Cairns have 3rd spot locked up. What are the chances they do their fellow Queenslanders a solid & rest their main guns in preparation for finals.

Finals start in 2 weeks, so no need to rest players.
Bullets need to win by over 40 points (44, I think) to leapfrog NZ, so would need a lot of help from their QLD friends!

Joey had a similar rate towards the end. Emphasis on end. Success is the only option for a league that doesn't have a rebuild system via tanking etc with drafts. Cut throat.

Will Joey go out with a bang? He loves going head to head with Gleeson and they both seem to up the ref riding when they go at it. Could be an interesting night for the men in green.

Zodiac, he's missed the playoff the past 2 straight seasons. It’s over, no one cares about what he did at the beginning, infact it’s best forgotten, getting blown out in 2 GF deciding games.

^ above has a point. Making the playoffs 50% of the time in the last two is MUCH better than 0% in the last two.

Meh who cares, Joey and Lemanis should both me moved on from. Lemanis had a big time import some decent Aussie talent and the emergence of magnay to play with. He failed. Joey was out of excuses, he should've been moved on from earlier, but that contract tied the clubs hands.

If Magnay was in Adelaide it would be "Joey made him", but because he is in Brisbane he "emerged", like he was a gift for Lamanis?

Haha true to the above comment. Joey was always very good at spinning his involvement in up and comers development. A lot of these guys were special and had abilities that would flourish eventually in any system.

White wasn't good enough for Illawarra yet Joey brought him to Adelaide. No one really knows why Taylor got cut before season started but Weaver has made both him and Bruce look like starting five or minimum of top seven type players. Talk of Joey development is way over the top, Drimic, McVeigh were talked up big time but improvements has been minimal at best.

I knew the Bullets to win this, but I expected Cairns to turn up. This is horrible from them.

What margin do the Bullets need to win by to overtake NZ? It looks like they're well on track. Thanks Cairns for screwing NZ twice in this round, lol

need to win by like 30 or 35, can't remember.

Nz are plus 46.
Melbourne plus 50 something.

I'm not sure if Brisbane can sustain this pace for the whole game though. It’s clear their strategy didn’t match scout and Cairns has taken some time to adjust. The extended pressure at times has exposed them too. But they seem to be settling into a rhythm. Brisbane will still likely win but I don’t see them reaching the points difference they need.

Oh and Cam Oliver just murdered Magnay's NBA prospects.

"Brisbane's arrogance, esp from Gliddon, makes me hope that Cairns comes back to win it"

Agreed.

Sobey is loving this situation, suits his hero ball tactics.

They've just given up,

Wow. Cairns. Settle down fellas.

Cairns form gone, perth sitting two starters, be interesting to see who comes out looking good game 1.

Cairns starters have barely played since the first half. This was always going to happen. Cairns have nothing to play for here.

RIP Breakers. It's between Bullets and Melbourne now.

The game isn't over.

Lol, bullets throwing season away in the last minutes.

Crazy how much contact they let go on one end then call an offensive foul, then within seconds the whistle blows and free throws on the other.

How fitting, Brisbane go up on a car crash play by Cadee

Bullets threw season away last weekend.

Cairns have ended NZ's season this round.

While they didn’t have anything to play for, they’ve messed with their form. That could be lethal.

If I was a NZ supporter I would be livid!

That missed lay up on the buzzer is going to haunt brisbane. If he made that brisbane percentage would be 102.34. If united win tomorrow by 1 point brisbane's percentage would be .1 better than united but as it stands even a one point win by united will get them in.

Sad for NZ, their fight back this season was great to watch. They just needed one more win.

Melbourne vs Phoenix should have some heat. Little bro to try k ock en out of finals.

Poor Djeric, -39 for the game. Strange game but as noted above, Brisbane threw season away last weekend, today's win will mean nothing when Melbourne smoke SEM tomorrow.

Brisbane were very lucky to run into a Cairns team in the final round with nothing to play for - they just didn't care and the starters barely played. But as mentioned above, it doesn’t matter anyway because SEM aren’t beating United.

That missed layup makes no difference. United would have still needed a 1-point win. Going by their showing yesterday, we know SEM will at least turn up, so they're a good chance to spoil it for a very inconsistent United...

Do the Breakers get to play the second half of the Hawks game to up their percentage?

Cairns have stitched us up big time this round. Makes you wonder....

Wonder what?

That game was... interesting. That's all I’ll say.

