Jack, I noticed you hadn't posted a preview, so I wrote this. Pasted into your thread to keep it simple.

The NBL app lists this game at an oddly precise time, 7:43 pm precisely. I’ll try to follow this innovation with strangely precise predictions, which may suit your predilections.

The Sydney Kings remain at home, taking a quick day trip from their Harbourside domiciles to play at Qudos stadium. After a relaxing rivercat ride up the Parramatta River, Sydney players will be ready to roll at 7:43 AEDT. (remember, precision is key here). Or 9:43 in NZ. Kevin Lisch will remain at Mossman Bay, however. Not content with shooting 3s from the carpark, he’ll be bombing them from Sydney Harbour, shooting at a neat 42.85% from past downtown.

The New Zealand Breakers will arrive from a long flight across the ditch, and will be flat after downing too many complimentary L&Ps. The Grown Man will have a field day against the 1.5s of Sydney. Added together they’re still not a legitimate 4.

Bogut will score a quadruple double (points, rebounds, assists and correctly called plays in time outs). Long will try to play the long game at the offensive end, with Bogut sagging off to protect both the rim and his team’s defensive deficiencies in the 4 spot.

Bowen to score 8 points, half from massive dunks on drives, plus an alley oop dunk.

Randle to score between 18 and 21 points in the first 3 quarters, with 9 assists. A higher than usual assist number for a Randle, but remember it’ll be impossible for Lisch to gain assists from another postcode. Lisch can nail stationary targets (the ring) with his laser guided shots, but not moving cutters and leaders. If Randle goes hero ball in the 4th and the rest of the offence stagnates, the Lisch will be able to hit a few assists from back there.

The X factor in this game might just be Adnam. He’s cut his hair this season, and Olympic Park is a long way from the surf. Tonight Adnam goes off and scores between 12 and 20 points.

Sydney by 3. New Zealand to detour via the Gold Coast on the way home to catch up with all their cuzzies.

The oddly specific tipoff times make me uncomfortable

no worries

All this talk about Bogut being the best centre.....

A battle of the best Centres in the league, must include Angus Beef, who easily outplayed Pork Chop in their last encounter. Pork Chop looked rattled after falling on his glued elbow and was no match at any stage of the game.

Also Daniel Johnson with his ability to stretch out to the 3PG, and made Bogut look very ordinary.

Auckland to Sydney is not a long flight, heck my drive to work is probably longer.
NZ need to pound the ball inside as much as possible and try and get Bogut in foul trouble.

mystro

"Auckland to Sydney is not a long flight, heck my drive to work is probably longer." Yeah, but have you tried to drink L&P? Imagine doing that for 3- 3 1/2 hours.

I stand by my predictions, especially Bogut's quadruple double.

So apparently NZ had to fly to Sydney this morning because they're flight from yesterday had been delayed. Surely to impact the game you'd think.

Could have some effect. It's only a short flight, but no sleep means a bit of jet lag

Would also depend if they had to stay at the airport till their flight left or they had to leave and come back...

Jumpy - DJ was great last night wasn't he?
He's 5 grades below Bogut,and you know it!

Senator11

First Conklin doesn't get enough elbow room.
Now NZ may have had to kip down at an airport (actually I can’t remember how conveniently located Auckland airport is).
Next thing we’ll hear that Sydney have to catch the cityrail to Wollongong.

On a serious note, the plane issue might have a sizeable impact. Travel routines are important in pro sport.

Score more than 80pts and the Kings are finished. Those leg's will be like jelly in a 5 game series.

"If Bogut gets into foul trouble then the Kings are in trouble."

Evens out cos if he's on the bench he will be full time coaching whilst Gaze sits on the end of the bench watching old footage with Copeland.

Which team can better cover reduced minutes of their starting centre?

Depending on tactics, that could determine the game.

I still stand by my prediction of a Bogut quadruple double though.

Senator11: Gold.

You earn every single one of your miles in the RAAF business jets.

