Burston is really underrated IMO.

Red on Orange real smart heads who make these jersey calls. Perth could've shown off that black jersey at home!

Yep, I hope the NBL looks to do something about home/away jersey rules next season.

Word on the street is that this game is going to be a slug-fest.

Central Nervous System are playing good.

Hate when commentators say 'Kennys got shoot that with confidence' or Kennys gotta shoot this or that.

Kenny plays a smart game. He knows his limits so good on him. If he can make 1 or 2 on 3 or 4 shots its perfect.

Maybe he doesn't want to shoot more because he knows he isn't an elite shooter. He knows if he shoots 4-5 more he might only make 1 extra.

His 50-odd 3 point % shooting comes from his comparatively low attempts. It's not like he is a 50% 3 point shooter who only takes 2 attempts. Its the other way round.

This slugfest has turned in to an arm wrestle.

Great final play by Perth. Great coaching.

God I hate blowouts.

Awesome game....Prather has been passive at the start of the season and now showing his value. Thank God we have Wildcats supporters who support their imports rather than calling for a sacking weekly.

Great finish, another close game. The average sports fan cant say this NBL stuff isnt interesting! Things tighten at the top with United's loss. Starks missed a 3 in the corner that looked destined to go down considering how many tough makes he got in the 4th. Another great showcase for the NBL.

Prather has the physical capabilities to be great, some other imports do not. Jab away idiot but this is a thread that need not be brought down. That was Prather's best game and with Beal seemingly a little down how nice it must be to have the other import pick up the load.

Great game both teams played really well but one had to lose.

Prather and Starks have both improved as the season has gone on. Starks is a 4th quarter player love it when he is aggressive.

Cairns had too many passengers down the stretch. Only Starks and Burston were aggressive, others disappeared (weigh, craig, loughton etc)

Didn't think Perth played that well in the final few minutes, but came up with enough key plays.

Man i dont even remember Weigh's name being called down the stretch! Just reminded me, Gliddon made some huge buckets too, that truly was one that could've gone either way, with teams were great.

Craig only 5 points in 30 minutes.

Thats crazy very low scoreline for him. Thing is I dont remember him taking bad shots or anything, had a bad last 3 seconds though. He didn't take shots away from Gliddon and Starks with forced shots etc buys into there system imo.

Jawai and Prather's best games for the year by far. Bring Martin back and Perth's depth is scary.
And was that a Gleeson special play at the end? Obviously should be sacked immediately....

Well done perth and coach Gleeson great effort.

Kobe...so your only desirable attribute for an import is "has the physical capabilities to be great"?

Why then did you bitch about Scott Christopherson?

Don't feed the troll

Scotty C! Theres a blast from the past, he was and still is the very worst import the 36ers ever had god love him. C'mon chap Scotty never had the body type to do much. My point with Prather is he has a very high ceiling, because at a MINIMUM he is athletic and fit. Guys who can run jump and jump some more will always have the higher ceiling. Someone such as oh I dont know, Ebi doesnt have that opportunity to start with as he is older now and out of game shape.... 12 games in. But keep spinning your words and stay on the Ere bandwagon, its amusing.

Craig gave Prather a very light 2 hand shove in the back as he was blowing by him. Not enough for Prather to fall nor really effect the shot, it all happened really quickly. But the red sea opened up for Prather and everyone knew it was done. Great inbounds play. Trev will be bringing that up when next seasons negotiations come up ;)

Hah you and my folks both ;) Im actually not that bad a bloke just a frustrated ball tragic...

Anyways this is a thread for a damn good game so guess it should stay on that topic!

That last play is Gleeson's go-to when he needs a quick score from a sideline inbounds. Easy to say it now but he used it all the time in Townsville, with Blanchfield inbounding. I distinctly remember him using it many times against the Taipans over the years.

Is Prather their usual inbounder?

Also, Paul, I'd like your take on the 'no timeouts on the floor' rule. Why did Fiba introduce it? Obviously there's a language barrier internationally but I thought players needed the symbol and only the symbol to call it. Could it also be that Fiba doesn't want offensive teams getting bailed out if they're trapped or in a scuffle? But seriously, it has ruined tonight and it ruined Melbourne v NZ a couple weeks ago. Maybe they can allow it for the final two-minutes of the game? And why do we have to be parallel with Fiba? It's a horrendous rule imo.

