NBL Wrap: Taipans stun, Brisbane dodges a bullet
MAJOR defensive plays by Nathan Sobey and Tyrell Harrison saved Brisbane from an Illawarra side now capable of competing with anyone after Cairns gave NBL leader Melbourne a thorough spanking with Patrick Miller outstanding and seldom-used import Josh Roberts huge against United's talented bigs.
WNBL Wrap5: Lynx jinx Boomers as Spirits also rise
PERTH today reinforced the widely-held preseason belief that anyone could beat anyone on any given day/night this season in the WNBL when it smashed the league-leading Boomers' undefeated winning streak by 17 in Melbourne, controversy and an overtime thriller also big in a pulsating round.
Teamwork makes dream work - our first Golden Girls
YOU might not know it but if you love basketball, you should. This is the 30-year anniversary of our very first FIBA World Championship Gold Medal, won in 1993 in Seoul, South Korea at the Under-19 Women's Worlds, by a team full of players who have continued on to greatness in sport and in life.
Breakers getting screwed, Sixers just screwed
NEW Zealand Breakers fans believing your team is getting screwed by the officials on a regular basis, take heart. You're right. Not sure the refs even recognise how much they do it. And Adelaide 36ers fans? Sadly, your team is close to its lowest ever ebb in its once proud NBL history. Those are the takeaways from yesterday's NBL matches.
Brad&Boti: Oops. Better late than never!
YES, better late than never is our motto and due to a technical difficulty - our usually magnficent, dependable and ever-professional producer (yes, its Christmas parties time!) has been asleep since Tuesday - now you can still get our Brad&Boti podcast for this week's NBL and WNBL before the New Year.
Panic station and Cotton pickin' on Kings
CAIRNS and Sydney had Brisbane and Perth respectively on the ropes last night but failed to deliver the knock-out blows as a couple of Bullets "kids" and some Bryce Brilliance changed the complexion of the entire NBL round, the Wildcats now legit but Brizzy? Hmm, still a tad shakey.
Breakers' barrage bludgeons bewildered battlers
NOT even the halftime ejection of coach Mody Maor last night could stall the recovery of the New Zealand Breakers as a playoff threat, dispensing with the directionless and erratic Adelaide 36ers 96-83 behind an Izayah Le'afa 3-point barrage in Christchurch. And bear in mind the Sixers scored twice in the last 10 seconds.
NBL Rd9 Rankings, Tips: Time to stand up
ARE either Perth or Sydney genuine challengers for the crown which seems headed for the collective head of Melbourne? Or are they simply masquerading as contenders, in much the same way South East and Brisbane have recently been exposed? Good questions and NBL Round 9 will answer some of them.
WNBL Rd5: Timely break for faltering Flames
SYDNEY his now suited up its "Big Three" - MVP Cayla George, championship-winner Lauren Nicholson and Opals' World Cup captain Tess Madgen - yet continues to slump in our weekly WNBL rankings, a week off from action likely to help the Flames find the fire.
Positionless? All NBL 5 and MVPs are not the same
NIKOLA Jokic is a once-in-a-lifetime generational talent. So was Michael Jordan. And Arvydas Sabonis. And Wilt Chamberlain. They didn't play "positionless basketball" because there was no such thing. The NBL's decision today to turn its annual All-NBL Teams into "positionless" is a typically ill-conceived retrograde step for the game, reinforcing league boffins do not care about the fact basketball is a team sport and will bow to whatever is populist at the time.