I'm picking the Taipans by 7.

Josh Pace to topscore.

Steve Weigh drops 33 as the Taipans win in double OT IN 4 points! Game goes down as most entertaining NBL game ever, combined score of over 240 points!!!

Hard to go against Townsville at home on opening night. Pace or Conklin will top score all season long. Should be a great game no matter the outcome. Two fast paced teams.

Over 81.5 points in the first half, yes or no? I'm thinking yes.

I'm tipping Cairns to be the early season front runners at least up to all-star game so I think this will be a statement game for them...

Townsville will try hard but get smashed on the rebounds and Cairns will be deadly in transition and finally I'm thinking Cairns knock down 25 three pointers.

I'm hoping Djeric doesn't go down like he's been shot as we have had way too many archilles injuries of late.

Say Cairns 114 defeat Townsville 92

Snakes by 8-10

Townsville were the best rebounding team at the Blitz. Not sure Cairns' will destroy them on the boards.

Cairns win if they can light it up from outside early. It will open up the interior for Trigger and even Wilsons attacking game.

Townsville win if they can defend well and be active on the defensive glass, and then turn that into good looks in transition and get the crowd involved.

These games are often tight, two OT games at The Swamp last season alone so a good chance of a close finish.

Cairns have great depth and perhaps more players who can make things happen in the halfcourt. Townsville will need to play quick and hope the Taipans' transition D is as bad as last year.

Taipans by 1 for me.

Cairns by 4. Pace to get around 25.

Pace's mid-range touch game will benefit with the soft Townsville rims. Fabourite to top score.

Taipans by 13

Crocs by 9

Crocs by 5 at home to kick things off.

Glad to hear it will be green and orange jerseys on the court tonight!

I always like watching Loughton and Hinder go against each other. They are essentially the same player,

What the crap, Mick? He's ten times the player Rusty is, as much as I like Russ.

Not really rusty is just half a decade older.

Has the game started yet? Live stats giving me no LOVE!!

I believe the game doesn't actually start till 8? Nothing on nbl.tv yet

8pm local that is

Qld has no DST so its 9pm for those of us in vic (and nsw) and then 9.30 for you Adelaidians.

Soon.

8.30 in Adelaide.

Not a very good crowd by the looks of it.

Why the hell does Dennis have them in a zone?!

Hot start by the Taipans.

Haha... VipBox says it's Townsville Crocodiles vs Cairns Marlins. Close enough.

Reffing has been pretttty, pretttty bad at the half. Perth / adelaide got better in 2nd half last night so hopefully this will go the same way.

Townsville are lucky to still be in this game their halfcourt D has been atrocious.

Empty stadium. This will be the crocs final year.

camera side of the court is busier but that's a very empty looking stadium. crocs to fold in 2014 and the franchise to go to Brisbane?

Markovich has been very unimpressive. Crocs look much better with Norton running the team and pushing the tempo.

Norton used to be a decent shooter but then he turned pro and his j dried up.

but yes holmes drives me insane. Such a low basketball IQ. Loved him when he first came but now I cant stand him.

3265 crowd.

Thats nearly 400 below last years AVERAGE for tsv.

Not good.

Norton and Holmes are both however better than Russell Hinder, what a douchebag

Crocs missed a golden opportunity to get rid of rusty's contract when they folded and turned to the community model but they didn't take it. All contracts were void and they re-upped the useless lug.

Crocs half court D was horrendous all game long. Gonna be a long season if Dennis refuses to adapt and insist on zone.

It's great not having Ben Allen. That's about the only positive I can take away from that game.

Refs were terrible but had no bearing on the outcome of the game.

Over 190pts in a Cairns-Townsville game. 'allo 'allo

This Cairns team definitely has some firepower scoring 100+ in a 40 minute game!! However I think Townsville's defense had alot to do with such a high total. Cairns only shot 32% from the 3 and still cracked 100 points!!

I like Pace and Conklin for Townsville, they are hardworking imports but sadly for them they both fouled out. Hopefully they can adjust in the next couple of weeks because the Crocs don't really have much aside from them until PC comes back.

All in all I think most people expected this result, Crocs kept it close but the Taipans were never in doubt.

Unfortunately with Pace's complete lack of jumpshot I think scouting reports will render him ineffective in a couple of weeks. Pretty hard to be effectove from the 2 or 3 in today's game if you cant score outside of 10 feet.

Also this new soft style is going to put Jamar Wilson in the MVP stakes. He's going to be hard to stop.

Cairns look awesome, so many good players just doing their role, but Ill reserve judgement until theyve played some other teams. NZ v Cairns next Saturday should be good.

Well I said Townsville would score 92 but I said Cairns would score 114 not 103!

Burston if he can stay healthy is a massive addition to this team and they are so deep with Steindl, Young, an improving Bruce and Wilson coming off the bench... The hardest part will be giving everybody minutes.

As much as I love Stevie Weigh he can be ineffective in quite a few games during the season and tonight was one of them but Cairns were too deep. Hopefully Weigh destroys Breakers next round.

Um not sure what can be said about Townsville that is positive ? They scored plenty but weren't cohesive and it felt like players were still getting to know their roles and I feel that those thinking Crawford returning will make a great difference, it won't unless he has pre Olympic form.

Great to see that a Fearne coached team can play exciting basketball

Fearney finally has the personnel to play that kind of exciting basketball. Talent is no longer an issue when it comes to competing so expect to see this all season long.

I dont see how crawford improves this team. Another guy who isn't particularly smart with the ball is the last thing we need.

It is going to be a very bad year for the Crocs as they don't have Ervin or Nevill to help them get wins. Add to the fact that the other teams (Besides maybe Sydney) are stronger. I think they will struggle to equal Adelaide's 8 wins last season. I hope I am proved wrong as I would like to see the Crocs competitive and have their crowd come back.

Townsville are better than Sydney I think.

They played godawful in all the hustle and smarts areas, had the balance of poor officiating tilt against them and still only managed to lose by ten to a great cairns team.

There isn't a tremendous amount of basketball IQ on this team which doesnt make things any easier either.

They also have to stop playing lazy zone all fucking game long, which comes down to coaching.

It will be them, Wollongong, sydney amd Melbourne (I say they are vastly overrated and very shallow) who are no chance to contend. All have average rosters and will go as far as their coach's conviction and smarts will carry them.

Crawford certainly will improve this team Mick IMO as someone like Blanchfield can come off the bench and give them some much needed athleticism and shooting. Crawford may not set the world on fire when he comes back but it will give Townsville at least something coming off the bench. Who knows though, the way he is playing PC might find it hard to crack the starting unit for a bit....

I think PC will be a great weapon coming off the bench with a few plays run for him.

Was very impressed with the Crocs' execution in the first half, them and Cairns both spaced the court much better than Adelaide and Perth the night before.

Unfortunately the Crocs dropped away in the second half as fatigue set in and their imports sat with foul trouble.

The Crocs offence was good as 92 points and their shooting percentages indicate this however their defence is another story. Foul trouble didn't help as well with two starters fouled out and two other starters on foul fouls in limited minutes.
PC will help would prob start him at the 3 and move Blanchfield to the bench as Pace can go secondary ball handler