*easy to say it now but the Snakes could've scouted it

And you can go as far as to say deliberately missing the second foul shot goes against the spirit of the game. Of course players are going to take any advantage they can get, I have no qualms about that, but if the game's governing body wants integrity at the end of such games, then scrap the current rule.

Haha yeah good ol Adelaide, its always an uphill battle selling it on people! IF the Hawks utilise their other import spot I can see them getting fourth, but other than that, Cairns seem to be coming pretty good. They were great against the 36ers in Adelaide the other week, very well drilled. Who makes the GF after United have lost their 3rd straight, god knows! But its a great season full of unique stories so far. And dare I say it, Perth are the most interesting to watch than how I've perceived them for years. More minutes for Jawai and Prather doing some things helps... and less Redhage!

Touch, what would you propose they make as a rule to stop intentional misses, and how do you police it?

Agree re Cairns, my favourites to take that fourth spot and they have the talent, chemistry and coaching to beat any team on any floor in the playoffs. Their upcoming run of home games is crucial, especially against the 36ers.

Adelaide and Illawarra could both get fourth if they click into gear, but the Taipans have cohesion on their side. Perth did highlight their lack of rim protection tonight though, which Wilbekin certainly helped cover last year with his perimeter D.

Both coaches deserve credit for some really good plays late in the game, Fearne's to get Starks a lay-up was a gem, and Gleeson's late one just perfect. Great feed from Matty Knight.

Can't wait to see Prather in the next two games against NZ, having his arse handed to him by Abercrombie last week seems to have woken him up.

Touch the rim, has FIBA ever had on the floor time-outs? I could be wrong but I think as long as I've been watching the international game they have to be in a dead ball situation (a real dead ball situation, not a Kirsten/Townsend dead ball).

I dunno, I just assumed the NBL and Fiba had always been uniform with written rules. Regardless, is there anything stopping the NBL picking and choosing from the rulebook like that?

Chalmers, obviously calling TO on the floor greatly reduces the regularity of deliberate misses but it won't eradicate it completely.

As a deterrent for missing maybe they could write in the book that, before the final FT is attempted, if a player or coach explicitly asks for 'a timeout as soon as their team gets possession', then only a certain amount of time goes off the clock (the time it takes to either say or signal a timeout), maybe 0.3 seconds?

Was Stevie Weigh injured in that game?....he played less than 10 minutes.

The noise when Prather was in the clear, bearing down on the basket was such I never heard the whistle for the foul, thought for all the world we'd screwed up the game winner, lol. A lot of confusion at the end around my area at first.

Amazing game to be at, the roar for Kenny nailing that three was thunderous. What I love about Kenny is that, apart from his general shyness about shooting, he doesn't mind taking on a crunch-time situation. If he's open enough, or the clock is low enough, he'll take it and usually make it.

Jawai is continuing to come along. He is just such a handy dump option when we can't seem to get an opening, he just goes to work and usually scores.

Prather, loved his game, more of that please.

Loved the Jawai v Burston battle tonight, that was entertaining, as was Knight v Worthington.

People whinging about missing the 2nd free not being in the spirit of the game is a crock of you now what. Is there a rule to say the team ahead still needs to give the team behind chance of winning. Its like its there 10 seconds left, team down 3, I would be screaming to my team to foul and send the team for 2 free throws.

Cairns had no timeouts remaining when Prather was on the line, so whether or not they would have been allowed to call one is irrelevant.

paul is correct re: FIBA never having live-ball timeouts. Although Melbourne managed to get one after a score the other night anyway.

The NBL didn't adhere to FIBA's rules from 1984 to 2009, when BA took over. They had twelve-minute quarters and dead-ball timeouts, which weren't in the FIBA rules. Not sure if there were other changes.

If we are talking about the spirit of the game, how about pushing a guy in the back as he is in the air for a layup. Unsportsmanlike or not?

@Wildcats80

You have to remember these are the same people who supported Gary Ervin having a go at Greg Hire for shooting a 3 pointer at the end of a BASKETBALL game.

These are the same people who supported Joey Wright throwing a right cross at Adam Tatalovich.

Yeah, you know, I don't think that people really have a right to whinge about deliberately missing a free throw that was taken because of a two-handed shove by a player way out of position.

