Can't Buy a Basket

NBL Wrap Round 20: Davidson vs Goliath

2012-02-19T22:18:00.000+08:00

Breakershold strong against the Hawks, 82 - 74

The Hawks had been coming back strong latelyafter a season of disappointment and they looked to continue the road back torespectability against the league leaders who they have defeated previously.

After last week’s stellar performance and playerof the week nomination, Oscar Forman was hoping to continue his form and be theinspirational leader to bring an upset result against the league leadingBreakers to the Gong.

Unfortunately for the Big O he just ran out ofgas but luckily his team mates heard the rallying cry and gave an inspirationalperformance worthy of respect regardless of the result.

Lead by Hawks top scorer Joevan Catron who workedhard for his 14pts, albeit at a measly 38% from the field, Catron also onlymanaged 4reb but sometimes stats don’t do a player justice, helping Catron wasnew import Ayinde Ubaka who had 13pts and 5reb who also unbelievably had thesame FG% as Catron but had half the shot attempts and of which half of thosecame from beyond the 3pt arc.

Davidson has been a teddy bear as of late

Larry Davidson and Rhys Martin were the otherdouble figure scorers on this night with 12pts a piece, Martin having a teamhigh 5assists and Davidson adding 3 rebounds, it’s nice to see Davidson havesome relevance once again but his lack of game resembling anything of a big manstyle is of concern, maybe he needs to bring back his Grizzly Adams look withthe beard and headband because his game right now resembles a fluffy teddy bearthan a grizzly bear, not what’s expected of a big man with his talent level.

The Breakers however were lucky to get away witha win with the Hawks making it tough for the league leaders, once again it wasthe Jackson and Abercrombie show with a few special guests making anappearance.

CJ Bruton once again showed you can never countout a team he is on, the wily old veteran is one of those player who knows howto switch it on in the 4^th quarter and defines the word clutch inthe modern NBL, he can do nothing for the first 3 quarters but in the 4^th,you know if he is on court he’s going to do what he can to win, and his 13ptsoff the bench, while not very efficient at 33% from the field (4/12) and 33%from 3pt (3/9) were well needed.

Gary Wilkinson was again workmanlike with his10pts 6reb but it was Cedric Jackson who was the man all over the court, whenyour point guard has the team high in rebounds and has a 20pt and 10reb doubledouble, as a coach you really should thank the hoop gods for your blessings.

Thomas Abercrombie was the star of the nightthough, with a game high 25pts shooting a 69% clip from the field with 3reb2ast 2st and 2blk proving he is the man to lead the Breakers on another titlerun and doing it in such an exciting and high flying way it has Breakers fansforgetting all about some guy they used to have on their team, we think hisname was Kirk something or other.

(Box Score)

Crocs obliterate the Taipans, 75 - 43

OH MY!! What more can we really say.

If ever there was a game to provewhere the inspiration for the name of our website came from this was it becausethe Taipans sure as hell couldn’t buy a basket.

43 points as a team in a professionalleague is a scar on the level of play of the NBL, shooting 26% from the fieldand 13% from 3pt land as a team is something you expect from a Monday night recleague team at the local gym.

Andrew Warren and Brad Hill were theonly Taipans players not to mail in any form of offence, and while they werethe teams leading scorers and the only ones in double figures with 10pts apiece, those are numbers that are just plainly not good enough if you expect tokeep a scoreline competitive.

The only other play worth any mentionfrom the Taipans was Dusty Rychart who pulled in 10reb, other than that we donot believe anything more is warranted to mention apart from the fact that theTaipans had 6 more points than they had total rebounds as a team, but we thinkwe’ve said all we are going to say.

The Crocs just flat out asserted dominanceover their North Queensland rivals lead by hometown boy Peter Crawford who hada team high 14pts.

Now the Crocs, even though thedemolished their rivals didn’t play that great themselves, but was it theirdefence that lead to the scoreline or was it merely a horrible offensive nightfor the Taipans?

