Basketball On The Internet.

REALLY? The officiating? That's what cost NBL regular season champion Melbourne Game 1 of its Swisse Semi Final Series with defending champion New Zealand?

That's the best Dean Demopoulos could come up with?

How about the fact it IS the defending champion and it played accordingly?

How about you got out-rebounded and out-toughed?

How about the way The Warrior, Mika Vukona, played? Those steals early and his ability to do the right thing at the right time (11 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, four steals, big free throws when it mattered) may have been a factor.

Cedric Jackson going for 20 points - did someone say "finals"?

Tom Abercrombie nailing two triples early as the Breakers ran up a 17-point lead.

Let's be brutal.

If Hakim Warrick doesn't come off the bench and play like an NBA veteran, this is over by halftime.

Instead, he has 15 points at the main interval on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting, with six defensive boards, Chris Goulding has joined the party and Melbourne is in front!

POINT BLANK: Cedric Jackson defends Stephen Holt.

Alex Pledger worked hard on Warrick after the break, making him earn his buckets. Hakim still got them though, a game-high 24 on 9-of-15 shooting, plus 13 boards.

(Sixth man my eye.)

But when the big plays had to be made, New Zealand made them, Vukona an inspiration and the Breakers' size wearing down United.

New Zealand wore its big boy boots while Melbourne spent a portion looking for someone to bail it out.

So it was the officials, was it Dean?

Well, in truth, when have they ever been great this season?

But maybe Daniel Kickert could have done more in his 33 minutes than give you six points on 3-of-7 shooting, two defensive boards, a steal, a block and a turnover.

There might be more in that well for United to look for.

And if Stephen Holt genuinely harbours ambitions to play next in Europe, he would need to do better tomorrow in Auckland against The Entertainer.

TONIGHT we are out west where, yes, we all know, the Hawks haven't won since Halley's Comet last passed over.

But if that's a basis for why Illawarra can't win tonight, I think that's seriously flawed logic. 

It's as if, well, Glen Saville lost in Perth. And so did Mat Campbell. Melvin Thomas didn't play on too many Hawks winners out west either.

Think about the relevance of those stats and you'll soon see they are just fodder for us in the media. It makes good reading. But as for influencing tonight's results? Get real.

What will influence the result is how healthy the Wildcats are and also how focused Illawarra is in getting this series off to a flyer.

Before you trot out the 4-0 season-series sweep, let me tell you what that's truly worth. Homecourt advantage now, because it helped Perth win one more game than the Hawks.

In two of those games, Illawarra blew chances to win, though they didn't have their full team and Kirk Penney was out when they were touched up by 23 at The Jungle.

Rob Beveridge and Kevin Lisch will be truly on point but it is how much an Oscar Forman or Tim Coenraad or Cody Ellis can elevate their games which will make-or-break the Hawks.

The Jungle is a tough place to play and Illawarra has nothing to fall back on in terms of how well it has done there in the past.

That could mean it starts with a clean sheet. And isn't that what everyone always says when Finals begin? It's a whole new ball game?

Perth is a great club, but even the mighty do fall.

Last night - Game 1 (Best-of-3 Semi Finals): NEW ZEAL AND BREAKERS 91 (Ce Jackson 20, Abercrombie 16, Webster 14, Vukona 11; Vukona 13 rebs; Vukona 5 assts) d MELBOURNE UNITED 82 (Warrick 24, Goulding 23, Holt 13, Blanchfield 11; Warrick 13 rebs; Holt 4 assts) at Hisense Arena.