LOL..... just found out about that!

Rice is cooked

Hopson is playing tonight so Rice Jnr was always going to be released.
I'm heading to the game after work, hopefully NZ can get up

Rice is fried

Depends on Webster and Hopson's match fitness, but the Bullets are more than capable of dropping this one in any case.

I'm going to say Bullets.

Only because I don't know NZB's modus operandi to winning games. I don't know their blueprint.

At least Brisbane have won 3 more games; which shows you just how bad NZB have been doesn't it.

I can't think of a more shit-tastic match-up right now in the NBL. Thankfully it tips off at 2:30pm here in Title Town.

Hopson sweating like Patrick Ewing out there.

NZ lighting it up from 3

Hip injury, as opposed to a Ball injury.

Delany had been superb! Attacking the rim hard all day and tearing the Bullets apart with his athleticism

Buzzas to roll these pricks in the second half

Yes, Casey Frank is one of the best around.

Some quality guesswork from the refs re: the charge/block calls tonight.

DELANY JAM!!!!

Delaney showing why he should've been playing 25mpg for the last 2 years.

Who in the entire NBL does well against Paterson individually? I'm not sure there's anyone that can stop him. Let Delaney earn his lumps and develop his defense.

32 FT Hopson and Webster down stretch almost brought it home. 10 up 2.05 to go.

Boomer Gliddon is a gun

Had free tickets and was glad to see the Breakers slug out a W.

#sacklemonass

What a joke.

Bullets don't have enough to challenge for top 4. Patterson is brilliant but the supporting cast isn't enough.

Breakers are now 4-9. The way it's going this season, 14 wins could be enough for 4th. They'll need to go 10-5, but with their remaining schedule it's a real possibility.

If you assume the bottom 6 won't win too many vs the top 3 (Cairns have bucked this trend so far, but with United now healthy and Perth now in form, I think the top 3 will win at least 80% of games vs bottom 6 teams for the remainder of the season. Perth appears the weakest of the 3, so it would be nice to work this into the model, but let's keep it simple for a basic check of fixture difficulty).

Remaining games vs the top 3, and remaining home games.

NZ (4-9) - 3 of 15 vs top 3. 7 of 15 at home.

SEM (6-6) - 5 of 16 vs top 3. 6 of 16 at home.

Ade (6-7) - 4 of 15 vs top 3. 9 of 15 at home.

Bris (6-8) - 6 of 14 vs top 3. 8 of 14 at home.

Cairns (7-7) - 4 of 14 vs top 3. 7 of 14 at home.

Based on that:

- You can count out Brisbane. They don't have the talent to get the required wins against the top 3.

- Count out SEM- very tough ask staying ahead of 50% wins when every 3rd game is against a top team and 10 of 16 are away.

That leaves Cairns, Adelaide and NZ. Cairns are the form team of the competition. But NZ could have the best depth of these 3.

Webster in career best form, Hopson looking very dangerous gives them two legit scorers. Henry also very capable. They go 9 deep with experienced NBL players- better depth than Adelaide or Cairns. So if Hopson turns out good enough, they'll be in great shape.

But, having said that, if I had to stake my life on one of the options, I reckon I'd go Adelaide. Joey Wright is a proven quality coach. Randle and DJ have done it all before. And they've got 9 games left in Adelaide and already have 6 wins, so I think they're very, very likely to win at least 12 games, and quite probably 13 or more, which means they'll be right there.

Just add my two cents that tonight shows the Breakers coach has taken a while to figure out the league and the club he's coaching...

Goes without saying, the Rice signing was insane.

But even though I like RJ, Weeks buried at end of the bench was dumb guy is a spark plug.

Ok Delaney was out, but now he’s back as mentioned above let him roll and reach his ceiling.

Hopson and Webster are guns, Abercrombie, Ashley and Loe will play their role, wouldn’t mind seeing a little less Henry. If he’s hitting sure otherwise there’s other options.

Think they threw away their season but they’ll play spoiler 2nd half of the year

Honestly Shamir is lucky the club is such a basket case we don't have time to talk about his incompetence or that time he definitely worked with Rick Pitino.

Don't get me wrong, I’m about to join the bag Lemanis trend.. but hard to say bringing Patterson off the bench was dumb when he had 36. Sure it’s unorthodox, but the theory seemed to have him peaking v tired starters or the second unit. Of the many things to criticize I’m not sure that’s one.

That said, the recruitment is genuinely hilarious. Cairns are a good example that you get a quality 6-7, then hopefully you have enough depth to get through the year. Ideally you have more depth than Cairns, but point is money goes to getting the stars.

Unlike the Bullets with their 'everyone plays, equal opportunity, oh it’s not working please bail us out Lamar’ game plan. Gliddon and Te Rangi gone backwards as mentioned and Sobey should have gone to SEM.

The Bullets are paying $26 for the title, that's absolutely ridiculous.

Nice summary LV. It's worth noting that there re three head-to-head series where teams have yet to play each other. One of those is likely to be important for 4th place:

- Cairns vs SE Melbourne - not yet played each other and have 3 head to head games

There are also some head to heads where teams have played once but still have 3 games, rather than 2, remaining. e.g., Brisbane vs NZ, NZ vs SE Melbourne, Sydney vs SE Melbourne, Brisbane vs Perth, Adelaide vs NZ, Adelaide vs Cairns.

Interesting to note that SE Melbourne end up playing 11 games against top 3 opponents (Sydney, Perth Melbourne), while NZ play only 9 against that same group. Adelaide, Brisbane and Cairns each play 10 games against that group.