Lynx desperately need Fire to drop a couple games so they can sneak into 4th but Townsville have two absolute bunnies this round, would be a miracle for them to drop even one game.

Is the ESPN exposure really worth the 5.30pm weekday tipoffs?

Lynx desperately need Fire to drop a couple games so they can sneak into 4th

Lynx play the Fire twice next weekend, so our destiny is still completely in our own hands.

The rest of our draw is tough though. Boomers, Flyers, and twice vs Spirit still to come, and 6 of our remaining 9 games are on the road.
Having a short rotation is going to impact us too. Our only double header weekend was in round 1. Since then it has been a super cruisy run, but the cost of that is 4 double headers in these last 5 rounds of the season.

If we make the playoffs we certainly will have deserved it, but I think we dug ourselves too deep a hole in the first half of the season when we failed to steal any wins against the top teams.

Has anything further come to light re Heal's sudden departure?

Kelly Wilson is having a mare! Time for Lavey to come into starting five for Kelly.

I think that's the aim, slowly bring her back.

Brutal first half defensively for the Spirit. Kelly Wilson can't really defend anybody or score and it's been like that all season (with the exception of last round for scoring). Anneli Maley's pull up jumpshot is not as good as she thinks it is. Perth's offence is the most enjoyable to watch in the WNBL when it's on.

Lynx will struggle to catch the fire though with them facing Canberra and Sydney.
Lynx have boomers on Sunday

You'd think Lynx would have to win 5 of 6 to have a chance.

Fire have a tough run home as well.

Fire vs

Canberra - win
Sydney - win
Perth - let's say split 2 games - win
Perth - loss
Melbourne - loss
Bendigo - let’s say split 2 games - win
Sydney - win
Bendigo - loss
Southside - loss

5-4 at worst (13-8)
7-2 at best (15-6)




Lynx at 8-5 currently


Melbourne - loss
Townsville - split - loss
Townsville - win
Adelaide - win
Southside - loss
Bendigo - win
Adelaide - win
Canberra - win

5-3 worst (13-8)
6-2 best (14-7)

Close but no cigar

There is something special about Maley's relentlessness at both ends of the court. I hope her work rate and improved outside shot earns her a WNBA roster spot if she wants it this year.

Bendigo trying to show us that one elite defensive quarter after three bad ones can win games. I think Scherf's interior defence was very good in that last minute and probably won Perth the game.

WNBL vs fiba/wnba different level.

Maley and Nicholson are top 5 players in wnbl, when they play at the higher level, they don't have anywhere near the same impact.

Maley was already a fringe WNBA player last year - played a few early regular season games and didn't make the final 11 for one of the deeper teams in the league. She's not that far off making a WNBA bench in a team with better opportunities.

She was let go because Gardner was better.

Yes, Rebekah Gardner was better than her last year and she is a quality player. It doesn't mean that Maley can't make another team this year. There are plenty of players who get cut from their first WNBA team and find success with another.

I hope so but I doubt it, not enough spots without expansion.

The 4th quarter choke was scary, but the 2nd quarter was gorgeous basketball.
Congrats on a big road win, Lynx.

Scherfy needs to keep her hands out. Can't afford those silly reachy ones when you play a position & style that already exposes you to plenty of defensive fouls.

From @UCCapitals

Team update
Shaneice Swain has been ruled out of tomorrow night's game against the Townsville Fire due to a knee injury. She is expected back for the final few home games of the season

Caps can't catch a break this season!

Was hoping for a few more 20+ point games from swain. With the draft coming soon, not ideal that she's out for 4-5 games. Getting talked about internationally a bit more now and many mock drafts have her in the 28-36 pick range.

34 points in a qtr. pretty good.
Missed Kelsey Griffin's usual double double.

We've got quite the ball game on our hands up in Townsville!!

Pretty gutted for the Caps. A few wasted opportunities with that backcourt violation and not putting a shot up in the last 13.2 seconds.

Didn't see the game, but happy to see Aokuso putting some numbers into the boxscore again.

That last minute was painful for the Caps but it sums up their season well. They've gotten close in some games but just don't have enough talent or experience to get them the win. Canberra has no interior defence whatsoever but Melbourne and Burrell heroics kept them in the game. Also at least we know now that Lauren Nicholson is definitely not a point guard lol. Townsville went with Leger-Walker at the point down the stretch and that lineup decision probably won them the game.

Zitna Aokuso 20points in 20 minutes WOOWWW!

Montesano - Cringe
Does she have to shout & drop the sh*#y little bits of info on obviously the ppl she knows personally??

Chizik loves doing a Southside game so she can continually heap praise on all the players that have played under her, I think she needs a straw it would probably be more effective

Great effort by the Lightning to push that one to the last shot.

Coles been horrible. To the bench next season...