Jacob Holmes did not do much scoringthis night, but his work on the boards was instrumental in helping the Crocscontrol the game, Holmes only had 5pts but it was his 15reb and 4ast thatproved invaluable in helping the Crocs control the game.

Michael Cedar, Luke Schenscher andEddie Gill were working by the rule of 3, all 3 players scoring 12pts,Schenscher having 3 defensive rebounds out of his total of 4, Gill having 3astto go with his 3 turnovers and Cedar also having 3 turnovers.

Ben Allen even had some production inhis 20 minutes of court time, not something usually associated with his statsheet, but 7pts and 7reb is a good addition from a player who usually providesnothing more than a body on the court.

This game while a heated rivalry andone usually providing games worthy of discussion was nothing more than horriblyugly, it will be in the record books for all time, but in some ways, we wish itwasn’t for the benefit of all NBL fans and for the future generations of onesto come, the only thing worse is the fact that it will forever be remembereddue to it being a televised game, oh the humanity.

(Box Score)

Taipans regroup and hammer the Tigers, 77 - 56

When a team plays the 2^ndgame of a back to back stretch, you expect that team to come out a little tiredand lethargic, and sure as hell one team played that way, but it wasn’t theteam who was on their 2^nd game of the round.

The Tigers have had a tumultuouscouple of weeks with all kinds of going on happening at the club, but everyoneexpected them to turn the corner, only problem was they turned the corner allright, straight into an oncoming bus.

With a new import who is getting ahandle on the league and the league’s leading scorer in their midst, the Tigersprobably expected to mail it in against the Taipans who were on their 2^ndgame in 2 nights and were demoralised after a spanking at the hands of theirbiggest rivals.

This though was not to be, the Tigersplayed awfully, they shot just 34% from the field and 26% from 3pt land, andfor a potent offensive team to be that bad questions are going to be asked.

The Tigers were lead in every way bynew import point guard Myron Allen whohad team highs in almost every statistical category bar blocks, Allen had ateam high 13pts 10reb 3ast and 6 turnovers, but his efforts were not nearlyenough.

Frustrated with his team's effort, Bruston challenged Grabau to a duel

League scoring leader Cam Tragardh didmanage double figures with 12pts but had zero rebounds and no other statisticalcontribution except for a single assist, not something that we believe Triggerwill be happy with, it’s not through a lack of talent more so a lack of effortto hit the boards.

Liam Rush was the only other player toscore in double figures with 10pts and 4reb, he has been working his way backinto some kind of form, but what is most surprising is the lack of use of bigman Matt Burston, the Tigers are struggling to rebound and defend yet he isplaying just 11 minutes per game, surely Burston could provide some interiordefence and rebounding to keep the Tigers competitive and provide better matchups, but what we know, we aren’t coaches, but then again the same can be saidabout Trevor Gleeson sometimes.

The Taipans deserve some credit forbringing some respectability back to performance they put in the night before,and while not putting up and offensive performance worthy of discussion, it wasthe defensive side of the ball that swept them to victory.

One player used nothing more thansheer willpower to reignite his team after their dismal performance theprecious night, Jamar Wilson took the Taipans on his back and provided aperformance worthy of a player deserving to wear the uniform.

Wilson had team highs in points with25 and rebounds with 7, the trend of point guards leading their team inrebounding is a common theme this round.

The only other player to score indouble figures was the unlikely hero and club legend Aaron Grabau who had 13ptsand 4reb, much higher production than usual and proving the sometimes havingthat one veteran player to step up in times of need is more valuable than manythink, and Grabau is the most seasoned of the Taipans veterans.

No other player really deserves amention and the Taipans really need to evaluate their playing style as itdefinitely is not doing them any favours, the slow grind it out half courtoffence is not a system that usually works in the NBL but it can at timesfrustrate other teams and can get a few wins here and there.

The Taipans have the personnel as dothe Tigers, let’s just hope that both of these teams find a way to staycompetitive and keep their box scores respectable.

