And they've helped to guarantee Perth finals' action. Even mathematically, Perth can't be displaced now (after NZ's and Cairns' losses).

Oops - Perth already had the split on Cairns by points spread. So it was the NZ loss that guaranteed them finals action. My bad

Question: why is Cairns' snake mascot guy called "Joe Blake"?

Jeezy C. A tad pissed right now.

Joe Blake is rhyming slang for snake.

Boxscore says Markovic had zero assists. Interesting interpretation by the always stellar NBL stat keepers...

The Joe Blake duelling banjos routine was the only enjoyable thing about my evening. That was horrible.

To me it looked like they were outcoached, at least in the first two quarters. Kept trying to collapse the defence and pass out for a 3-point shot. Worked against Perth but Townsville were prepared for them. Townsville were persistent under the hoop too and fought for every rebound..

Taipans beat the top team on the road, go down to the 2nd top team 2 nights later by 2 points, then lose to the bottom team at home in the space of 9 days. Weird stuff but good for the league.

As I have said in this place for the last year, Cairns actually play better on the road.

Perplexing to say the least.

Pin that loss on Wilson and Gliddon. In the third, McCamey knew his mates were having an off night and tried picking up the slack, but that single play where he was still hot, perpetrated the lane and had a nice look at a seven foot floater, he lofted a bad pass over to Weigh who had no chance of getting off a shot...that single play did it for me. Right there, that was the moment McCamey settled and the Taipans screwed themselves.

Sure it was even in the fourth, but I just feel that if McCamey made that floater, he'd be consistently sharp the rest of the contest. He made some great attacking plays early fourth, but that moment in the third was the one for mine.

Good to see Townsville leave the full court trap in u16s where it belongs for most of the last 3 games and focus on more conservative defensive ventures like cutting off dribble penetration and not giving up open three pointers (ie. the two most efficient ways to score and the two things the Crocs gave up most readily until this week).

Kudos to Dennis for making the switch, even if it might be too late to save the season.

But in the end, the single play that f----d it was when Rusty caught the ball in the corner, took a step in because a Taipan closed on him, it then got to the hand of Markovic who drained the three from the 45. That was straight out of the timeout after McCamey drew the snakes level.

Godammit, you gotta know personnel. If Rusty takes a long two off the dribble, that's fine. It's when you leave the best stand-up shooter in the competition alone from three, that's when problems arise.

just saw this quote from Dennis:

"You've seen how good Stevey Markovic can be lately and the officials need to have a look at themselves becuase there’s no way he had zero assists," Dennis said.

I counted 2 in the first quarter alone and then lost track...

A great weekend for the Crocs. The prized scalp of the Perth Pussycats and then to back it up by skinning a snake

Massive chance for the 36ers today, but Hawks at home with their backs to the wall, should be a cracker!

This is definitely one of my favourite NBL seasons, which is great after last year being a bit disappointing.

Yeah statistically he was pretty good in the first half.

However if you watched the game, you'd see he made two crucial second quarter turnovers that handed momentum back to the Crocs. We made two runs in the second quarter and his turnovers screwed them both. At times he looked completely nonplussed, didn't know what to do.

Just generally bad decisions as well, he's just as much a quarterback as anyone on the team.

Granted it was more Wilson than Gliddon, but neither played well at all.

Normally Cairns kills Townsville through Gliddon/Wilson/Steindl all punching well above their weight. From memory they all seem to have massive games at the same time against the Crocs. It took them 3 ass-whoopings to realise but either the Crocs adjusted their scout or Norton / Markovic / PC / Pace / Blanchfield finally started executing.

It's a pretty simple adjustment the Crocs have made, but it's had me pulling my hair out all year: don't give up layups and don't give up 3s. Don't be so aggressive and gamble on ballhandlers either in the backcourt or pick and rolls. Protect the paint and the 3pt line.

They were spending all their effort on double teams in the backcourt (ie. the one place where the opponent can't score the ball from, literally), and then giving teams a secondary break situation EVERY SINGLE TIME DOWN THE FLOOR once they beat the trap. Secondary breaks are normally the situations three point shooters thrive in, and no wonder Steindl, Gliddon, and every other elite shooting guard in the league has massive games against the Crocs.

Normally, Wilson splits the trap, gets into the lane, scores or flips to an open Steindl, Loughton or Gliddon in the corner for the triple. Or in a proper halfcourt set, he waits for the Crocs big to show too aggressively on the P&R and he torches them and the scrambling guard by getting into the lane and finishing, finding a cutter for a layup or finding a corner shooter.

The slightly more conservative P&R coverages and only using full court pressure in selected scenarios is paying massive dividends.

I think Wilson was one of 2 players who were sick with the flu and missed some training during the week ? To me, the Taipans played like a team that was tired, which is not totally surprising given their schedule after the Xmas break. Townsville on the other hand, seemed to be still on a high after beating the Wildcats the night before and, for the most part, played very well.

As has been mentioned, they restricted the Taipans 3 point shooting options very well and to cap it off, Townsville shot the 3 point very well themselves. Markovic, in particular, was very damaging.

It was extremely disappointing to lose another home game, particularly after they had played so well in last weeks away double against the top 2 teams in the league.

Mick, Tony Wroten literally can score from there -- a perfect 2 from 2 from the backcourt this week!

And yeah, the Crocs had more energy the bulk of the night, made me wonder. Didn't know about the flu thing.