is this one on One HD? i know i should check the schedule but cbf. my tip is Breakers by 6

Yes starts at 5pm Live

Brilliant. cheers for that big sexy.

Im with you SRT070, won't be a big win but I believe they'll do enough to get the win over the Cats

It's hard to see the Wildcats pull a win. IMO, they were playing the man too much (refer against the Sixers) and the Breakers are hard to beat on their turf.

There are a few things I love about their games there. They have these two middle aged guys wearing wigs called "The Noize" who bash drums right behind the opposition bench - man they are annoying. They are not pleasant on the eye either. Look for them on the TV. To quote Blackadder, "I think someone has been hit with the ugly stick"
They also have a drum crew there as well. When the opposition line up for a FT, they fill the stadium with the sound of drums.
Their dancers just prove how good the Sixers dancers are.
Their corporates are right on the floor with their tables of food. If a player got a bit peckish, he could always reach over and get a mussel or a glass of NZ Sav Blanc, or an "L&P". "Cheers!"

If Spenda is back in the lineup, Wildcats should spend the time bungy jumping off the Auckland Tower - it'll be more productive

Yeh i agree with you guys too, NZ are damn hard to beat at home. and as said at the start it is hard to see perth 0-2 but in saying that they are having 3 road games to start the seaon, and they are not the easiest away games either. i think at the end of the week they will be 1-2, after Sydney beating melbourne at home i dont see why perth cant beat melbourne at the cage. But tonight will be pretty tight between them. Cats will be hungry, NZ will be hungrier in front of the home crowd.

P.S. i would have put a bigger margin if Penney was back for this round.

If Penney was playing I'd be a lot more confident but I think the Breakers have enough depth to get this one.
I'm expecting Wilkinson to top score followed by Bruton and Abercrombie to get his 2cnd Double Double of the season and Vukona to pester the opposition relentlessly.
lol @ Jack Toft's comment re:
If a player got a bit peckish, he could always reach over and get a mussel or a glass of NZ Sav Blanc, or an "L&P". "Cheers!"

Hard to see Perth getting up.
Breakers defence will be as good as Sixers and we should execute a lot better offensively.
Perth were rattled against Sixers and really struggled to get anything going. I expect more of the same tonight.

Anon, NZ are a far better team defensively this season so I wouldn't read too much into last seasons home win/loss record

Game tips off in less than half an hour. Live stats

Good viewing for basketball novices so far, alot of scoring! But these commentators are woeful to listen too....again! Atleast NZ footage is consistant.

Wow, watching Livestats and the Wildcats have scored more in the first 8 minutes of the game than they did in the first 20 against the Sixers.

Is the Sixers' defence that much better than the Breakers, Perth having an off day last Sunday, or a combination of both?

Is there anywhere you can stream the games live? Unfortunately i'm in a remote area that doesn't get OneHD!!!

MASSIVE SCREEN! that had to hurt!

SRT that screen was BRUTAL!

Those are the types of picks that the Sixers bigs should be setting each and every time!

For sure. that was such an epic screen. i love that basketball can be as rough as that without a foul call. I tell you what if the season stays like this, every minute of every game will be a highlight

Damn this is a tight game. The way the breakers have been playing reminds me of sixers last season. poor turnovers.

ok with games like that and the ones that have been televised so far, how can you not love the NBL?

That was an incredible game!

Another brutal game tonight. Did anyone tell the refs they were umpiring a basketball game?

Wildcats looked like they were in control most of the game, but I reckon they ran out legs in the 4th quarter. No surprises there, considering how hard they had to play against the Sixers Sunday night.

First time I've seen Shiny Brasswell play and I'm feeling a lot better about taking him as my PG in Hoops FNBL too. The guy was clutch in that last quarter!

Redhage and Lisch were phenomenal for the first three quarters but some good old fashioned All Blacks TLC in the final quarter quietened them down. (No sympathy from me - the Wildcats are probably the dirtiest team in the league!)

Marto was not only a pest but once again made clutch shots and constantly broke down the opposing D off the dribble.

What's the deal with the scorers only giving Matt Knight 2 blocks? I saw three clear blocks from him in the space of 5 secs either late in the 1st or early in the 2nd quarter! I hope you didn't get to them Lockie!

