Yes. No other team stands a chance.

Absolutely!
From what I have seen so far, there are only two teams in contention. Sadly they are playing each other in the SF.

They are every chance to take this series. Just have to get their travel right for next Thursday.

Their chance in the GF would depend on the scheduling, but also on how Sydney's veterans hold up. Bogut and Lisch don't have two good legs between them.

They could, but an elimination game in Perth usually ends just 1 way. Their best shot was to finish 2nd and get the homecourt advantage, but as it is Cotton has perfectly paved teh way to respond with another big night and get the Cats into the finals.

We're working on it...

:)

Everyone talking like the series is over, they have played out of their skin to game's in a row in Perth.

If they win then they deserve to be there and any one bar Melbourne can win.

They need to beat Wildcats on Thursday.

They can

I don't think they will.

But they're absolutely a serious chance. They might be the best 3rd seed in many years.

Agree re: the best 3rd seed. The bookmarked an otherwise great season with a poor beginning and end to the year, otherwise they could easily have been #1 or #2 seed.

Bloody oath they can! They almost beat the cats in regulation in perth and dominated at home. They have a greater spread of scoring threats and everyone is in form and playing with confidence.

The cats are carrying a couple of passengers right now and wouldn't be surprised if they get rolled. If Cairns get past them they will go all the way IMO

The travel question is easy for Perth. They fly back asap, and get back into their regular routine.

What do Cairns do?
Travel early and try to acclimatise?
Stick to their usual road scenario?

Get it right, and they are every chance of taking this.

I didn't think they would. I assumed the Finals Cats would show up, and that would be that.
But so far it has been Cairns that looks to be in Finals mode.

If you're tossing a fair coin, and it keeps coming up heads, you figure tails is just around the corner. As in "how long can Cairns keep this up?" and "how long before Perth finds their finals mojo?"
But as some point you have to start wondering id the coin isn't rigged? Maybe what we're seeing isn't an aberration? Maybe Cairns are that good, and Perth just don't have it together this year?

I guess there is some chance that Perth comes out firing and Cairns drops their bundle, but I doubt it. I think this will be another cracker, and could go either way.

Not sure they have the depth to see off Perth and then back up. There's a lot riding on the import trio and they're playing a lot of minutes.

But otherwise, sure. Took overtime for Perth to get them in Perth. Meanwhile, Sydney needed Melbourne tripping over themselves to win in Sydney.

If the team stays healthy, depth won't be too much of a concern.

I think gradually over the past 15 years, basketball fans have come to accept this idea that depth is crucial.

But it’s not necessarily the case. I remember the Tigers winning championships with essentially a 7 man rotation in the 90’s. Then in 2006 with an 8 man rotation.

3 of the 4 remaining teams rely very heavily on their stars producing to win matches. This is just how basketball typically works. We’ve seen this with Cotton against Cairns this year- when Cotton doesn’t fire, Perth gets beaten. The exception is Sydney- Ware had a shocker, Bogut was continually benched and couldn’t defend Long, and Sydney still won.

Sydney has greater depth and a greater spread of contributors than any other team. It doesn’t mean Sydney will win the championship, it just means they’re still a real chance of winning even if their guns don’t fire. I don’t think the same is true of Cairns. But it’s also not true of Perth and United.

I think at one stage Sportsbet had us at around the $400 mark or something like that. Pity I'm not allowed to bet...

Also re the travel - Taipans leave Tuesday morning for Perth, same scenario as game 1, leave 1 day earlier than for a regular season game.

Pre-season Cairns were in the $30-$50 range depending on the bookmaker.

However due to their slow start to the season the odds went up to three figures at times, i.e. $101, $251 before entering the top four for the first time in early November after two wins in Round 10.

Here's a piece graph history from Betfair exchange although it isn't reflective of all the odds movements throughout the season due to low liquidity (max odds traded of $100, min $4.40:

GordonG why not?