attention on Webster, Fotu and Abercrombie, Kenny found himself alone in the corner - as he often did during the Tall Blacks' tour of Europe and China - and made the Aussies pay.

"All campaign we've been working as a team and those situations come up for us in the corner. The boys have given us confidence to shoot it and we take confidence out of that," he said.

While the role players all need to contribute, for the Kiwis to overturn a 12-point deficit and qualify for the Rio Olympics they need Webster to produce something similar to his 22-point Game 1 masterpiece.

The Boomers will be ready and waiting for the 1.85m shooting star, but coach Henare isn't too concerned after watching Webster demolish some of the world's best defenses over the past two years.

"There's no secret our system is run for Corey to get him looks, I thought he made pretty good decisions for the most part," he said.

"I don't think they can target him any more than they did."

Game 2 takes place on Tuesday in Wellington at 19:30 local time (GMT+12) and can be seen live on LiveBasketball.TV (registration and subscription required; game geo-blocked in Australia and New Zealand).

FIBA