*6pm aest

Link to game - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3bfWfvghKI

I love this fiba commentator. He was great in the olympics and qualifyinggames.
Would love to see him doing some NBL games.

Seemed a bit lopsided early. Turned it off.

This last quarter has been a solid hit out for Tasmania. Also enjoyed the Singapore Slingers jersey sighting in the crowd.

Also enjoyed the Singapore Slingers jersey sighting in the crowd.

LOL @ Kai Sotto references in the chat.

TAS win 80-75.

A bit of a training gallop for the most part but 2 things out of this for the JJs. MacDonald looks like he has injured his calf again. Exactly what Roth didn't want. But maybe Deng can go to another level this season. He was huge albeit not against NBL calibre opposition. But he was dare I say it McVeigh like in his own way.

Yeah hopefully McDonald's injury is nothing too serious
Great 4th quarter by Tassie showing their trademark composure to regain the lead and secure the win.
Some bad turn overs by Riyadi in the 4th though.

Good for them to get a medal, sets the benchmark for future NBL participation in the Cup. Hope MacDonald isn't seriously hurt

MacDonald was upset during the medal ceremony. He was floored on the sideline in front of the JJs bench and seemingly couldn't get up by himself while play went on in what Gaze called an off the ball incident. Looks a serious set back for him.

I reckon JJs will need to bring in an injury replacement player but there is not going to be any combo guard quite like MacDonald. Who is still out there? I think Roth will give Nunn minutes and maybe Doyle will play point too like last year. Sword now becomes much more important as a 2 than what was probably originally planned.

I feel like this will have taken a lot out of the JJs

Gold Coast, Singapore, 5 games in 8 days or whatever it is

Wouldn't be surprised if we see another result like Grand Final Game 1 where JJs were similarly cooked having just made two trips to Perth

And yeah the physical and emotional impact isn't quite equivalent to a semi final series but still, hard to see them physically being at 100% this Thursday.

Would have been an absolute war of attrition in the final against Malaga. They are one hell of a basketball team. Just huge across the board. Perhaps a saving grace there.

Malaga had Kendrick Perry, didn't he play in nbl a few years back, if correct, he wasn’t that good ??

Kendrick Perry played for the Kings in his first year out of college. He's gone on to be a very good player in Europe.

Dunkman, see if you can grab some footage of the final and you will see what I mean. The JJs and United are probably the closest we have in the NBL - absolute team basketball and amazing D but in terms of size they are just so big. I know we all like to think the NBL is right up there but credit where it is due. It's not as if it’s a secret how good the top clubs in the Liga ACB are.

I get to watch as much top euro basketball as time allows me, yes the nbl is very good but Spain, France, Germany Italy are extremely good and as you say they have some monsters. The nbl is smaller type league, a lot sides over there have at least one seven footer, even some of their threes are six ten.

Best thing about the NBL versus most Euro domestic leagues is the relative parity - top Euro clubs would handle the top NBL team 8 or 9 times out of 10, but the bottom team in the NBL is a lot closer to the top team than is the case in most Euro leagues and makes for (IMO) more entertaining basketball than anything else outside of Euroleague.

Agreed, though most comps run 16 to 18 teams but yes the Bayern Munichs who run 35-40 million euros to the Heidelberg who spend 5-6 million euros in the bbl. Spain even worse with Barcelona and Madrid, France with Monaco etc. like Cairns though it's still super competitive and sides fight to the end to avoid relegation.