I'm keen to find out one day why Foxtel wouldn't plan to televise Sydney v Perth, considering equipment set up would already be in place for the game being a double header with the Sydney Kings.

Hopefully that Perth/Sydney game gets streamed - we could be looking at a playoffs preview there. 5 of those games look like they'll be absolute belters, so really looking forward to this weekend! Hopefully my good tipping form will continue - I'm somehow on top of the tipping comp ladder!!

Are you ctp19 at Basket Case tipping?

yep that's me!

Hopefully you haven't hit the front too soon - I guess there's only one direction you can go from here.

I've been watching that Tiger June who's in the top few after we all laughed at her for getting just one in Rd1.

To be honest I was looking pretty bad in the first few rounds, I think I was bottom 6 or so for a while there. I credit the Lynx for getting to the top though, I don't think I've tipped against them this season - so far so good for both the team and myself. Pretty impressive by tiger june to bounce back from that first round though

Yes, I noticed yours was a name that seemed to come from the back of the field.

https://thewest.com.au/sport/basketball/perth-lynx-gunning-for-10-straight-wins-ng-b88682960z

Lavey is out tonight for the Rangers due to concussion - makes it a very tough night in the office for Palau, Steph Blicavs and Todhunter without another guard coming off of their bench unless they bring over a development player who'd be thrown to the wolves against Williams and Whitcomb.

It'd be a tough choice for their coaches to make deciding whether to start Todhunter in Lavey's spot or bring Palau down to PG and start one of Roberts - which wouldn't work against Perth's speed based game to be honest, or Rowe in SF. Just yikes..

Lavet will also miss their game against Canberra this weekend - IMO making that one quite winnable for the Caps.

Huge round this week. Full double round, and with just 3 more to go then once it's over we'll be on the home stretch for finals. Already!

Rangers will really need to get a win to stay in the hunt. A tough ask. Would be cool to be at the game tonight, hopefully they get a great crowd.

Bishop off just 19-seconds into the game and hasn't returned.

She's back on for the start of the second quarter.

AshT, what site are you looking at?
The WNBL site is down.

http://www.fibalivestats.com/u/wnbl/681959/bs.html

Embarrassing stuff from Bendigo

Looks like another typical game from rangers, cannot get that 3rd and 4th quarter, Anderson needs to use her bench, they literally run out of legs, she never seems to learn

Where's the bench , how many injured do they have

Maybe you should learn that rangers are depleted with injuries so there's no players with experience on the bench to use! Great effort by them I say.

I agree. Great effort by the Rangers on the road and down 2 starters.
Perth playing with fire. Seem to get up for the big games but have seriously struggled with some "should-beat" opponents at home in consecutive weeks.

Burton could be a big loss for the Lynx. She has been really solid over the past month or so, holding her own against some big name opponents. Will be eagerly awaiting news on her, but I have to think that since she didn't return to the court tonight she'd be very doubtful to suit up in < 48 hours over in Sydney.

I've been critical of her at times (actually not so much of her ... more of Joyce) but no sarcasm there. She really has played her role well over the past month.
Our import post player has not delivered - I'm pretty sure she would have been recruited with the intention of starting - so Nat has been shouldering a big workload against some big opponents.

Hamson should be looking for 30+ tomorrow I reckon.

I have no idea why they put Pizzey in particular and Rowe on main roster contracts.. had Blicavs not been forced out, both Rowe and Pizzey would likely have played 25-30 mins combined over the course of the season. I just think they recruit poorly, if the coach doesn't have the faith in her bench to go in and give their core group relief then why are they there?

If their starters weren't constantly run into the ground then perhaps they'd be championship contenders (with a fit Sara Blicavs of course). They could probably get away with their over reliance on their core group in past seasons, but that model becomes quite flawed when in this condensed season.

Rangers only have 1 player in Top 10 average minutes? Sydney have 4 players!
I think you'll find other teams don't use their bench that much either.
Canberra rotate players the most of any team and have a look at their winning record!

Caps would have to be a legit chance vs Dandy tomorrow, yes? Big minutes & big effort by the Rangers starters last night, followed by a long flight home...

I assume budget might be reason for why rookies are in main roster in most teams. Sydney won a championship last season and are running their starters into the ground this season!

Definitely agree Luuuc, especially given they won't be getting Lavey i.e an extra rotation back for that game. I thought the Caps did well last night - although Sydney were without Taylor. It'll be interesting to see whether she is available for their game on Saturday - if she's not suiting up, I can't see Perth losing that one, even if they're without Burton.