Yeh interesting... very interesting indeed. Go Phoenix!!

Breakers are 3-1 against the Bullets this year and they get through on a points differential because Cairns threw the match. Point differential is wack. Yes I'm salty.

Should have won more games than them. Safest way to make the finals.

^ I'm well aware.

Depends on what you believe about who owns teams and who doesn't

My mail is that the Taipans had to change their constitution last season under pressure from above , then Kelly arrives as coach. The window to influence was then opened.

Who is paying for Brisbane? Are the NBA names just attached as window dressing as has been suggested by some.

NZ certainly not owned by the league and the league gets no benefit re media /sponsorship wise from NZ having success.

Brisbane need to win by 34 points and the Taipans assist by running their bench and having no interest in trying to win let alone keep the score , shall we say, normal.

The optics are horrific and there is a pungent odour around what has been happening and continues to happen.

I smell a rat.

The Taipans had every right to rest their starters and get some minutes into their bench. It's exactly what Perth is doing in their game.

The conspiracy theories are hilarious.

^ Did you watch the game?

Yes.

"Jordan Ngati should have shot the ball against Perth with 3 seconds to go and no one on him. Or pass the ball to ashley under hoop. But didn't even look at the hoop."

You can go back and literally look at hundreds of cases in hindsight which would have changed things, but that goes both ways. If Melbourne didn't take their foot off the NZ throat in Glen Rice's first game and let them come back from a huge deficit, then they would not have been in the position they were in. If Brisbane did not shyt the bed last weekend against NZ, then NZ would not have been in the position they were in. Plenty of examples for all teams. That is, except Illawarra, SEM and Adelaide, who have been a step below.

There are lots of players and coaches talking about games being fixed. Today's events don’t quell that thinking

Dumb people believe in conspiracy theories.

Are they dumb if it is true

They're dumb if they think it's true.

If teams finish on the same number of wins, I think the head-to-head series a better way to decide than points differential. Although that probably requires all teams to play each other 4 times, which they don't anymore (that’s another issue in itself).

^ as far as I can tell there is no benefit. Plus it allows for situations like tonight to happen, which is a joke.

Conspiracy theorists on here also still believe in Santa Claus, NZ unlucky but in the end you make your own luck, starting last night when they could not smash a Mitch Creek less SEM.

NZ should not have lost to Adelaide on Randle's game-winner. They should not have choked against Cairns in Cairns. Then they should have beaten Perth in Perth. Maybe they should not have choked their lead against the Kings in their home opener! There's a lot of those moments in this season that had it gone their way, they would be in the playoffs. But, at the end of the day, if you're relying on results to get in you probably don't deserve to be in.

I had a feeling it would end this way for the Breakers and reminds me of the run they made when Braswell joined them mid-season the year before their first title. If they can keep most of their squad together, they will be a force next season. In the meantime, their fans should celebrate that they salvaged something from their season and it did not all end in flames. There's a lot to be positive about :)

Well if Randle doesn't hit that game-winner against them they're in the playoffs, aren't they?

And as great as Hopson has been, I think a bigger factor has been that they didn't have Delany for eight or so games to the start the season and Loe went down early too. The imploding was one thing, but there was some seriously bad luck too. That's sport.

Kings had Lisch, Moller out major part of the season, plus Bogut, Lozarda for parts and got first.

^ No disrespect to Lisch, but he's no Scotty Hopson. The Breakers had by far the worst run of injuries this year.

If they must use point differential instead of head-to-head to separate teams, then it should be the differential between the two teams that are tied, not the overall differential.

The Breakers 3-1 and +8 against the Bullets this season. So explain to me why the Bullets deserve a playoff spot over the Breakers when they won the same amount of games overall.

Just go back to head-to-head and make the draw even and and fair again.

You can't go head to head unless the draw is even, all sides play each other twice at home and away, then head to head would work. I don’t mind it the way it is.

^ that's what I’m saying, make the draw even again. It’s not fair that NZ had to travel to Perth twice this season, and Perth only travelled to NZ once.

"The Breakers 3-1 and +8 against the Bullets this season. So explain to me why the Bullets deserve a playoff spot over the Breakers when they won the same amount of games overall."

Because percentage is used to determine tiebreakers and Brisbane had a better percentage across the season. It's not exactly controversial.

I understand how it works, I just don't think it’s fair.

I think it's pretty fair as it takes into account your performance across all 28 games.

That was a good game, Brisbane were playing at a next level tempo.