Hoops

SF1: Perth v Wollongong

The Wildcats had two or three finishes at 7th or below in 2004-09. Were incredibly lucky they timed that period the way they did, or the streak would have been over by now.

I'm with wilson.

.500 GF conversion rate isn't bad either.

Without the full context of those 27 post season appearances i don't think we can judge if anyone choked - I think the term itself is a misnomer anyways.

Enjoying the discussion but can't believe it's happening. 5 premierships in 27 seasons is not bad, I would take it, and so would Adelaide fans. If Perth were favourite for every one of those 27 seasons I'd say it was a bit ordinary, but they haven't even been favourites the last 3 years. I would much rather see my team in the playoffs every year and losing instead of making the playoffs once in 5 years and winning it all.

SS thank you, i'm far from fanatical brother - and i will burn you at the stake if you DO NOT BELIEVE THAT!!!

Crap.... maybe you're right.....

say what? my fanaticism? om my...... thanks for the shout out SS .... i guess.....

i'm off to burn some witches....

Going thru the NBL stats, I think the most successful clubs have been:

Launceston (won a championship in 33% of their seasons played)
South Dragons (33%)
SE Melbourne Magic (29%)
NZ Breakers (27%)
West Adelaide Bearcats (20%)


It's good that Perth make the final series consistently, quality teams need quality wingmen by their side when they lift the trophy.

Gee guys, we only lead the league in titles. That's such a terrible underachieving record.

Do you even think before you post?

Got pretty hairy in the end, that was some arsey shooting from Clarke and Forman. Just shot after shot, over all sorts of defense.

I think the moment the resistance broke was when Wollongong got a stop and someone screwed up their defensive assignment and left Clarke wide-open, and he airballed the open look. I have no clue where that miss came from but we sure let him no about it from the stands.

@The Situation, giving an USF is one thing, there's a difference between a ref calling it and not.

SMALL(er) crowd cause members had to fork out full price for their tickets (which aren't cheap at the arena) unless you wanna sit at the very back... But in saying that, for a semi final game 1, going in as mad favourites, and being live on TV, 11000 fans is a great crowd if you ask me.

And the showdown this weekend; clash with district basketball; ticket prices increase and poor publicity :-)

Perth with a massive shock tonight. Hawks will be very hard to beat in the Gong

Yep, and I suspect tonight's match up showed why they can be so dangerous. Hawks bigs, especially Gruber, are too slow to defend beyond the key. Wildcats exploited that weakness tonight. Wagstaff and Redhage are virtually interchangable, I can't recall at the moment a time when one team had two players ( who's surnames weren't Smith) that played so alike.

We should never have let Foreman get out of Adelaide.

If Hawks and Perth replay exactly the same game on Sunday away from Perth, Hawks may well win.

Yes i know shooting big men have been around for a while.

My point is that the way players defend or in this case don't defend them nowadays isn't good enough.

Watch Redhage and Wagstaff bomb threes. They arent off complicated sets or offenses..a lot of them is just Redhage popping to the perimeter.

Its not a new trend for the NBL MACDUB, high percentage shooting big men have been prowling the league since the 90's. Probably the most difficult players to defend if they are active off the ball and not afraid of backing down on the low block once in a while. You still need some key ingredients however like having sound offensive structures and players being patient and smart enough to execute.

Forman deserves a Boomers look in..

Dead serious.

Lights out shooter. Spaces the floor.

Imagine him sitting in the corner and spacing tbe floor for Mills/Delly.
If the defender goes to the ball youve got the best shooter in Australia ready to launch

Perth home court advantage there is huge. Umpiring is terrible and hugely favoring Perth who can push there defensive fouling to the limit.

Yeah i know paul, but do you see how open some of the bigs are.

When they are at the 3 shooting, the defensive player is at the foul line!

Plus since when should it matter whether a player is a guard or big.

You do the scouts and a shooter is still a shooter regardless of whether its a guard or a big.

I hear the Gold price was $100 ea

An unsportsmanlike foul on Redhage? Gee never seen one of those before.

God i hate Perth.

I can see one major defensive problem with the NBL across the board..

Challenging outside shots from the bigs.

Redhage, Wilkinson, Johnson, Loughton, Petrie..

Why/how do these players get so open on the perimeter. So many times you see them basically shooting wide open threes without a man even near them.

And its not like theyre bad shooters. Some of those guys can stroke it

Who's that guy in the #10 singlet for the Hawks? Looks like Larry but there's no bandana, braids or 'Mandarin' like pony tail. Jesse Wagstaff looks more like Davidson that Larry does.

Another good start to the game.

"We're entitled to be arrogant."

GOLD !

3 aussie got good publicity. A.J. and Patty not surprise, but Bose just getting better and better.

http://www.nbadraft.net/node/1906

Spend 1 day in hell (metaphorically speaking) and you leave thinking "well that could have been worse", spend 7 days in hell and you wanna get out as quickly as possible and never go back.

We'll know by the end of tonight whether the Hawks are sinners or angels.

Wonder if Bill Woods will be brought over for special comments. Is it just me or since he started re-calling the games, Illawarra are on a roll...

Except Sydney's drought vs Wildcats.

All droughts get broken.

Got a ring to it!

They were pretty fashion savvy.

Darth Redhage

Well, Jack, say what you will about the Nazis, but they were snappy dressers. We'll only have tees, but they're pretty snazzy tees!

I get the feeling this season of the NBL is in its The Empire Strikes Back phase and all shall bow before Darth Redhage and Darth Martin!

Perth by 20

its a real credit to the Hawks that there is even some doubt over who will win this game.

Wollongong have been over there for almost a week preparing for this series. If they're to win any games in Perth, it's game 1.