This weekend we have 5 games of NBL to watch as some big players come back from injury with Matt Knight for the unbeaten Perth Wildcats and Cam Gliddon back in for the Cairns Taipans.
The first game of the round is on the Thursday the 14th with the Perth Wildcats coming off a bye week to take on the Cairns Taipans at the Perth arena. The unbeaten and looking unbeatable Perth Wildcats should get another win at home against Cairns. They are just looking to strong at the moment with no real weaknesses a team can exploit and with a starting player to come in off injury Matt Knight will be looking to have a big impact for his first game of the season. In any other arena i wouldn't mind picking the Cairns Taipan's to get a win over the Wildcats but in the toughest shooting stadium in Australia I don't see even Cam Gliddon's outside range standing against the Perth Wildcats. Having come off a bye last week Perth may have lost a little momentum however they will be geared up to get that momentum back with possibly two more wins this round. I'm picking the Perth Wildcats to win at home however Centrebet has the Cairns Taipans paying $6.25 for the win to Perth $1.25. I might have to have a punt on Cairns to win at odds like that, If the Taipans are hitting their shots their's no reason they cant win. Between Demetri McCamey and Jamar Wilson the Taipans might have the best back court in the league and if they do get open shots for their team they might get over the line or so i hope for a rough bet but I'm going to pick the Wildcats to win by 8.
Game two of the round will be on Friday night in New Zealand with the New Zealand Breakers
taking on the Adelaide 36ers. This is a great match up between two very strong teams. The Breakers have been having a rough start to the season and are on 2-5 wins to losses where as Adelaide look to have filled in some of their gaps from last season and are closing out some tight games with a 5-2 win, loss record and sitting at no. 2 on the ladder. The Breakers still look like they are adjusting to Dean Vickerman's coaching style and the new alterations on how the game is being called. They are a quality team but until they can get these two parts of their game in line I don't see them beating a strong and well rounded team like Adelaide. Having the home court advantage and coming off 3 championships the odds at the TAB are with them with centrebet giving the Breakers $1.65 for the win and the 36ers are at $2.25. I had picked the 36ers to get the win this round against the Breakers and with odds like that its definitely worth a bet. I'm surprised they are so far in New Zealand's favor when the Breakers are sitting second from the bottom on the ladder and coming up against the number 2 team in the league. New Zealand have some excellent offensive players on the team like CJ Bruton, Darryl Corletto, Alex Pledger, Gary Wilkinson and Kerron Johnson. On the defensive end they are a scrappy team that have not yet been able to alter their game to the new reffing this season so have sent their opposing team to the free throw line to many times. If they can play some good defense and not foul so much they should win it with the home court advantage, however I'm picking Gary Ervin and Adelaide 36ers to close out another close game in a hostile location to win by 4. The 36ers have so many options to go to for scoring everyone on the team can stack up the points on any given night and they will be tough to stop. New Zealand will be hoping for the 36ers to miss a few and to get a few more of those 50/50 calls from the refs. It will be a great game to watch with two excellent teams facing off.
The second game on Friday night is in Sydney with the Sydney Kings taking on the Townsville
Crocodiles. This will be a tough game for both teams. The Kings will be looking for AJ Ogilvy early and will hope he will have a big game like he did last week against Cairns where he dominated in the paint. The Townsville Crocodiles are definitely a dark horse of league this season picking up some good wins over the New Zealand Breakers, if they can replicate the game they played against the breakers they may get a win on the road. The Crocodiles play a scrappy, team oriented game and you know they are looking for another win. The Sydney Kings can be a very good team if their offensive sets run well utilizing AJ Ogilvy to spread the floor for their shooters in Ben Madgen and James Harvey. For the Kings AJ Ogilvy can dominate in this league if they can get him the ball down low and the Crocodiles will need to deny him the ball for them to get a win. I'm picking Sydney to get the win at home but the Crocs wont make it easy to go down only by 6. Centrebet have the Kings for the win at $1.45 and Crocs at $2.85.
