No flukes, no lucky qualifiers - just the NBL's best four teams getting ready to battle for the title.

Cairns clinched the minor premiership in style, beating the Breakers in New Zealand on the final day of the regular season.

The Taipans host fourth seeds Perth in game one of a best-of-three semi-final series on Friday night, with game two shifting to Perth on Sunday.

The other semi-final series between New Zealand (2) and Adelaide (3) gets under way in Auckland on Thursday night. Game two is scheduled for Saturday night in 36ers territory.

Adelaide go into the play-offs on a 10-game winning streak after Sunday's 105-85 thrashing of Wollongong.

Forward Brock Motum missed the game with a leg injury and is no certainty to play on Thursday.

"He doesn't know so we don't know, but I feel like he should be ready," Sixers coach Joey Wright said.

Adelaide were a class above the Hawks and are playing the best basketball of any team in the league.

"I think everyone would say that's the benchmark," Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod said.

Clinical as they were offensively, Adelaide played championship-style defence against the Hawks.

"It is nice that we've got trust in each other defensively," versatile forward Anthony Petrie said.

"In play-off series defence is crucial, and we can still get better and get sharper in some areas. We've got a few days to work on that before we head to New Zealand."

All four teams in the finals are capable of going all the way.

The feeling here is that Adelaide and Cairns will square off in the championship series, with the Taipans claiming the club's first title in a closely fought 2-1 series victory.

As for the NBL MVP this season, Hoopla has Breakers guard Cedric Jackson winning a close one from Motum, Sydney's Josh Childress, Cairns import Scottie Wilbekin and Townsville's Brian Conklin.

Childress was by far the standout, claiming the scoring, rebounding and blocks crowns and finishing fifth in assists.

But injuries and missed games probably robbed Childress of racking up enough votes to capture the Andrew Gaze Trophy as the NBL's top player.