Hoops

WNBL Round 4

Great win by the Melbourne Boomers against Townsville. Suzy was a beast with 32 pts but the Boomwrs had 6 players in double figures. Great team defensive effort plus I think the Boomers won the boards which is always tough to do against Suzy and Cayla. Chris Lucas will be a bit grumpy this week

Yeah, disappointing about Garbin from a Perth POV.
There are so few west aussies in the WNBL as it is, it's a pity for us home fans when they end up at other teams.
I can understand why she might have wanted to head elsewhere though, if she had aspirations of taking her game to a higher level. Just not sure SEQ was the ideal choice. Maybe she'll do a Burton and head back again anyway.

I'm a Garbin fan and I don't think she was treated correctly by the Waves. At the end of the day I'm happy to see her wherever is best for her, even if that's not here in Perth. I don't know anything about the timing of her decision to move vs. the timing of the new ownership & personnel of the Lynx. If she committed on the assumption that it would just be another year of the Waves again then I don't fault her at all for leaving.

Late work day for me so I didn't get to tune in, and I only just caught the score.
Very impressed.
Not that I didn't think the Boomers had it in them, but if you had told me that Thompson would play just 5 minutes for 1 rebound, they would turn the ball over 19 times, and Suzy would go off for 32 & 12, then I would have wondered just how big the Fire's margin was.

Boomers won the boards 40-27. Super effort!

Yeah I'm sure the Fire will drop a game or two but I don't see it being this one either.
Melbourne have some nice talent but they're not deep, and more to the point they're really not very big, so I expect them to struggle to contain Suzy & Cayla just as the Rangers did. They'll need to be hitting at a good clip from outside to give themselves any chance.

A rare Monday night game to finish the round
Melbourne Boomers $4.25, Townsville Fire $1.20

This one will be live streamed on YouTube at 7:30pm EDT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQCGkxIs-pk

Not usually, no. But not all imports are brought in to be stars either. She was not a college star so I never got the impression that she was brought in to be an impact-type import. (let's face it - it would take someone pretty damn good to kick Richards out of the starting 5 spot)

She seems like she should be a serviceable backup, but 2 rebounds in 19 min today and 3 in 16 min vs Perth is not the greatest return for someone her height is it.

Adelaide get the win!

Led from start to finish, out-rebounded the Spirit 44-34, got Griffin & Richards fouled out..., Spirit got close but they held on and pushed back to win 76-68.
Ruef & Mitchell got some help this time. No passengers in the starting 5. Great effort.

I thought the Lynx would have a cruisey time next weekend when we visit Adelaide but forget that now.
:(

According to Sportsbet, Bendigo are so confident of beating Adelaide that they're sending the Braves over there instead of the Spirit :p
... and the Braves are still at $1.13 to Adelaide's $5.40, with the margin set at 11.5

Saying that it's an understatement that Ruef will have her hands full with Richards & Griffin, is itself an understatement.

Well the Flames took SEQ all the way to OT, but looks like 40 minutes was all they had in them. Still a tremendous effort, minus Tupaea and also a head coach from what I hear. I've got a lot of time for what they're doing in Sydney.

Over here, the Lynx played like garbage. Not actually sure how it was still a close game down the stretch - we didn't deserve it to be. I guess Bendigo going 3/19 from outside is largely to thank. The attack mode we had last game was lacking. Lavey & Laney can hold their heads high, the rest not so much.
Entertaining meltdown by coach Pritchard anyway :p
Richards & Griffin were good without dominating us (Lynx actually won the battle of the boards), but for mine it was Kelly Wilson that was the difference. Quality all-round game for the full 40 minutes.

Back to the drawing board for Perth. Sami drew a lot of attention and we failed to capitalise elsewhere.

So my longshot on the Flames fell just short, but I still came out ahead thanks to the Spirit.

Montgomery could have come at a better time - a month ago ;)
Very sad about Zavecz though. Was on her way to becoming a very useful player when the injuries started.

Last I heard from LJ, which was after the recent knee setback, she was still hopeful of returning to action a few weeks from now. I take all LJ health predictions with a bag of pool salt though.


Huge first quarter by the Flames - 32 points - to lead SEQ by 7 at the first break. Alex Wilson enjoying her promotion to the starting lineup.
Go Sydney!

Stars in to $1.35, Flames $3.00 now.
Wonder if someone is out for the Flames, or if it's just a lot of money today for SEQ.

Good looking round of games. The non-Adelaide/Canberra games all could be close contests.

Tonight's odds:

Stars $1.45, Flames $2.63. Margin 4.5 points.
Sydney not without a real chance IMO. I'm tempted.

Lynx $1.62, Spirit $2.21. Margin 2.5 points.
I see this one as a 50/50 contest and only because Perth has home court advantage. I don't see anyone on this Lynx team who can stop Griffin. Tomlinson will have her hands full too and absolutely must stay out of foul trouble tonight. Perth will want to push the tempo and have been good at doing so in the games I've seen.
Looking forward to this one.