Thanks UTH, I'm on the NZ train so I can cash out my bet on the Kiwis to win the title, another win here will drop their odds more...but Gaze is still trash.

Betting on sport, Senator.

You should be Minister for Sport. Or the new Kes Patterson.

Wear scored 4 so far, but Bogut's lookin* good for the quadruple double.

Les Patterson

nbl defenses are horrible

David Wear 3/3... beast mode.

Wesley and esp Long too strong inside for Sydney secondary "bigs".

Perhaps Bogut should use Pineau, Wear & Kickert as 9-15 fouls to give against NZ.

Shea Illi and David Wear trying to outdo each other with terrible moves (Ili the pass and Wear the missed layup)!

nbl games are basically nba g league games , without quality players and with less defense

Agree with dione. Even deutsch bbl looks much stronger than this comedy

Kings hugely improved against the zone. Really finding seams off the ball

if this game was played according to nba clock
it would be like a 164-158 game

yeah what a great show.

Dione 69 did you see today's spurs v thunder game.
It was fucken brilliant.

Did they leave him on the bench so Long he lost his game rhythm???

We're down by 13 so on come Ili and Webster to ensure the margin blows out even more- keep Richard and Weeks out there!!!

6 minutes to go in the third, Bogut on three, loudly implores Gase to leave him on, not a single player on the court for NZ identifies the situation, thats why you have coaches, very very frustrating. Gifted the Kings the win IMHO.

Three games in a row now that Lisch has scored a team-high. He's the championship X-Factor. If he scores well in big games they win the championship I think

'Very Old'- such a frustrating season! So much talent, so little heart from some- don’t really know what to think about this team.

Looking forward, and without knowledge of contracts and options, I’d say:

KEEP
Long
Wesley
Delany
Weeks
Ngatai
Abercrombie
Richard

LET GO
Webster
Ili
Moore
Majok (Not sure what his role is!)

The Once-In-A-Blue-Moon Wear Game!

Despite Long having a decent game, I think the Kings do well against them because Bogut can sag back into the paint (and Long oblidged with bricking 3-pointers). They struggle much more against teams with bigs who can stretch the floor (like Adelaide and Melbourne).

Much improved against the zone as well, and when Randle, Lisch, and Wear all fire (with a timely appearance from Bowen), they are tough to beat.

Abercrombie sure has been passive and disappointing this season, and Webster happy to shoot you out of the game. Glad to see Weekes step up. Should be in line for more minutes, as the remainder of NZ's backcourt is either lacklustre or very up-and-down.

Not sure NZ should've ever dropped the zone. The 3-2 especially, I thought the King's did a real poor job attacking that. Happy to get the win, and a huge 4th from Bowen... Although maybe a bit more finesse on the dunks...

I'm not sure why (a) Ngatai hardly gets court time/doesn't play at all and (b) Delany gets very limited minutes.

Delany has shown he can not only play (I recall he had a massive scoring game earlier in the year), but also excel at this level. Ngatai can play too.

I've been calling for Abercrombie's, Websters and Moore's minutes to go to Delany and Ngatai since early in the season, but unfortunately its that old-age mentality that veterans and imports get FROR on the minutes basically (even if they're not up for it)

Agreed @MACDUB

In the off-season, Ngatai was one of my frontrunners for MIP tbh.

Webster is like Conger at the Hawks last season. Needs the ball in his hands to take self-created jumpers. What Conger does better, however, is take high-percentage looks and get to different parts of the floor with his dribble. The only way to play him imo is having him run off picks so he can look to turn the corner or shoot wing jumpers. He kills team momentum with his ball dominance. In terms of salary in relation to the way he should play to best impact the team, he is a gross overpay (from what I've heard), but if the Breakers want to be more successful they need to change his role. He's an inefficient volume shooter.

Ili has proven himself to be inconsistent, and frankly he is entering his prime so cannot be trusted with the starting PG spot.

"The Once-In-A-Blue-Moon Wear Game!"


He's won more games for them than Steve Blake did