Melbourne will win by a shitload.

Worst NBL team ever?

Ok maybe not with Jawai actually producing for once!

Goulding has been putting up pure trash.

Hall scores... on Goulding.

Talk about flopping...

Goulding still the MVP flopper.

All the Cairns haters saying they they worst team in the league/ever- they're not the bad- they pushed sydney, they’re pushing melbourne, they’re a brnad new team essentially- give them a chance they’ll be fine!

And then devon hall takes matters into hos own hand and kills cairns off almost

Yes Dwayne, it counts...

I look forward to LV's outrage about all the calls that favoured Melbourne down the stretch.

Wowee great game to watch with trimble and ware going at it. But the flopping by goulding really ruined what was a great spectacle. Cairns really had their chances but blew it at the end i thought. Good signs from Hall too

How bad is josh boone

Boone surely not 100%?

Just another example of the bias to the big end of the NBL and how the the games are umpired dependanty on who is playing.Goulding is a renouned flopper and grub and gets away with it every game. Goal tend on Mitchell from Taipans even though replays show it was not 2 unsportsmanlike fouls against Cairns yet Melbourne got away with several fouls that could or should of been unsportsmanlike. But the NBL is not an even playing field and the clubs with the big budgets will continue to wipe out the smaller less profitable. It is a league of the haves and have nots so really is there honour in winning the league I for one dont' think so as it is a bought title. The NRL, AFL and soccer used to be like this now they really are national sports which all participants are level. A lot of people out there will not agree but compare the results of the Taipans and Illawarra in the last ten years compared to Melbourne, Adelaide, New Zealand, Sydney and Perth. The larger clubs with cash always win the NBL.It is a very boring competition really, results in easn game is pretty much a given and if not the officials ensure that it goes the way it is supposed to.Just my opinion.

Hall has to go- how is he an NBA draft pick
Goulding has to stop flopping
DKD missing the layup- wow!
Cairns are a decent import away from being decent

Melo's effort to get himself open on the inbounds was pretty ordinary....no matter who wrote it up!!

compare the results of the Taipans and Illawarra in the last ten years compared to Melbourne, Adelaide, New Zealand, Sydney and Perth.

Goulding stands on sideline on inbound. Clearly a tech (last 2 minutes ) Cairns had their opportunities but this error by officials crucial and not surprising.

Didn't watch the game KR

Anyone else finding the nbl tv app isn't working after the most recent update?

Of course you didn't. That's the only reason I'm sure.

Didn't watch either game

Feeling out of the loop

Family takes priority over hoops.....sometimes ;-)

Goulding with the shiteater's grin on the free throw line after getting that USF called on Jawai. NBL refs - like taking candy from a baby.

The USF in transition was the correct call.

It was, agreed. But his grin was cumulative re: flops etc. that went his away earlier.

It would if you utilised some brain cells.

Nobody mentioning the Trimble over-acting? The slightest touch and his head goes so far back he could do a reverse hand-stand.

Or that the refs continue to penalise the defender when the dribbler pushes them away, which I'd call an offensive foul unless someone can point to FIBA rules which allow it. (Ware and Goulding excel at this.)

SMH

As I mentioned in the flopping thread a while back, if the refs keep calling it, players will keep doing it. It's silly to blame players, they are just doing what gets them an advantage.

Also, regarding Young’s goaltend, the ball was on the way down. Correct my ignorance, but doesn’t that make it goaltending regardless if it has hit the backboard or not?

In the end, Cairns just unlucky that Hall’s midrange J rimmed out, and then the inbounds pass out of the timeout was such a disaster (great D by Ware to deny Trimble the ball, the obvious target for the play).

claiming NZ as one of the big spenders ! Would say one of the lowest - no way we would sign a Bogut or Goulding or Cotton or Conger etc. Think out budget would be way lower.
Helps we have good homegrown players (something we have non of with the Football/Phoenix) - think the NZ players have some loyalty and like staying at home etc and the club.

Suggesting afl is an evwn playing field is comical, just look at the schedule. Teams that finish in the bottom third get harder rated fixtures than richmond who finished first, and this according to the afls own champion data.

"As I mentioned in the flopping thread a while back, if the refs keep calling it, players will keep doing it."

Exactly, the charge/block/flop in our league is embarrassing. Leagues all around the world can do it with consistency and prevent defenders just falling back at every chance they get, I don't know why we can't.

"Leagues all around the world can do it with consistency and prevent defenders just falling back at every chance they get, I don't know why we can't."

I agree. A good example was Jawai's elbow to Boone's gut, early in the first, when Boone went to the floor. Having been elbowed in the face by Jawai on the previous play, with no call, I'm guessing he felt he had to flop to get the offensive foul called. However, he didn't get that call either. Who can blame the defenders for flopping when they regularly get beaten up and pushed off with no call? I stopped watching at that point because it was just too frustrating.