Anonymous
Years ago
Who's going to finish 4th on the NBL ladder?
It looks like the top 3 spots on the ladder are sorted unless Adelaide lose all 3 games remaining AND lose by more than 6 points to the Tigers AND the Tigers win both their remaining games. If one of those things doesn't happen then it will be Perth and Adelaide top 2. For Melbourne not to drop to 4th they need to either win 1 of 2 games OR have Sydney not win all 4 remaining games as Sydney has them beaten in the head to head.
So it looks like Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne for top 3, however for the 4th spot since Sydney has 4 games remaining it looks kinda interesting between Sydney and Woolongong .... and Cairns a massive outsider.
- Sydney (11-13) have NZ, Adelaide, Woolongong and Townsville.
- Woolongong (11-14) have Townsville, Sydney and Perth.
- Cairns (11-15) have Melbourne and NZ. Cairns need to win both their games finish (13-15), have Woolongong beat Sydney and lose the other 2 and have Sydney only win 1 of 4 games to make it. So Cairns are like the San Diego Chargers and need about 7 games to go their way.
As for Sydney and Woolongong, it may all come down to their head to head clash next week. Sydney are no certainties of knocking off the Breakers and Adelaide would have to be favourites on that game, so if Sydney split this weekend (1-1) and if Woolongong beat Townsville then both would be (12-14) into the last week and their head to head clash the following week becomes a game for who will play finals.
The other irony is that Townsville, who is last, plays them both and still can have an impact on who will make finals.
I actually think Woolongong are in a better position to make finals having to really prepare for 2 games (sacrifice the Perth game) while Sydney needs to prepare for all 4. That said, I would rather see Sydney play Perth in the finals series but looks like they lost too many easy ones earlier in the year.