Wouldn't worst 4th quarters be a key indicator for teams showing fatigue? Since teams get 10 mins rest at halftime, players shouldn't be fatigued during the 3rd unless unfit?

I think the Rangers have won most of their games coming from behind with large deficits?

For those asking about teams' performances in each quarters I've done a quick little sum up (keep in mind most of these figures are accurate but some are slightly off from the totals derived from the for/agst on the ladder but I can't be bothered figuring out what I've messed up). IMO these figures are quite interesting, but I think it does clearly show the current top 4 are deserving of their spots.

1st Q:
Melbourne +67
Canberra +11
Adelaide +10
Dandenong +8
Sydney +7
Townsville -5
Perth - 8
Bendigo -100 (that is not a typo)

2nd Q:
Dandenong +38
Melbourne +36
Perth +18
Townsville +16
Sydney - 20
Canberra -22
Bendigo - 23
Adelaide -43

3rd Q:
Townsville +63
Adelaide +54
Melbourne +45
Perth + 29
Sydney +18
Dandenong -62
Canberra -63
Bendigo -64

4th Q:
Perth +39
Sydney +31
Dandenong +20
Townsville +13
Bendigo +9
Melbourne +6
Adelaide -31
Canberra -88

OT:
Adelaide, Dandenong, Melbourne +2
Perth -2
Bendigo -4

Yeah the Top 4 looks like a battle between Sydney and Adelaide. Perth are the top team, Melbourne have highest ceiling, Townsville are very good, best depth and should have an easy run home. That leaves the Flames and Lightning. Tough for one of them to miss out, and if it is Sydney then it'll be huge that last years winners aren't there (or any of the GF teams for that matter).

Teams would really want to be finishing either first or second to limit their travel factor in the finals given it's highly likely Perth and Townsville will feature.. If those series go to 3 games that's 3 in 5 days and that travel wouldn't be pretty for the teams having to go to either side of the country twice.

Townsville by far have the easiest run over the next few weeks with Bendigo twice and the Caps and Dandenong once, but a tough final round with Sydney and Perth.

Thanks for the Qtrs compilation, Melb Fan.

Rangers v Capitals live stream tonight:
https://www.foxsports.com.au/live

No Taylor for Sydney today according to livestats. The Lynx only travelled with 8 which is interesting, though in saying that their 3 woman bench would probably receive more minutes than the entirety of Sydney's.

Sydney's starting 5 is Ebzery, Moffatt, Wilson, Snell & Hamson - interesting to say the least.. I'd have thought they'd at least try and exploit the lack of height and start Boag like they did against the Caps.

Eight on the bench but just how important is the moral support & energy a longer bench can provide for an away team? I'm starting to lean Sydney in this.

Gawd its frustrating watching the Boomers play. Is there a lower basketball IQ team in the WNBL?
Important win for them but it really should not have been that hard. If Novosel doesn't get injured early then maybe a different outcome.

I'm a Purcell fan too. Not gonna get carried away with predictions, but she's got a good head on her shoulders, and plays a valuable role for Melbourne. A rare winner for them when it comes to the possession game.

Ebzery is in a tough spot. She's not a PG, but has been doing a serviceable job of filling that role this season. I'm pretty sure that with Asia out of action today, everyone would have been asked to step up in the scoring department, and that would have included Ebzery being more "selfish" than usual. She's a streaky scorer, and evidently she copped the down side of that today, but the Flames probably couldn't afford for her to die wondering. She still racked up 11 assists (of her team's total of 19) which is pretty impressive.

No one has talked about Perth winning 11 in a row.
From 0-3 too 12-4.
The team has come together extremely well. The big three shot well. When one has an off game the other two some how step up.
Can't wait till the 17th when Perth plays Melbourne.

Dandenong playing their assistant coach lol. I am all for the pay rise these women deserve but please the league needs to also look into depth issues. No way two to three injuries should force coaches to play in a professional league.

Perth are on an amazing run. It's impressive that Kunek has come in to play the "Mijovic" role and found a better version of Sami to play next to her. We knew pre-season they likely had best guards in league but didn't know how it would all fit and work, especially with filling rest of roster late. I still think they're a lot closer to the pack than this streak suggest (Dowe being average so far can't help) but what they're doing clearly works. Just wish for more coverage of the team so we could see more of them.

Per various tweets, Jarry had concussion symptoms and stretched of as precaution. Sad, this will probably be an issue forcing her into an early retirement :(

Sammy Richards in the game!

Schwagmeyer was in the squad for Perth but couldn't play because of her PR not coming through yet. It must be close if they thought it could have happened yesterday but not playing this game means it's impossible for her to be eligible for finals. Could be important for Perth if any injuries occur, especially to guards.