Hell of a game.

Quite happy to see NZ win after that trademark Redhage flop.

NZ have some fantastic hustle players now with the addition of Vukona and BJ (what a screen!!!), I can't wait til the Sixers play them!

I saw at least 4 Abercrombie steals too Beantown. These stats teams are always against me :/

Yeah that screen was huge, the Bear would have been proud. Big ups to the Breakers for sneaking away with that one. Braswell was massive down the stretch as was Abercrombie and Vukona's hustle on the boards. In that third quarter NZ would have been sunk without Bruton creating his own shots and it looked like Vukona and Abercrombie were gonna foul out and it was going to be all over. Perth now 0-2, who would have thought lol. Breakers great start to the season

Diappointing effort from the Breakers to allow Perth a flyer to start and then had to grind away before Braswell and the home crowd got them home.
Did not see the game but why was Wilkinson a non factor until he tried to throw the game with an unecessary foul in the final minute?
Good to see Braswell come good.
Surely Breakers can improve on this!! Perth don't look anything like the championship team of last year.

Massive Screen

ouch - where am I?

Is Steve Weigh the most OVER RATED player in the NBL? What does this guy actually do? He seems slow on the court, lacks the ability to create his own shot, doesn't rebound well and cannot move his feet on D. Above all he is as soft as butter.

Don't know why coaches around the league keep talking him up. Abercombie made him look second rate tonight.

Perth really miss the veteran leadership of Catt and Young. Redhage is the oldest guy on the roster and he is worried about one thing. Shawn Redhage.

Not sure all the hype surrounding Perth in the pre-season is warranted, don't underestimate that veteran savvy, especially come playoff time!

steohen weigh most overrated player = biggest load of bullshit i have every heard .

last year he was one of the most improved players, and this year will take his time.

cant creat his own shot ? is that a joke
doesnt rebound - ahh check his stats against adelaide i think he had 7 more than most of 6ers last week and slow
i have seen him play up close he aint slow .

i think "the truth"needs to get his facts right

steohen weigh most overrated player = biggest load of bullshit i have every heard .

last year he was one of the most improved players, and this year will take his time.

cant creat his own shot ? is that a joke
doesnt rebound - ahh check his stats against adelaide i think he had 7 more than most of 6ers last week and slow
i have seen him play up close he aint slow .

i think "the truth"needs to get his facts right

BJ ran into that and it didn't give Williamson much chance to adjust. What do the refs on here think - legal?

It's funny, I was watching the game today and asked myself "how the hell is he going to get into the game". It was probably just the excellent D but Weigh looked lethargic and completely unable to beat his man one on one.

He's an elite spot-up guy so might just need a bit more teammate help.

Rebounding isn't a problem, but his D is just ok and the soft call isn't too far off the mark.

I think he does have the ability to create a bit of space for an outside shot, but he's not much of a penetration threat at all. Not sure if that's what Truth was talking about.

The Truth, I reckon Perth will come good pretty soon. They just need to rest up and get a game at home under their belts. Having to play Adelaide on opening night and then back up in NZ three days later would not be easy. Sure they lost, but they were a threat to win in both contests.

Their intensity was there for all but some of the final quarter today and Lisch and Redhage are both gun scorers. Matt Knight won't get outrebounded too often and is a threat to put up points as well. Martin is playing great D, penetrated and created at will tonight and is even nailing threes! Wagstaff and Robbins are still looking good off the bench too. I find it hard to believe that they won't be top two at the end of the season.

Totally Agree , looked much better tonight to

Agree Beantown, Perth will improve as the season goes on. They did everything but win that game.

The Breakers have the Tigers next, a real chance to go 3-0 and build some momentum. Can't see the lumbering Tigers bigs having much luck with Vukona and Abercrombie although the NZ guards will have to step up and put some pressure on Davendorff, Corletto and T.J Campbell if they are going to have a chance and ball security was a real issue against Perth especially right at the end when it looked like the Breakers were going to sneak away with a win, they made it so much harder than it needed to be

Isaac on the screen, at first look I'm going offensive foul. I don't know he was set in time. BJ was moving forward right up to the point of contact. Used elbows a little.
To me those mid court screens have to be stationary and well set before contact. That was almost set directly behind player.

