I am with you Isaac. Both home teams to win comfortably.

This season has been harder to tip then any other I think. These two games are no different.

Tigers have already lost to Gold Coast however it looks like Gold Coast had a great night shooting 55% from the field and only 6 turnovers. Maxey top scored for GC with 29 at 69%. I don't think he will have it that easy tonight. Tigers are in good form beating Adelaide and then almost stealing the win from Perth as a result I think they will be too good at home. The Line is 4.5 at TAB and I would say that is a good bet. Melbourne to win by 10.

Cairns away from home and wanting to redeem them self will come out with nothing to lose in the game against hawks. However, the Hawks at home will be too tough for cairns and they have already beaten them once this season there by 12. I think it will be a similar result. The line at Tab is 9.5 points. In 40 minute games i am a bit hesitant to bet on a margin close to 10. Also I think Cairns will fight it out. It will either be a close one with Cairns losing by about 8 or they will lose by about 20.

Excuse my ignorance but was the Blaze, Tigers match on the Coast or in Melbourne...

Anyhow, the Hawks just did enough to outlast a mediocre Taipans outfit who are struggling to score the ball. Melzer is shooting poorly, Jones is frozen from the offence too often and Mills is not the scoring import many would've expected. I think Mills does well enough to keep his job providing Melzer, Jones and Rychart can score more consistently.

McKee was solid tonight without ever breaking the game open. He was always a havoc on the ball and never looked pressured even with a trap from the Northerners. Saville was his typical all around self whilst Coenraad, Martin, Gruber and Trgardh filled they're roles.

In the other game (non-televised), the Tigers seemede to have a small lead through the entire match and used that lead to get the win. Worthington was his usual self getting his buckets and a few boards. Mackinnon had a better game. Corletto and Kendall each hit some long balls and young centre Johnson was a stand-out shooting a good clip for 20 points. Vanderjagt should be a little embarrassed.

Looking forward to some other good games this weekend... Townsville host the travelling Tigers (Crocodiles by 7) and Perth host the Hawks (Cats by 8)

Weren't the Taipans desperate tonight?!?!

it was their 4th in a row no?

that was everyones first look at ty yeah?
wat did you guys think?

Johnson, it says at the top of the thread: game was in Melbourne.

Sounds like you saw the Hawks game. What do you think of Tragardh? Any reason why he's not grabbing many rebounds? Star potential, or just a solid role player?

Hawks have good rebounders that start in Saville and Davidson. So all 3 will share the rebounds. From the little bit of the game that I saw Hawks run a good offence which creates lots of space and movement.

Tragardh is capable of more tha he's giving at the moment. Especially on the boards, he needs to watch the way Larry Davidson does it and show a bit more hustle.

william 34, second time I've seen Ty (first was at the dome vs. 36ers in the preseason) and I've been impressed both times. Just a great true point guard. Easily the best playmaker in the league and has a great shooting touch inside when under pressure.
The interview with him at half time was interesting, that speech impediment is really bad but he seems like a good guy.

Tywain McKee turns a useful Hawks outfit, into a very good team. He pretty much controls a game, and the Hawks have just enough of a supporting cast to be dominating the League right now. One can only wonder what he would do for the Sixers, Cairns, Crocs or Tigers, if he were playing for them.

I thought CJ had the better of him for 3/4 of a game when the Breakers played them but like all the good ones Tywain stepped up at money time.

It will be interesting to see how they go on the road??

Cairns are woeful and look the weakest offensive team at the moment. If they don't hit 35+% from beyond the arc they are toast. They are also weak inside.

Hawks and Tigers played just well enough to get the W.

Daniel Johnson has always had the talent to be a very good centre in the NBL, and now with Anstey out he gets his chance. He could easily be a 15 and 10 player you can count on. But he can also score a lot more points given the chance.

Herald-Sun article on the Tigers-Blaze game: http://linky.com.au/sflld

Johnson improving a lot - but the Blaze were a donut last night, Van der Jagt hardly played. But still, Johnson did what he had to do, and was very impressive against Schenscher.

As for the Hawks, they are playing well, but I will hold my judgement until they have played a few on the road. A win in Perth this weekend would go a long way towards winning me over!

cairns is having major problems offensively.
for a start,skip mills is running the offence too far away from the basket and has major trouble finishing.

i still believe they should have gambled on williams at p/g and spent their money on a serious 20 and 10 guy.
i know they thought they had worthington early on, but they should have kept looking for that type of player.
dusty is trying to create too much, which is not his strength,he needs to be picking up the scraps off a 20/10 guy,not the focal point of an offence.

boodnikoff is too one dimensional,jr was twice the offensive threat than boody.....that type of player wont be in this league for much longer.

they held the gongers to a beatable score but their offence let them down again.

It was a winnable game for Cairns and even a time out during the televised game showed Fearne to tell the team to run the offence!

I think Mills tries hard and although he is still young and does set up some good plays (that don't get finished off), he is an import and more should be expected of him.

I am still surprised Cairns did not re-sign Scott Cook for the season. I would imagine Fearne would now be thinking about any changes to be made to the team before it gets too late.

Gritty win by the Hawks however but we will see how they go when on the road.

i'm not so sure about them running fearnes offence all the time,it seems a complex offence with little punch/options midway through.
it looks like they need more 'situation' plays with punch for the right players at the right time.

back on skip mills,who has a good skill set but
it seems that the value of 'getting head and shoulders past' is becoming very underestimated in the p/g role.
patty mills got 'h and s past the world' at the olympics and it still took this long to get a contract?? he will flourish in the nba because of this skill.

agree about the offence skull. Fearne needs to back his players taslents a little more and give them more freedome to create off pick and rolls/ curl cuts etc.

Not sure we'll see any changes from Cairns - no coin. They have shown they can be competitive, and that is all that is expected of them. A couple of adjustments offensively and theyll pick up a reasonable amount of wins.