Nice tipping, AshT :)

Just catching up with all the Rachel Jarry stuff
:'(

Not good at all. Has a definite Matty Knight feel to it. At the very least that has to be season over.
I hope she gets the best possible advice, and puts her health first.

I thought Dowe was pretty decent today with 6pts, 10 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl - I doubt Burton would've reproduced those numbers had she played. They really only need someone to get rebounds and be able to take the opposition bigs, they're quite competent in the scoring department with Whitcomb, Williams and Kunek in there.

Good on the Caps for breaking their losing streak - thankfully changed my tip to them once I found out Lavey was going to miss. Hopefully Jarry is going to be okay, it's never a good sign when someone gets carted off by paramedics. Such a shame for her after all the hard work she'd been putting in to get back from her knee injuries over the past year.

Anon, I can see why they did it too and I'm not knocking Richards who by the stats didn't disgrace herself at all so not rusty at all, but it's a situation that shouldn't happen in any league so it's an issue squad depth (and in the end, money). Teams should be forced to have more than 10 contracted players some teams entered season with.

Melb Fan, yeah I agree for most part and think that game is about what they expected from her across the season but she hasn't done it enough, or they wouldn't be relying on Burton to be their main defensive big. I said average instead of flop or bust because I don't think she's been that bad.

Good for Caps getting a much needed win. Definitely took their chance and now you'd think that's the nail in Dandenong's slim finals chances.

Melb Fan, Novosel doesn't go down and they'd be getting your name & address ready for the Aus Post satchel.

Rangers were without Lavey and Palau not to mention Sara. Injuries are cruel sometimes but at least they are showing competitive spirit unlike the Bendigo spirit!

Injuries are fickle, AshT! Probably balancing out the ledger there though re the Lightning losing because I changed my tip to the Caps due to injuries. I thought I was going to get that one though when Liz got her 4th foul.

Waves2Lynx, for sure and if she could maintain that level of output for the remainder of the season it almost adds another string to the Lynx's bow. I'm still quite perplexed by her recruitment - she came from a second division French league, the step up from that to the WNBL would probably be similar to BigV to WNBL if not greater due to the different style of play between countries.

As for Bendigo, what an absolutely horrendous performance by their starters.. outscored by their bench 41-21, with the bench playing way less minutes as well. Take out Laney's 10 points and the remaining four scored 11 points combined. not good enough at all. I feel bad launching into her, but Banham scored a grand total of 2 points this weekend - not good enough for an import, particularly one who is known for and should be scoring for them given their lack of scoring threats.

Normally 9th & 10th spots on teams go to rookies in their 1/2nd season. They should learn and appreciate any opportunity given to them.

Good stuff Melb Fan. Do you have a shortcut to producing those figures?

James Harvey Fan, I wish I could say yes, but I just pop all the figures into excel and let that add them all together. Probably helps that I'm pretty handy with excel and typing numbers with uni though.

To be fair to the Rangers, the only guards on their bench excluding Richards were Antoniadou who is inexperienced and coming back from an injury, plus DP Gilliam who is still a junior and has only played 2 minutes all season. Not exactly the two at this point in time whom they could rely on to play those 27 mins Richards played in a must win tight game against experienced guards in Hurst and Wehrung. Obviously not the greatest look to have a coach suiting up, but they can't just throw away a game - especially one that important - because short term injuries have struck.

Isnt Antoniodou 11th man on the Rangers roster? I didn't see her make an impact in SEABL last season to assume she could have an impact at WNBL?

you didn't know it..... you didn't think it could be done...
liz cambage with a ballet-like pirouette...
..in the final end , she won the game...

If anything, next season I believe even more of the Opals squad level WNBL players will be playing overseas - this year the Commonwealth Games - i.e. chance to represent the Opals in Australia for once, would be a big draw card for those players, as well as having coaches keep a close eye on them in the lead up to the World Cup next year. They'd likely head over to Europe if they were wanting to experience that next season, then come back to play WNBL in 2019 ahead of the Olympics.

Chambers & Goriss are WNBL coaches - thus keeping an eye on the players here even if Brondello is unavailable.. Also if they play in the WNBL and the season finishes mid January it makes them available for more training camps whereas European based players are unavailable until mid April at the earliest. The February Opals camp is being held when there is a break in the European competitions (and those European based players are only attending around one week of the two week camp).

Flames v Lynx Final Qtr
https://youtu.be/SvXkNswj_NU

So great that Sydney were able to upload that! What a cracker of a final quarter, wish I could've seen that one live.