They play the Whai in Tauranga tonight and are fresh from a humbling first outing.
The understrength Nuggets were thumped 98-70 by the Southland Sharks in Dunedin on Friday night.
Some help has arrived this week. Former Otago Nuggets power forward Todd Withers has returned on a three-game contract.
The 28-year-old American was influential in the championship run in 2022 and was named in the all-star five the following season.
His defensive prowess and outside shooting game will be a big help.
Forward Jonathan Janssen will miss another game.
He is returning from a foot injury and will not play tonight. All going well, he should be available next week.
American guard Don Carey jun arrived in time for the Nuggets’ opener against the Sharks but his clearance had not come through, so he watched from the sideline.
Kelly was hopeful his clearance would come through in time for tonight’s game because the Nuggets need all the help they can muster.
Kelly was honest in his assessment of the performance against the Sharks.
"But after watching the game tape, I was encouraged by some of the things we did, particularly early.
"I felt like once they hit their shots and got a little bit of a lead on us, we lost our way and reverted to everybody trying to win the game by themselves."
It was certainly a disconnected performance. But that was not unexpected given the players they were missing and with some personnel coming in late.
Christian Martin was one of the few players to shine. He made an impact off the bench, banking 16 points and nabbing nine rebounds.
"His energy and shot-making was big for us. I think he’ll just get more and more comfortable as he plays more basketball with this group.
"I was very happy to see him make some plays."
Patrick Freeman showed some promise as well. He collected 11 points in a solid 20 minutes.
But American small forward Jose Perez was disappointing in his first proper outing for the franchise.
He looked slow and struggled on defence. He dropped 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds. But he also turned the ball over six times.
"Jose was pretty poor for what he is. I think he was disappointed with his own performance.
"He turned the ball over, he didn’t make shots and probably the biggest areas, as he gets in shape, is his defence will continue to get better because we are going to need him to be better at both ends.
"But, at the same time, he hasn’t played for a while and, with the group we had, they were able to focus their defence on Jose and I thought that affected him in a big way."
Kelly said he was aware Perez was not in "game shape" before he arrived, but he was confident he would get better every week.
"He makes some fantastic plays. I just think he had a bad game the other day."
NBL
Tauranga, 7pm
Otago Nuggets: Todd Withers, Mac Stodart, Jose Perez, Christian Martin, Don Carey jun, Darcy Knox, Matthew Bardsley, Josh Aitcheson, Patrick Freeman, Caleb Smiler.