That said, I honestly expected to come on here and find a million posts about Cairns being robbed so petty whining about a missed free throw is actually a pleasant surprise.

Haha gee you Perth folk are bitter. Understandable.

Oh no doubt Torrey's shove of Prather was not in the spirit of the game. Definitely an unsportsmanlike foul. You guys know my views on players being fouled as they're elevating... or do you choose to overlook that and throw spears anyway? Perth f***ers man... they do my head in.

Haha gee you Perth folk are bitter.

Credit to Gleeson for getting Kenny great pick up.

Was there. Man it was a great tight game. Felt sorry for the lady who couldnt handle it on the opposite side of the Arena and fainted.

Twas a super game, high intensity but highly-skilled. I thought the refs were really consistent in how they called it and that helped the players put on a great show.

Statsheet didn't record any steals for Jawai. He had at least one. Ok, it was a towel but it was still a good play.

Good game from the Cairns Wildcat-Rejects.. I mean Taipans.

When they were announcing the teams, most of the players running on the announcer said 'Former Wildcat X , X' then the next one was 'Former Wildcats X, X'

The guy next to me commented about all the Former Wildcats there. Good on them. They needed to become starting 5.

Apart from Burston & Weigh, I don't think any of the others are former Wildcats are they???
Maybe West Australians.

I think you will find the Wildcats would have been rejected by Wortho and possibly Gliddon rather than the other way around.

Loughton

You are probably right, I heard Former Wildcat but I was talking to the guy next to me. Could of said 'West Australian'.

Either way a lot of the team seemed West Australian or Former Wildcat.

Seems to be where they go once they've past their usefulness, e.g. ala Stewart, Timmons.

Btw, love those guys, good times when they were Cats.

Yeah I dont have any ill will towards any of them. They moved on to a place where they could get more game time. If I had the skill and couldnt get many minutes locally and another place offered me as such, Id gladly take it.

When did Timmons play for Cairns? I have no memory of that.

From what I recall Stewie was still pretty good when he departed, too.

I also vaguely recall Dewey Michaels heading up there.

Marcus played the 2004/05 season for us.

To be honest, it would've been good for the league for Cairns to win their first title last year.

Don't forget Wildcats have got Cairns' reject Jawai.

hahahahaha solid gold Sting:)

To be honest, it would've been good for the league for Cairns to win their first title last year.

Why? It would have been great for the city of Cairns and the Taipans fans for sure, but how would it have been any benefit to the league????

Any time a local team wins a championship, you'd think that they'll earn more fans and media exposure because of it?

Aren't you getting bored of the New Zealand and Perth duopoly?

This question coming from a Wildcats fan btw. As much as I'd like the Wildcats to win every year, I'm also concerned about the level of interest in the other states and the viability of the league.

Admittedly Cairns is doing well as far as fans, etc but sooner or later, the league has to be even more competitive year in year out to make it worthwhile for fans to support their teams.

This year has been great with many unpredictable results.

It was my opinion that a new champion might have helped renew interest in the league even more, however small it may have been.

Oh ok, so just a different team winning the championship rather than Cairns specifically?
Yeah I can see the logic in what you're saying. That said, I think the league has taken some pretty big steps this season in getting interest back.

I have to agree. Id like a Cairns or a Townsville and even a... a .. a.. .Ad... Adelaide (god that was hard to say) Winner of the NBL Championship. It would be good for the game.

I cannot honestly state though I dont like my Wildcats winning more championships but I can also honestly say I dont want the Violet Crumbles to win anything ever again.

Thats right snooch, I mentioned Cairns since they were in the GF and I also have a general dislike for the Breakers, ;)

Thats not saying I don't respect them though!

Ha, another boring blowout!

I think we were lucking to get that last foul called as a shooting foul, but that's what happens when games go down to the wire. It hinges on a call, or a play either way, and one team will always be unlucky.

I really don't know what has happened to Perth's D? DO we really rely on Damo that much?
Giving up 90 points in a 40 minute game is a worry.

What I found interesting/worrying was Perth's lack of dominance on the boards.

I think we were lucking to get that last foul called as a shooting foul

It was an interesting one, and at the time I had my doubts about the deliberate miss.
I guess the danger in contesting is that you may foul, and send them to the line. They nail two and win.
As it was, the ball is live and you deny them the opportunity to run a set play from the inbound.