Great game, Southside dodged a bullet there. Had to watch most of it on mute again; as hard as I willed it to not be Julia commentating, of course it was.

Chizik is horrible, acts more like a cheerleader than commentator when doing Southside games. I was hoping Lightning would get the WIN as I regard Southside like the Evil Empire, a lot of entitled & obnoxious players @ Southside.

a lot of entitled & obnoxious players @ Southside.

^^ such as?

Rocci, LJ, Bishop & coach Chambers are the ones who stand out for me in that department

23/24 Lightning imo

Adelaide - N.Hurst - keep
-
5'3 Cubillo - keep or move
5’7 Mansfield - keep or move
5’9 Fejo(dp) - upgrade to contract imo
5’10 Basham - move
5’11 Borlase - keep
5’11 Hines(dp) - cut
5’11 Whittle - move
5’11 Simmons(dp) - cut
6’0 Brazel(dp) - remain dp
6’1 Bell(I) - cut
6’2 Simons - move
6’2 Talbot - keep
6’2 Coleman(dp) - cut
6’3 Brook - keep
6’3 Batish - move
6’5 Monroe(I) - cut


Import 1 needed
Import 4 or 5 needed
Opal level 4 or 5 needed
Backup local sg
Bring in 3-4 SA DPs from college

Rocci is a PITA, that's for sure. I don't find Jackson particularly obnoxious for someone of her status but that's just me.

What is a PITA?

Pain in the arse.

Why isnt Sam Simons better at this level?

She hasn't been anything more than a tall 3pt shooter. Not enough to guarantee a wnbl spot every season. Would need to develop quite a bit but unfortunately just too much wing talent around that will eventually overtake her.

It's Thornton complaining to the refs for a foul for me.
Does she draw a lot of.contact? Yes. Does she absorb most of it due to her physical advantage? Yes. But whining to the ref, or staying down is exhausting for the fans an obnoxious imo.

The outside perceptions of the flyers aren't helped when the league and media love them. Wnbl at John Cain Arena is great... But it would also be nice for the league to promote ticket sales for more games to share the love around.

Maybe someone has numbers on this, but it looks like stadiums are more full when teams play the Flyers, because of LJ I'm guessing? So, Flyers ads effectively helping the entire league with ticket sales?

Lynx crowds were far bigger than average for the 2 LJ games.

And to her credit, she stuck around for ages after both games for autographs & selfies.
She has been a huge asset to the league in terms of PR so we can begrudge them for promoting her. They'd be crazy not to do so.

*CAN'T begrudge them

Attended last nights game for the LJ factor. First wnbl game in many years.
Madi Rocci continually fouls on the defensive end. And continually is arguing with the umpire. 90% of the Southside side and bench disputed every call.
Not sure I like Thortons attitude/arrogance either. When she was on the bench she didn't sit with her team mates. Sat at the end of the bench.
Not sure Lightning executed the last play correctly or not how I would’ve drawn it up

Outstanding win, Lynx.

Gutsy win for sure.

All comes down to Feb 1st and 4th

Not necessarily @Weedy Slug

Lynx could drop both and still get in over Bendigo.

Bendigo have a tough run home and still have the series decider in Perth against the Lynx later next month.

I think Bendigo are most vulnerable in all of this given the Lynx has already lost the series to Melbourne and Southside (and Fire series decided this week).

The run home:

TSV (10-4): @PER, @PER, MEL, BEN, SYD, @BEN, @SSF

BEN (11-5): @MEL, SSF, @TSV, @PER, TSV

PER (9-5): TSV, TSV, @ADL, @SSF, BEN, @ADL, @CAN


Plenty of games against each other in that mix, makes for a very interesting race to the finish line.

That was a really good round of WNBL basketball. All games with single digit margins and the league's worst teams looking competitive against the league's best. Hope to see more of it down the stretch.

Cayla George having an off night hurt Melbourne against Perth but I think a consistent weakness of theirs is how turnover prone their starting guards are. You can pressure Wallace and Mitchell into mistakes easily and it's something to watch out for in tight situations.

George was quiet by her own very high standards, but so was Scherf, so that was a wash to me.

Wallace's stat line looks good but yeah I think it's misleading.
She got hot towards the end but at the same time she couldn't play defence, and Perth took full advantage. Scoring is cool but it doesn't win you games if you can't stop the other team.
Silly fouls early on are still too common for her. If she wasn't playing with 4 PFs down the stretch then the Boomers might have choked Perth into a loss, because we started looking pretty shaky once the margin got small. (Same happened in Bendigo. Something Perth needs to work on).

With Sami out, the Boomers should have crushed the backcourt contest. Instead Burrows & Ryan both had season high games - key in getting the W.

The top 5 being this close is great for the league though.