It's free entry tonight when the Lightning take on the Lynx at Titanium Security Arena.
Get down there to see some entertaining basketball, and also the Lightning :p

Lightning are copping a serious Whitcombing here in the first quarter

I'm pretty impressed by Adelaide tonight - particularly their 17-0 run and keeping Perth's bigs to 0 points in the half while their bigs made a combined 30 points. It's almost as if the only player who made the trip over from Perth is Whitcomb..

Perth completely switched off in that 2nd quarter and Adelaide stayed disciplined. This has turned into a good contest.

It'll be an interesting fourth quarter to say the least, Perth held the momentum in the first and third, and Adelaide were great in the second. Adelaide seem a lot closer than 8 points down.

Tenaya Phillips makes such a difference to this team

Definitely great to see Phillips back out on court, her output tonight has been fantastic! She brings a lot of energy to the game which is really fun to watch, plus I really love her hair!

Wow that Fire/Flames game sure lived up to their team names! It's probably not very often that Suzy would miss 2/2 free throws, though I guess the pressure of those free throws to either send the game to OT or win the game would get to your head very easily. I'm looking forward to watching that one when the Fire upload it to their youtube hopefully in a few days.

Ahh the Boomers.. I feel a rant is coming so I'll try and keep my thoughts on this one short - mainly on the subbing patterns. (I just followed this one via live stats as the Spirit don't stream, so this rant is based purely off what I observed from the stats sheet so if anyone was there feel free to correct me if wrong) I just don't understand why in the last quarter when the game was in a winnable position for them they sub Kunek out early who was to that point their highest scorer, for Ott. Now I think Ott has been great recently, BUT she wasn't getting the scoreboard ticking over like Kunek was and surely Kunek's big game experience would be beneficial to the team. Only playing her for 22 minutes in a winnable game just seems to me like they're wasting her on the bench.

When they finally bought Kunek back in it was at the expense of Garrick instead of Ott and then Cole went off for Conti. Then Thompson went off for Cunningham who also was bringing nothing to the scoreboard - there goes their 3 equal high scoring players for players who combined contributed less points than each of them individually. As a supporter this just frustrates me, I'm all for developing the players, but I think in games where things are tight toward the end AND the experienced players are playing well, it should be left to the experienced players to get the job done.

Huge game for the Lynx today vs Dandenong. (Pity it's not being streamed)
The Rangers have had our number this season, beating us by 20 & 21. They know how to shut us down.
I'm just not sure the Lynx are championship-calibre compared to the likes of the Rangers & Flames. If we want to be in that conversation it needs to start today.

It still surprises me that the Lynx stopped their live streams especially considering they're doing fancy things like the almost professional quality footage from the drone at training. It's a shame because I reckon this one will go down to the wire, but if Blicavs can keep her great form up and score thereabouts of 20+ points, then I think Dandenong will get the job done.

In the 2 games this season we have held Blicavs to a combined 18 points on 8/28 shooting, and still been smashed both times, so they are not reliant on her to beat us. Her primary role will likely be keeping Mijovic quiet.
Steph Cumming was huge in both games, at both ends of the floor. She seems to thrive on the challenge of going up against Sami. Combined with Novosel & Todhunter that's some seriously good defence in their backcourt, and I think that is the key to shutting Perth down. Carley can do some damage if left alone and Ruth is solid, but our guards are the engine room.
I'm tipping the Rangers but hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Re The Boomers Spirit game I was also perplexed at rotation of Kunek given she was shining in first quarter then hardly played in 2nd. I guess the fact that they lost the first quarter by 8 and then got on a roll in the 2nd when she wasn't out there to win that quarter by 7 may explain the reasoning for that. However I am starting to read into it that auditions for next years roster have begun and in fact decisions may have already been made on some.

The Lynx look to be having a pretty well rounded game so far.. It'll be interesting to see if/how the Rangers respond to their dominance coming out of the half time break.. No doubt Larissa would not be very happy with them, but they do seem to respond to her so who knows.

@ANON The same happened midway through the third, Kunek had a great few minutes and then gets pulled off as soon as she knocked down her free throws. I agree re the auditions for next season - I hope they re-sign her though, I think while she's been a bit inconsistent at times this season, she's always working hard and is close to their best player. I feel for a few of the players who have had their already limited opportunities dry up recently, especially when their height and rebounding strength would be beneficial to the team.

