Basketball On The Internet.

TOUPEES doffed to the NBL’s All-Australian team for last night’s exciting 76-65 upset over China in Beijing.

That wasn’t just a win, it was a best-of-three series-clinching win against China IN China.

If you watched any of the games on Fox Sports, you know there is a fair amount of indefensible officiating involved so to get the win was one thing. To get a win in a series decider?

That’s an achievement.

Jason Cadee, Daniel Kickert, Todd Blanchfield – there was a lot to like about how the Aussies went about their task, important cameos abounding.

Tommy Garlepp had one particularly energetic offensive set where he just kept competing and succeeding in coming up with the ball.

Jesse Wagstaff, Lucas Walker, David Barlow, Mitch Norton and just the influence of Adam Gibson – it was fun watching this one unfold.

BREAKING CHINA: Jason Cadee in action last night. Picture courtesy of GETTY IMAGES.

Coach Andrej Lemanis, having witnessed China’s turnover meltdown in Game 2, kept that pressure intensity up and the hosts obliged with a whopping 28 turnovers.

Some of them were mind-numbing, to be honest. But, you know, not our problem.

If Feng Shui is going to be busy rearranging the seats on the China bench, that also isn’t our problem.

Cadee caused China issues all night and his 15-point, five-assist return didn’t really paint a full picture. Kickert’s game-high 18 also were invaluable and a couple of his threes were genuine back-breakers.

Considering how miserable Game 1 was as a spectacle, the NBL’s select really had a groove going so let’s hope Games 2 and 3 were where the potential 1.2 billion audience of China CCTV5 tuned in, even if the Aussie lead late in both matches may have made them switch stations to the Movie of the Week, “Chinatown”.

From all accounts, the team was well looked after and the series a success on and off court.

Best of all, some bright spark at the NBL office recruited Mark Worthington to run the league’s Twitter account through Game 3. That may have been the best move of all, Wortho insightful and entertaining and adding plenty to the coverage.

A life in the media definitely awaits when the big guy hangs up his boots.