Any player will look like crap when the defence has their number.

Weigh only looked back because half the possessions he had ended up leading into double-teams. Not much you can do when you're driving the lane, you get cut off and you have no support.

Redhage will always get heat wherever he goes; doesn't matter about the flops unfortunately. The ref either buys it or doesn't. Laugh at him for failing and hate him for getting the O.F.

I won't say the Breakers look legit yet. I'll let the Tigers game do that.

Agree Mystro, good teams might give an opponent playing well a sniff once in a game, (conceding early lead) but having wrested the initiative in the 4th, we needed to be ruthless and not give them a second sniff with turnovers and dumb fouls.
Perth could have and probably should have got up with that last play. Then we would all be saying "Breakers of old".

Bill, yep.

That game could've easily gone the other way if Redhage hadn't fallen over when the other Wildcat knocked away the ball on one of the Breakers final inbounds passes. Great finish for a TV game, though DJ was just suggesting to me off-forum that the forced FT misses by Boucher might look a bit lame to home viewers?

Commentary on that screen: "Oh wow, he smashed him Bro!"

Isaac - I think generally that screen would have been called an offensive foul, but in the context of that game and how physical it had been, I think it was a good no call.

Nutwork, that is perfectly acceptable use of the english language in a situation like that, especially in NZ. If it was still on Maori TV it would have been "aow that fulluh got smashed up hard g by that big fullah bro" :)

Good call Clarky, would have been rubbish to call BJ Anthony for an offensive (possibly warranted) when so many other physical plays went unpunished, good consistency from the refs and one was right there to make the call.

Moving screen=offensive foul!

I love to see Perth lose but the amount of times the umpires let NZ get away with fouls is unbelievable. I think it will be a different story when they are playing away and the umpires are actually calling the fouls.

Cats have slipped slightly from $3.50 to $3.75. Breakers up from $6 to $4.50.

36ers are marginal improvers to $14 and now level with the Kings.

Jacob re: stephen weigh

You still haven't explained what he actually does? He had 7 boards against 36ers, yes but they are the smallest team in the league. For a player who people are saying is an athlete he doesn't show much, gets pushed out of the contest and is limited in what he can do with the ball when he is in a pressure situation.

Where was he in the big games last year? Thats right chillin on the bench while catt and young got things done.

Even last night he only managed 7 points & 5 boards while his opposite number tom abercombie went to work with 17 & 7.

The same could be said for Ben Allen in Townsville. A lot of hype leading into the season yet he saw a DNP in his first game. Individuals underestimate the strength of this league and what a huge jump it is from college ball to the NBL. Especially coming from such a poor conference as the WCC.

If Perth don't want him, I'd be happy to have him in Adelaide. He's still pretty young and shows good promise.

Yep, 10ppg and 4-5rpg in his second seson last year were pretty impressive. Still has work to do, but he has a large upside. Perth need to get him some better shots this year rather than leaving it for him to make something out of nothing.

Give him the ball going towards the hole and he is hard to stop.

King James, you really think that any NZ team in an Australian Sports Comp gets any love from the refs let alone at home, even when they are Kiwi refs it's like they are too scurred to give the home team any love in case they don't get another NBL Reffing gig, yet any other team gets those home calls rightfully so. Redhage got away with a fair bit throughout that whole game so what comes around goes around so to speak.
Im not saying that the Breakers don't foul, cos that would be total rubbish, I'm saying it's not very often that we get away with it ;)

Finally saw a replay.
Perth out defended us. Turnovers aside, our defence gave up too much. Surprised how well Perth handled us really. I think they showed the benefits of the Sixers outing, whereas Breakers not up to game pace.
Really impressed with Mathew Knight. He shovelled it up for the game winner almost perfectly, but couldn't quite get it to go, thankfully.
May have to reassess their repeat title hopes!

why was the umpire doing "horns" gesture after a few fouls?

-how horrible was te court
-benny j's screen was HUGE
-kirk added to this team = championship
-well done corey webster- good playing
-mika, braswell and bouch were huge
-redhage and lisch were good but not much else