Good team D by the Lynx, but Steph just had one of those days where nothing goes right.
Very happy to get the win today, although it was far from convincing. After the first quarter blitz the Rangers composed themselves and I thought were the better team over the last 3 quarters, but it was catch-up all the way and proved too much. Sami was well guarded for the most part but responded well. Mijovic was also guarded well but responded by throwing up absolute junk. Pretty much everyone else in red played their part offensively though. It was good to see an even performance like that.

These teams meet again in the last round and that will be well worth tuning into on YouTube.

Sami was a joy to watch this round. She'd have to be a chance for POTW.

I didn't watch the Boomers game on the weekend, but watched the Boomers/Rangers game the weekend, and agree with everyone's comments about the subbing patterns. Things were reasonably close in the 4th, with Kunek (who had around 20 points to that point) on the bench for Ott, and Garrick also spending large portions on the bench. Bowen hit 3 3's in quick succession in the first half, then basically sat on the bench for the entire 2nd half.

Aside from the subs, I walked away thinking the Boomers had played reasonably well, and that a loss to the Rangers of around 10 points is a fair representation of where they're at. They basically only have Keane (who still doesn't have her own singlet & is still playing in Penaluna's singlet, even after all this time) as a PF/C, and no other legitimate big (unless you include Thompson. Not Bygate though, as she's a spud).

Probably one of the worst days for Steph to have an off one, but good on Perth for their defensive efforts! Hopefully now she's got that off game out of her system she'll be firing heading into the playoffs. That was a massive game to win for Perth though, seeing as it now means when Dandenong plays Sydney on the 11th it could well decide first place - I'm already excited for that game!!

The Boomers could've at least taped over the name on the 21 singlet like they did for Veal last season. I thought Molloy's subbing was great earlier in the season, but for the past month and a bit or so it's really fallen off. As I've said before I'm all for developing girls like Conti, Ott and Burton, but it's just questionable the choice of minutes he chooses to play them. It's like they have a bit of momentum with their lineup and then all of a sudden half of them get sent off and the momentum just gets lost. You couldn't even argue it's to do with their game fitness because basically 4/5 of the starters can and have played very big minutes.

I agree re Keane, she really only has Black covered on physical strength - Black to me looked a bit like someone in that awkward lanky teenage phase where they don't quite know what to do with their limbs yet, and 3 point shooting - which to be honest the Boomers didn't need already having Kunek, Smart and Garrick. It probably would've been better to persevere with Black just because she was a genuine center, which is what they really needed to go after if they wanted to replace her, but then that's hindsight and nothing can be done about it now.

On Garrick, I agree to an extent, from what I've observed at least, it seems like the shuffle that they run is aimed to get the ball to one of Kunek, Smart or Garrick for the shot - which would help lead to her low assist numbers. I get why they rarely get it in to one of the 'bigs' because they are simply too undersized in there, and when they do its usually in a pick and roll. In saying that though, I do think sometimes she (and all of the Melb players to be honest) force the shot a little too often when there are other wide open or mismatch options available. That's frustrating to watch as a supporter, but you can even see the players who get ignored for the shot get frustrated over it at times.

The one asset Keane has over the other bigs for the Boomers is her strength. I watched her against Tolo, who was really frustrated with her physicality. No one else on the Boomers could've competed physically like that (i'm excluding Bygate from the equation, as I think she's miles away from being WNBL standard).

Having said that, when they face sides with a mobile Centre, she will always struggle on D, as she doesn't move well laterally, and often gets lost defending a pick and roll. She has no vertical leap to speak of, so rebounding is an issue. Her outside shooting is a bonus, but this is already a strength of the Boomers, and an import with a post up game would be a necessity for next season.

Unfortunately I don't think that the Boomers would be in a financial position to pay out the 3 year contract.. Though in saying that I wouldn't mind seeing someone like Sam Woosnam get the job - especially now that she's got the Garrick connection as she's playing for Kilsyth this upcoming SEABL season.

The amount of money they must take in with what they charge for seats compared to every other WNBL team , and I guarantee they don't pay ayers well either it would be worth finding the money to get him out , their poor performance for most of the season and the obvious tension between coach and players should be enough for them to justify it