Basketball On The Internet.

IT'S a monster 10-game Round 18 in the NBL, with finals fates hanging in the balance and too many results to call this early in the week. Instead of trying to preview matches like next Monday's game now, we've broken it into two parts, with Part 1 today and Part 2 on Saturday.

What we do have tipping off tonight in Wollongong, is some key games for teams in that mid-cluster battling for Final Four spots and another showdown between the defending champion Wildcats and league-leading United.

Round 18 is BIG for a lot of reasons!

  ROUND 18

THIS round only concludes next Monday so we're abbreviating our predictions.

HUGE for both teams' finals aspirations, Illawarra has formally ruled out any return from injury by Cam Bairstow and activated recent "retiree" and longtime club favourite Tim Coenraad. There's not much between these teams and Adelaide has the better form coming in but with so much at stake, this is the Hawks' chance to drive a stake into the 36ers' playoff heart. Pretty much an even money bet, leaning to the home team on homecourt advantage alone.

ON current form, it would appear to be madness to lean to South East Melbourne against New Zealand. But the Breakers have injury clouds over Corey Webster, Levi Randolph and club stalwart Tom Abercrombie so the Phoenix, at home, appear to hold the edge. It's not a big one though, the club under-achieving and under-performing of late. This is just the game for Simon Mitchell's crew to right its ship and make that charge to seal a finals berth.

ANOTHER game which falls into the "must win" category, Brisbane at home has the tools to hold off Sydney's depleted lineup. The Kings have taken their share of injury whacks this season and stay in the hunt courtesy of good coaching and great heart and commitment. But they play those last seconds of close games like the cheerleaders and the Bullets just won't be very generous. Brisbane's lineup is coming together again after intermittent doldrums. It should win.

AFTER taking a welt at home from Perth, league-leading Melbourne will be fired up for a much stronger effort in The Jungle. Both clubs added substantial big men in the past week and this time, Will Magnay at the Wildcats and Dave Andersen, back at United, should warrant some relevant minutes. These are the teams most expect to be meeting at the season's pointy end so both will want to make a statement of some kind. At home, the Wildcats are hard to cage.

THIS round really represents a chance for South East Melbourne to reassert itself as the league's #3 team, hosting last-placed Cairns definitely a W the Phoenix will have pencilled in. The Taipans have unearthed a gem in Nate Jawai after he was buried on their bench, Majok Deng's return has been a blessing and players such as Venky Jois, Jordan Ngatai and Tad Dufelmeier are holding up their end. So this is no picnic for SEM but it still is a win it has to secure.

PART 2 Previews of Round 18 on Saturday

Safest Bet of the Round: BJ Johnson won't go 0-of-8 this week for Brisbane, although Deng Adel still thinks that would be OK if he did.