Kernich-Drew watching Steindl shoot his role away

Bang bang 3 pointers

Cooke playing well. Cotton is going ok, just ok for his standards. Tokoto in foul trouble. Have to improve if the Wildcats want to beat the best teams.

Steindl is just showing why its madness that he couldn't get an NBL gig when the Crocs folded. I guess he was stuck in that mid-tier of players and couldn't get the type of money he probably thought was fair, but I'd have been happy to see him in Sydney the last couple of seaons.

Tokoto charge was absolute rubbish. Shows complete lack of judgement. That was a hold for sure. Tokoto held a straight line.
Brisbane's Holt and Kickert need to get involved. They struggle to score in these close ones and everyone needs to pick up the load.
Perth playing poorly but still in front. Bryce Cotton will get going for sure. So pressure is on Brisbane to keep some scoreboard pressure on Perth.

A mate had a pretty decent description of the first 20mins.

Imagine 2 blokes without arms trying to pick up a rock. Now imagine you paid $100 to bring your family to watch them do it, spending 2 hours in traffic to do so. Now, punch yourself in the head. Right? That was what the first half was like.

Feels like a preseason game. Not feeling any intensity in this.

Cooke was playing well then was benched for a quarter

Yeah cooke was having one of his better games and providing some rim protection. Gleeson then sits him on the pine for the second quarter

Tokoto hang time is better than Jordan.

The Brisbane floodgates opening

Cooke with tha flush! Gleeson was obviously saving his best man for the second half :p

Geez do they even fill 20% of that arena

The Bairstow thing really hamstrung the Bullets IMO. Needed to come out of the gates strong season 1, but losing Bairstow threw their roster out last year, and I don't think Holt-Trice was the right combo at import... Should've grabbed a big over Holt IMO.

International Rules NBL is using.

Apparently it's "international rules", but I see a lot more physicality when I watch European basketball...

Always handy when Damo can score a few points. Cooke playing his best game so far

That injury on Buford did not look good, couldn't put weight on the leg... massive blow for Brisbane if he's out for extended time. Hell, massive blow for them if he misses a single game.

Te Rangi is awful.

I wonder what Buford did to not be able to put any weight on his leg, then be back on the court in 2 mins? Dislocation?

Damo what a legend

Trice should've taken that one.

Lucky Cotton's got strong ankles... if I'd landed like that in those low cut sneakers my ankle would've broke in half.

Geez slipped like a meter on one foot. Lucky to not be injured.

Damo fouled Trice on that 100%. All over his arms. I love Damo but his reputation has allowed him to get away with a lot over the years.

Trice was nowhere even near that foul. Way to try and cheat fella

I don't think I've ever seen that before in a pro game re: the FT stunt... weird.

I hate that stupid possession arrow rule

Should of been a tech.

Cotton is all class! It would have been nice to see him dunk it finally if it wasn't for the slippery key way

Jump balls introduce a bit of a chaos to the game... No matter who wins the tip, always a chance of either team coming up with the ball. Few things more deflating than late in a close game where one team fights to tie up a rebound/tipped ball with an opponent only to have it given back to the other team on possession arrow...

Good call, MACDUB. Martin gets away with blue murder.

Good on Perth for the win, but there is surely something about the travel, as I pondered earlier in the season, where it knocks them about and they don't go as hard on the road.

"I don't think I've ever seen that before in a pro game re: the FT stunt... weird."

The Boomers tried it at the London Olympics out of a time-out with Patty Mills stepping in for Matt Nielsen (from memory) and got pinged with a T I think.

No, they got the same penalty Brisbane did: free-throws were cancelled and their opponent got the ball.

Are leagues compelled to adopt FIBA rules? And if there are liberties allowed, how many/how much?

Like there are fundamental rules, then there are little things like the goaltend rule, jump ball rule, no timeouts on the floor rule etc.

The NBA make their own rules and don't give a f##$ about FIBA. Don't know if the NBL or BA would suffer if it went that way.

"No, they got the same penalty Brisbane did: free-throws were cancelled and their opponent got the ball."

Yeah that sounds more like it. Interesting to hear in the press conference tonight Buford say the ref indicated for Trice to take the shots.

Brisbane crowds are woeful, but the league is doing the team no favours scheduling home tip off times on weeknights at 630pm. Brisbane traffic to get to either venue is utter bedlam and many aren't bothering with the effort of leaving two hours early to get to a game they could easily watch in tv.

If they want to see more bums on seats, pushing start times out to 730pm local would go a long way. Simple common sense.

its 8:40 in Perth and this is not available on NBL TV - why am I paying for this shit.

If I wait a few hours its on ABC.

Every away game this season - just not good enough.

I have had problems with nbl tv even a few hour after the game

If the crowd attendances are low the game lacks atmosphere which negatively impacts the overall product on tv

That was actually Te Rangi's best game of the year.
Kickert played tentatively, therefore ineffective. He got caught twice picking up the ball before he had decided what shot he was going to take on back downs. Thats inexcusable for a player of his class.
Holt tried too hard.not decisive enough when Martin stole the ball. He only had one option when he got that ball and that was to let it fly. He dithered and Martin pounced.
Lemanis clearly on edge when he ducked off from pregame interview.,
Wagstaff held Brisbane off until Cotton took over.
Perth played poorly really and were there for the taking.
Brisbane not good enough, always in catchup mode.Even when they tied it up always had the feeling Perth would edge away.

Something not right about Brisbane Bullets, I thought preseason that Buford would be the problem and he is... he's the only one consistently showing his worth.

The team should be way better than what they are and if they aren't getting the results then they should be blooding some of those talented juniors they have on the bench... nothing positive is coming from them and I need them to do well so they can knock off the teams I hate later in the season.... but seriously when was the last time an Andrej Lemanis coached side looked like the underdogs each time they stepped on the court, they are talented but Kickert is proving a liability and Peach replacing him isn't helping them.

For what it's worth.

I think TV ratings, crowd and media are inter-connected in a nexus we could call a sports entertainment milieu.

Addressing just one area won’t immediately or necessarily improve the whole.

Small steps across all areas will result in incremental improvements.

Things are definitely heading in the right direction, but there is no magic solution. As each aspect becomes more professional and appealing to a greater audience, the areas still needing improvement (or weaknesses) become more obvious (eg umpiring, coaches, certain teams and managers of teams). I happen to think that the overall standard of play has improved, which has just acted as a contrast to other aspects.

In my opinion the NBL community needs to be competitive both on and off the field, but everyone involved needs to realise that they’ ultimately need each other. This might ultimately mean a more dominant team needs to sacrifice a bit to help their competition become stronger as it will make their own product (game and associated experiences) stronger too. This was probably the intent of the "soft cap" and taxing the big-spending teams. I think the best example of this is the AFL and their equalisation strategies. Some AFL teams are still being “propped up” by the stronger clubs, but how much more lucrative is the whole AFL now than in its early AFL era or the VFL era. The NBL is a much tougher case, because the resources are much thinner on the ground.

Can individuals sacrifice a bit in the short term for better career prospects for all?

Time will tell.

Crowd was 4600 according to the NBL boxscore. That surprised me. Looked like no more than 3000 were at the game so the crowd must have been spread out. A pretty good attendance given the Bullets have a low support base and the early 6.30 tip off time.

Bullets are a work in progress, and a lot of work is needed to get them up to the level they need to be to be successful.