The Cairns Taipans have a rough road weekend taking on the Melbourne Tigers on Saturday night. The Tigers have hit some good form behind some excellent games from Chris Goulding and Mark Worthington. Cairns will look to deny Worthington and Goulding from getting started and teams have done well to do this in the first half of games but they have both come back to dominate in the second. Cairns will have to try to slow both Wortho and Goulding for the whole game. Melbourne should look to run the ball as Cairns played only 2 nights ago against the very strong and quick Perth Wildcats, fatigue may become an issue for the Taipans and the Tigers may be able to exploit it. Look for the Tigers to run and to try to get Wortho and Goulding going early, as both can go on fire when they get open shots. I'm picking the Tigers to get the win by 8 with Chris Goulding and Mark Worthington to both have big nights with 15+ points each.
The last game of the week is in Wollongong with the Hawks taking on the Perth Wildcats. The Wildcats played on Thursday night and fatigue really shouldn't be to big of an issue by Sunday. The Wildcats should dominate as they did last time the Hawks played them in Perth winning by 40 points. This game should be a bit closer as its a home game for the Hawks but with Matt Knight coming back from injury and Larry Davidson still out injured for the Hawks the Wildcats should be able to dominate inside the key-way with no real centre. The Hawks will have to shoot the lights out to get a win on Sunday and Rotnei Clark who has had a great start to the season will really need to hit his shots and gets his players open for some big three pointers. The Kevin Tiggs and James Ennis match up should be a good one with two very athletic players going against each other. Hopefully Tigg's has gotten those horrible missed dunks he had last time against Perth out of his head and has a big game as that match up should be one to watch. Centrebet have the Wildcats to win at $1.22 and the Hawks at $4.30, I'm picking the Wildcats to get the win with some big plays from Jermain Beal, James Ennis and Matt Knight to dominate on the inside to win by 12.
Whatever team your going for, their is some great basketball to watch this weekend and several close games to call.
Game two of the round will be on Friday night in New Zealand with the New Zealand Breakers taking on the Adelaide 36ers. This is a great match up between two very strong teams. The Breakers have been having a rough start to the season and are on 2-5 wins to losses where as Adelaide look to have filled in some of their gaps from last season and are closing out some tight games with a 5-2 win, loss record and sitting at no. 2 on the ladder. The Breakers still look like they are adjusting to Dean Vickerman's coaching style and the new alterations on how the game is being called. They are a quality team but until they can get these two parts of their game in line I don't see them beating a strong and well rounded team like Adelaide. Having the home court advantage and coming off 3 championships the odds at the TAB are with them with centrebet giving the Breakers $1.65 for the win and the 36ers are at $2.25. I had picked the 36ers to get the win this round against the Breakers and with odds like that its definitely worth a bet. I'm surprised they are so far in New Zealand's favor when the Breakers are sitting second from the bottom on the ladder and coming up against the number 2 team in the league. New Zealand have some excellent offensive players on the team like CJ Bruton, Darryl Corletto, Alex Pledger, Gary Wilkinson and Kerron Johnson. On the defensive end they are a scrappy team that have not yet been able to alter their game to the new reffing this season so have sent their opposing team to the free throw line to many times. If they can play some good defense and not foul so much they should win it with the home court advantage, however I'm picking Gary Ervin and Adelaide 36ers to close out another close game in a hostile location to win by 4. The 36ers have so many options to go to for scoring everyone on the team can stack up the points on any given night and they will be tough to stop. New Zealand will be hoping for the 36ers to miss a few and to get a few more of those 50/50 calls from the refs. It will be a great game to watch with two excellent teams facing off.
The second game on Friday night is in Sydney with the Sydney Kings taking on the Townsville Crocodiles. This will be a tough game for both teams. The Kings will be looking for AJ Ogilvy early and will hope he will have a big game like he did last week against Cairns where he dominated in the paint. The Townsville Crocodiles are definitely a dark horse of league this season picking up some good wins over the New Zealand Breakers, if they can replicate the game they played against the breakers they may get a win on the road. The Crocodiles play a scrappy, team oriented game and you know they are looking for another win. The Sydney Kings can be a very good team if their offensive sets run well utilizing AJ Ogilvy to spread the floor for their shooters in Ben Madgen and James Harvey. For the Kings AJ Ogilvy can dominate in this league if they can get him the ball down low and the Crocodiles will need to deny him the ball for them to get a win. I'm picking Sydney to get the win at home but the Crocs wont make it easy to go down only by 6. Centrebet have the Kings for the win at $1.45 and Crocs at $2.85.
Whatever team your going for, their is some great basketball to watch this weekend and several close games to call.
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