(Box Score)

Perth beat Sydney,91-74

Sydney have had quite a week, Moose Robilliard pushed asideto er….. CEO duties which left Tim Hudson to take over the reins and try tosteer this young team in the right direction. Regrettably, for Hudson that wasright towards the Jungle with the Wildcats waiting there to break a two gamelosing streak.

With the King’s organisation structure reshuffle aside bothteams got out to a clumsy start, the intensity was too much for either team tohandle. After the Kings tested the refereeing waters with a few flops early onthe Wildcats got a sniff of the lead the Kings pulled it back to a two pointmargin at the end of the first.

Perth exploded for a massive 36 points in the secondquarter, not only was that almost as much as Cairns had in their whole game onFriday night. Matthew Knight went to the bench in agony holding his shoulderonly to return from the changeroom minutes later and check himself back intothe game. Perth Executed well in the second period, their full court press waspicking off passes and making life tough for the Kings. Sydney managed to nail20 points for the quarter, most of those came when the Kings were able to runagainst the full court press but they still found themselves behind at the mainbreak.

After piling on so many points in the second the Wildcatsput on a now trademarked third quarter performance nailing an alarming 10points, Sydney managed to make inroads at the deficit but the quarter will beremembered for Jerai Grant showing no regard to current NBL player of the monthJesse Wagstaff. Grant sawed up above the ring to catch an alley oop pass andthrew it down on Wagstaff so hard that 4000 odd punters in red simultaneously clappedtheir hands on their head in disbelief. Wagstaff could only stammer aroundunderneath trying not to lose his footing, maybe he should check himself for aSpalding imprint on his forehead too.

The Kings pulled it to within 2 points but behind a barrageof Jesse Wagstaff three balls, managed to kick out and hang out for a 17 pointvictory. Wagstaff led the way for Catsscoring a game high 25 points, going 5/8 from outside and also grabbed 8rebounds. Kevin Lisch blocked a shot, much to the delight of the crowd and gotknocked around on his way to 19 points. Lisch was an Energiser Bunny with anever say die attitude taking it to the hole against the most formidable frontcourt in the league. Luke Nevill got the better of the battle against Khazzouh andTovey did well running the floor after pulling the defensive rebounds.

Anatoly Bose flopped and whinged his way to 16 points and 6rebounds, Julian Khazzouh had a quiet night by his standards but still managed10 boards and three blocks, whilst Grant added 12 points and 9 rebounds. IanRobilliard made a ‘Moose’ of himself suggesting to the media that the PerthWildcats play an illegal style of play and the refs “bless them” don’t call it.Whether this is just Moose trying to the ball thrown in the Kings end of thecourt with regards to refereeing decisions or Moose just wanting his name inthe newspaper we don’t know. One thing we do know is that he should be callinghis men out for their lousy free throw shooting (again). This time 9/16 for56%.

Can't Buy a Basket

NBL Wrap Round 20: Davidson vs Goliath

Jeff Dowdell has a mixtape

Brett Rainbow Montage

Trademark Leon Trimmingham Dunk

Perth Wildcats v Houston Rockets

Calvin Talford dunks

Julius Hodge Stamps

Russell Hinder and Clint Reed have a cuddle

Hinder Posterised by Julius Hodge

Rucker to MacKinnon Oop

Cortez Groves Alley Oop

Rashad Tucker Throws Alley Oop to Himself

Ebi Ere Tip Jam

Top 10 Dunks of 2000

Melboune Tigers and South East Melbourne Magic Brawl

Ira Clarke devastates Alex Loughton

Matt Earp Full Court Buzzerbeater

NBL Wrap Round 19: Oscarred for Life

NBL Wrap Round 18: McPeake gets a taste of his own medicine

What if the NBL had Alternate uniforms?

NBL Wrap Round 17: Average Wining Margin 24 Points

NBL Wrap Round 16: The McPeake Aftermath

NBL Wrap Round 15: Injuries, an Athlete's worst nightmare

2012 NBL Player Choice Awards

NBL Round 14 Wrap: Can you tell us how to get to Technical Street?