The Tall Blacks are bracing themselves for a South Korean backlash in front of a sell-out Tauranga crowd keen for its first taste of international basketball tonight.

At 7.30pm ASB Arena will be packed with 3000 fans eager to see the Tall Blacks clinch the three-match against their Asian opponent in what could be the added gloss to the city's first ever Tall Blacks match.

Tall Blacks captain Mika Vukona during practice at ASB Arena. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Flying in from Wellington yesterday, the side spent the afternoon at ASB Arena coaching Tauranga junior basketballers before a closed training session.

Coming off a crushing 102-69 in Wellington on Tuesday, the Kiwi side knows the job doesn't get any easier leading into the World Championships in Spain next month.

Speaking to SunLive, Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic is pleased with aspects of the first up win, but is expecting to see a more cohesive performance in Tauranga – particularly in terms of offence.

'We had a really good game in Wellington. We jumped on the Koreans in the first half and had a good win. We are expecting a much tougher game and are preparing for a hard game,” says Vucinic.

'I'd like to see us execute the offence a bit better. The Koreans are an aggressive team, they play good aggressive defence and we had a bit of trouble getting into our offence and that's one of the things we need to work on.”

This is the second of a three match series between the two ranked sides, 19th and 33rd respectively, with the remaining match to be played in Auckland.

It is the Tall Blacks' first series in New Zealand since hosting Venezuela in 2007. Since then, the men's national team has played three games at home, all against Australia in 2008, 2009 and 2013.

Tall Blacks captain Mika Vukona says his teammates are excited to play in Tauranga and are impressed with the facilities on hand at ASB Arena.

Echoing his coach's views on a stronger Korean team lining up tonight, Vukona believes the Tall Blacks will be severely punished if they don't keep up their feet grounded.

'This Korean team is not going to play like that in the second game; as they showed in the second half they improved quite a bit,” says Vukona.

'These guys are known to be shooters and they are going to be doing that.”

After growing up in Bethlehem the 31-year-old says it is a 'massive honour” to pull on the black singlet in his home town.

'I mean growing up here you would never have thought you would be able to get a Tall Black game here let alone lead the team.

'I'm pretty honoured to do that and I'm going to have family and friends in the crowd so it's going to be pretty special.”

And while preparing to lead the side he admits the big goal is to see Tauranga basketball reach new heights in New Zealand Basketball with this international fixture the perfect catalyst.

'I think a massive goal for me is to see Tauranga basketball going to the first division, to go to the NBL [National basketball League].

'You have the facilities and everything like that so I think that would be pretty amazing to see.”