Odds: Townsville $1.86; New Zealand $1.94

Should be a close game this one. I think given the way they beat Cairns, the Breakers should ride that momentum to a win over the Crocs. Let's hope more than 1,500 fans turn up to the game...

Breakers by 5.

Preview: Breakers to complete Sunshine Swing against Crocs

Gladness might not play due to a finger injury

I think the Crocs actually play better on the second leg of a two-game round, so I'm worried they will head into this one with some complacency. They often need a butt-whooping earlier in the week to overcome the passivity and toughness issues that pervade the club.

Having said that, I think Brian Conklin is going to be a man on a mission after getting emasculated by Vukona and co. last time these two met, and he would have watched plenty of tape and be ready to prove a point.

No Gladness is bad for us defensively (obviously) because he cleans up lots of defensive mistakes due to Shawn Dennis' hyper-aggressive defensive system which has guys overplay their man and get burnt often.

I think after Townsville's demolition of Perth last round and with lots of time off, they will come into this one a little underdone, but I hope I'm wrong.

Also, it sucks that Townsville keeps getting these Sunday afternoon home games when they are struggling is at is to get people along.

Hopefully the stellar game they played last week will get a few locals interested, but at the same time it is questionable whether on-court success will evem make a difference given there is an inherent issue with the fantastical ticket pricing system that the Crocs front office cooked up between tokes of the ol' glass barbecue.

I'd be picking New Zealand in a close one.

Without Gladness and with the form the Breakers big men are in I see NZ getting this one.

About 24 people in the crowd.

The seating is so dark..is this done on purpose to hide the empty seats..i can still see them anyway.

The two rows of seating on the baseline makes it feel like an amateur game.

Nz playing pretty well so far

Yes good on them for making a lot of noise.

Just sad..the fall from grace.

I remember when Crocs had Rillie and then Williams and the swamp used to be absolutely rocking. Miss that.

Anyone else having problems with NBL.tv?

There is something wrong with NBL tv...

aaarrrghhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

NZ up 73 - 66 with 4 + mins to go. Those 24 people look like a lot more.

Yep. Lost a quarters worth of coverage on Sky Sport over here. Frustrating.

So the feed is from Sky?

Nah not from Sky. We get the NBL Tv feed (quality isn't the best).

So when NBL Tv isn't working, Sky sport just shows an apology message.

I can't imagine Sky Sport NZ would be happy with NBL Tv.

I know this has been asked here before, but may I posit the query again:

WHY THE HELL DO TOWNSVILLE FANS STICK UP THEIR ARMS WHEN THEIR OWN TEAM IS SHOOTING FREE THROWS?!?!?!?

Crowd looked good and sounded excellent. The new Croc sucks, but hey they are still in the competition.

@ MACDUB, You're not alone cuz I don't think many people rate nbl.tv at all.

It was terrible yesterday, literally missed out on a quarter of the game. Sky Sport will be tearing them a new asshole for the shitty feed.

It's a damn shame that a few more people finally came out to watch the Crocs play and they respond to that generosity by grabbing 17 (!) rebounds as a TEAM.

This town isn't going to get behind you if you don't put in effort. They don't care if you win or lose, but don't leave anything on the court.

Mick you picked it before the game, lethargic start cost them the game. Their final 24 or so minutes were quality, but NZ smashed them in about eight or nine minutes across quarter time.

so who won?

When you only have 3 more defensive rebound than your opponent has offensive rebounds, you're not gonna win too many ball games.

No excuse for a guy like Brian Conklin to have only two rebounds total, that says to me he's putting all his focus on the wrong end of the floor.

When you're the tallest team in the league, every time you lose the rebound count you deserve to be ripped to shreds.

Throughout Dennis' tenure as head coach here, this team has had a history of poor starts and losing the effort / toughness battle. He's never really had any high motor players to remedy that, but at the same time it has to have something to do with the intangible motivation side of coaching that is lacking. In terms of Xs and Os, there is a lot of work to do on the defensive end. I hate, hate, hate the way Dennis approaches that end of the floor when compared to the personnel he has available.

To the anonymous stats poster - I think you are getting yourself confused? You certainly confused me.

Using your numbers-

NZ were 32/58 - so 26 misses.

NZ grabbed 9 offensive boards - leaving 17 misses.

Crocs were accounted 12 defensive boards, leaving 5 unaccounted misses.

That does not seem so unreasonable.

With Gladness out Townsville are one of the smallest teams in the league.

Even with Gladness out, the average Crocs player is still (marginally) taller than the average Breaker.

Crocs 199 vs NZ 197.5 with gladness
Crocs are 197.7 without Gladness

Losing one guy shouldn't make that much of a difference, especially with all those big, athletic wings who should be crashing the glass.

If you want to play a lot of zone though you are going to give up a few too many offensive rebounds most nights, so Dennis might have to take a look at what he's doing on that end.

I understand he's trying to leverage that length by playing hyper aggressively in trapping the backcourt, and then falling back to a zone, but it's just not working and I don't think playing like that is sustainable. Would rather see that used more sparingly when matchups dictate it, and a more conservative approach taken for the majority of the game.

I don't think I've seen a team give up so many fast-break layups off made-basket-inbounds, maybe ever, and I think there's a point where you have to realise that guys like Clint Steindl, Steve Markovic, and Todd Blanchfield don't have the killer instinct required to play an aggressive trapping scheme and just go with your strengths.

agree with your comments Mick re: giving up so many baskets from trying to trap the PG from made basket inbounds plays.
Cedric would either pass through the trap or beat it & then pass off to Ibekwe for another dunk almost everytime.

It happens every game and is super frustrating to watch as a Crocs fan.

Crocs played the start of the game like Gladness was still there. Once they adjusted they were ok but it was too late.

Mick, can't agree that the Crocs are tall without Gladness, with two 6'6-6'7 guys playing the majority of minutes at 4 and 5.