All three coaches are locked in a cage, smothered in baked beans and it's the last man standing in a no holds bar free for all.

Good question. Some sporting leagues would go on points percentage, some others have been known to do a win-loss records between all 3 teams(like a 3 team mini ladder) . And lol @Jack !!! :P

I'm sure the NBL will make up a rule that will involve Perth getting through.

@Wilson Sting: will this be the secret rules drawn up in a bunker located in area 52 by a bunch of Aliens ?

Teams in the tie are ordered according to the head to head results among them as a group.

As per post in another thread:

"In the event of a 3-way split, order will depend on Perth Adelaide last game result. Perth win, they'll get the 3-way head to head over Melbourne. Adelaide win, Melbourne will get the head to head over Perth."

The qualification to the above is that, as best I can work out, Adelaide could sneak above Perth if they beat Perth by 34 points or more in the last game between the two. That's unlikely.

By my sums, if that happens (34 point win to Adelaide), all three teams would be 4-2 in the head to head, with Melbourne +41 points split, Adelaide -20, Perth -21.

I would assume that it would be like any other tie-breaker, they go to the H2H, then the points split, then the %.

In the scenario suggested, Melbourne would finish 3rd as they have the points split on both teams, and Perth would finish 4th as they will have the points split on Adelaide. (Unless Adelaide absolutely hose them in their last game.)

It's a cage coach off.

Dmac - thought it was at the age and so he didn't front

Gleeson blames the cage maker for not importing the right colour cage type and storms off

Joey got there early, punched the cleaner and refuses to leave.

Adelaide, Perth, Melb is therefore the order.

PeterJohn is absolutely correct. I was curious so looked at the NBL Rules and regs. With a three way tie, the results of head to head between any two of the three teams becomes irrelevant.

The first test is the win / loss on all games involving the three teams ( a total of 12 games). at the moment, 11 of those games have been played with results as follows:

Melbourne 4 wins
Perth 4 wins
Adelaide 3 wins

The last game to be played is between Adelaide and Perth. If Perth win that game, they go to 5 wins and so the order of the three teams would be Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide.

If Adelaide win the last game, all teams are tied on four wins so they go to total for and against differentials. At the moment, those differentials are:

Melbourne 694F 654A (differential +40)
Perth 586F 572A (differential +14)
Adelaide 607F 661A (differential -54)

so based on a three way tie at the end of the season, the current standings would be Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide. In order for Adelaide to get into 4th spot, they would need to beat Perth by more than 34 points.

In the event that they won by exactly 34 points and the split was tied, they then go to for and against for those teams for the entire season. Currently Perth is +95 and Adelaide is -54.

Melbourne will finish highest with the winner of the perth adelaide game in adelaide finishing next and the loser of that game finishing last

Melbourne are 4-4
Perth 3-4
Adelaide 3-4

Melbourne owns both Adelaide and Perth on the points head to head

One team will finish 3-5

Interesting, so if hypothetically Perth beats Adelaide, they would move ahead of Melbourne, notwithstanding that Melbourne would have the points split over them.
Of course if Perth WERE able to beat Adelaide, then I suspect this analysis would be moot.

So I feel that either way the 6's have left their run too late.

Vodka 63 - are the NBL rules & regs available online? I've never found them. I've been relying on an old NBL Media Guide.

If its a 3-way tie then forget Adelaide, unless we can beat Perth by 28 or more when they play here in a couple of weeks.

Adelaide and Perth are currently 2-1 to the Cats with the total scores being 283-256.

Melbourne already won the season series over Adelaide, no thanks to that 39 point spanking we got from them at the Adelaide Arena in Round 6. Its 2-2 but Melbourne hold the scoring 378-351.

Amazing stats really considering Adelaide are the highest scoring team in the league. Just highlights our defensive problems in the first 2/3's of the season.

the copy I found was for the 2011/12 season but im assuming that although some things have changed, the tie break rules wont have.

http://www.nblpa.com.au/uploads/1/9/7/2/19723749/nbl-rules-and-regulations-2011-12-final.pdf

"Just highlights our defensive problems in the season."

fixed.

Dance off

Unfortunately for Adelaide, I really think that Perth's loss to Melbourne put the kibosh on your season. Whilst it brought Perth closer to Melbourne, it also pushed Melbourne out of Adelaide's reach. If you had the split on Melbourne, different story altogether, but you don't and no number of "what if" threads is going to change that.
Personally I would have preferred to see Adelaide in the finals. (For whatever reason I always perceive Adelaide as being more akin to Perth than Melbourne, although I appreciate that Adelaiders probably see it the other way. Perhaps its a case of "The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend"?)
And God Knows I would have preferred to see the Cats win against Melbourne.
But I feel that Adelaide have left their run too late.
Melbourne have 4 easy games coming up, and then even if they split the Sydney games, they'll finish on 16, and I'm sorry but there's no way Adelaide win ALL of their remaining games.

The only saving grace for Adelaide is that Melbourne will be missing Lucas Walker for the next two weeks due to a shoulder injury.

Below Adelaide - Sydney, Townsville and Wollongong are all out of it as far as playing finals are concerned, unless Adelaide and Melbourne go on a losing spree and Sydney keeps winning, though that's unlikely. But they are set to play spoilers.

Perth have the POTENTIAL to give the finals a real shake, IF everything goes right for them. But you'd have to say that's a big IF.
I still think they'll make it to 29, but the unfortunate reality is that they will probably limp into the finals, and bomb out in the semis, possibly in straight games.

Dont count on it, they look worse than United. Wonder why they didnt think to bring a Gruber type in?

So they asked about Gruber and that was it... mustve been others out there. Troy Pillon even haha

Gotta love Boti and his creative writing here

"Perth, if it lost to the 36ers, would be 2-2 there and 1-3 to Melbourne. That's 3-5.

So if they all have the same record, the mini table goes Melbourne 1, Adelaide 2, Perth 3 which translates to United third, 36ers fourth and Wildcats out of the finals for the first time since 1986. "

^^ that was from his blog although I imagine it should get corrected soon
http://www.botinagy.com/blog/week-17-rankings-kings-gone-no-joshin/