Live NBL next season

Ten has announced that next season they will air live games on ten/one. With a possibility of live online streaming. Details from the NBL website are below.

One feature game will be broadcast live nationally every Sunday afternoon on TEN. During the months of October to the conclusion of February, the broadcast time will be live at 2:00PM nationally and live at 1:00PM nationally during March and April;

One game per week will be shown nationally on Friday evenings at the regular timeslot of 9:30PM on TEN's digital channel ONE;

All NBL Finals games will also be broadcast on both TEN and ONE under the new deal, with TEN maintaining access to rebroadcast coverage of New Zealand Breakers 14 home games into Australia.

Justin Milne said that a key component of the new agreement, which will still run the remainder of the original five-year term through until the end of the 2014/15 iiNet NBL Championship season, is the NBL reclaiming the rights to non-TEN produced games for subscription television, IPTV, on-line and mobile.

So theres a live game on sunday, a delayed game on friday and the NBL can do what they wish with the remainder of the games. Not sure if this means that ten will shoot and produce the games and just wont air them or what they plan to do. But this will open the NBL to a lot of people who wouldn't get to watch it.
But IMO the live game at 1or 2pm on a sunday is probably one of the worst time slot. How much do ten hate the NBL that even with a reduced contract they still cant give a decent time slot. People are doing things during the day and it is hard to find time to sit and watch tv or go to a day time game. So for me its still screw ten and oneHD give the NBL a chance and maybe they'll actually see a profit.

Diamon Simpson to the Rockets

Adelaide 36ers Diamon Simpson has been called up by the Huston rockets to play out the rest of their season with the #20 Jersey. This is a huge step for Simpson who made an impact for the injury impacted Adelaide 36ers throughout the season. He averaged 14.3 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks for the 36ers for the season.

Personally i'm surprised of all the players this year in the league that he got the call. He made a huge impact for the team, is big strong and athletic and an impressive baller but against other players this year he's far from the best. Thomas Abercrombie with the New Zealand breakers looked to be the next player to make the jump to the states but playing the finals maybe his timing was off. However I thought Jullian Khazzou would have been a better pick but he may be under other contracts with the Golden State Warriors. But during games Simpson was often not on the court when they needed him the most, this may have been coaching issues but Simpsons game fitness just did not look up to scratch.

Congratulations to Diamon Simpson and I hope he really has an impact on the NBA he is a good baller and with a chance he can show what his got. I think it also shows the high quality of players in the NBL at the moment for a player that was not an out and out star of the league (Cedric Jackson, Adris Deleon, Kevin Lisch, Jullian Khazzou, Gary Wilkinson)  to make the NBA. 

breakers defeat wildcats in a classic

The New Zealand Breakers took down the Perth Wildcats in game 1 of the 2011/12 IInet NBL finals 104-98. It was a close game going into overtime but the cool shooting from CJ Bruton and the out and out balling abilities of Cedric Jackson were too much for the foul impacted Wildcats.

The New Zealand Breakers came out slow in the first quarter with the wildcats up by 12. Kevin Lisch and Damian Martin teamed up to play some big defensive stops and produced good ball movement. But some big threes from CJ Bruton, Darryl Corletto and Gary Wilkinson brought the breakers back and finished the quarter on top 28-24. going into the third quarter the 3 point barrage continued with Cedric Jackson also stepping up to drain the long ball.“Our whole game plan was about defending the three-point mark and they hit seven threes in that half,” rued Perth coach Rob Beveridge. The Breakers played a big quarter going on a 15-5 run and finished the half 50-35. Both teams were shooting well at 50% but the longe percentage from the breakers gave them the advantage with 6 from 11. Kevin Lisch was also kept to 5 for the quarter as the leading scorer in the game at 27 points.
The Breakers were looking to take the game in a blowout but the Wildcats kept there heads and came back in the third. 

“We’re an aggressive team, offensively and defensively, but we weren't aggressive at all in that second quarter,” said Beveridge. “We had to up the ante and that showed in the third quarter.”
Going into the last break the breakers had a 2 point lead but the wildcats went on a 9 point run. things were looking tough for the Cedric Jackson stepped up and made the clutch plays to take it overtime.

CJ Bruton made the clutch plays he's famous for in overtime, taking the game into his hands. With 150 seconds left on the clock Bruton head faked Jesse Wagstaff to drain a 3 putting the breakers in front. then with 82 seconds left he nailed another. Then with 22 seconds left on the clock he evaded a triple team dribbling around 4 wildcats players to sink a hook shot putting the final nail in the Wildcats coffin.

The wildcats were impacted by foul issues again with Damian Martin being fouled out in the last quarter. The wildcats are the most physical team in the league and they kept that physicality going into the final. The refs did a good job throughout the game and kept the teams from starting a fight as tempers were rising. Dyllan Boucher had a big game and for while looked like he do no wrong. He put his body on the line the last quarter and made some big plays to help take the breakers into overtime. It was a classic game and hopefully the rest of the finals series will be just as entertaining.

New Zealand Breakers 104 (Jackson 25, Bruton 20, Corletto 16, Vukona 14, Wilkinson 12)
Perth Wildcats 98 (Lisch 27, Knight 17, Redhage 15, Nevill 13, Wagstaff 12)

Jamar Wilson re-sign with Cairns

The Cairns Taipans star point guard Jamar Wilson has resigned for another 2 years. This is a big signing for Cairns, Wilson has had a big impact on the league this year coming 2nd in the MVP race behind Kevin Lisch. He also lead his team in points and assists for the season. This was his first season in the NBL and is keen to stay on for another 2 yearsI fell in love with Cairns the first week I was here."
"The sunshine, the people, the place - and that was even before I got onto the playing court."
 Wilson has lead his team to many close games and is known as one of the best closer in the league.
At the back end of tight games, I knew we had the advantage of having him (Wilson) there," said taipans coach Aaran Fearne.
"He is our go to man in those situations and I feel more than confident to put the ball in his hands if the game is on the line."
Congrats on the Cairns taipans for signing there extremely talented young player Jamar wilson for another 2 years.

Breakers sustain big injury heading into game 2

New Zealand's star point guard Cedric Jackson has sustained an injury at training heading into game 2 of the semi finals series against the Townsville Crocodiles. NBL.com.au stated "Jackson reportedly took a bump from centre Alex Pledger on a drive to the hoop and appeared to land awkwardly on the left ankle that has given him problems all year." The injury looks to be serious as Cedric Jackson was reportedly writhing in agony and had to be carried from the court and was taken immediately to the hospital.
Andrej Lemanis was seemingly not upset about the injury and stated that Cedric would travel with the squad and depending on the outcome from the hospital whether he would play.We'll find out won't we," Lemanis said. "It didn't look good when he went down but Mika (Vukona) didn't look good last year either when he went down. So we'll see.
"You travel him, and if he's any chance of playing you make a decision five minutes before the game."

I hope there not trying to do some ploy to make Townsville unprepared for the match up and his not really injured. That would be a sad show for the Breakers.
But hopefully its not a serious injury and we'll see Cedric Jackson back on the court to finish off the series and maybe the finals. He's a very talented player and it will have a big impact on how the breakers play there next game, but having a backup point guard like CJ Bruton they are still a very talented team and i think can still take it to a third game. 

Shane Heal permanent Sydney Kings coach

The Sydney Kings have announced that Shane Heal will stay on for another 2 years as head Coach of the Sydney Kings. Since coming in to the team as the temporary head coach Shane Heal led the team to 3 wins and 3 losses. The team came together and actually managed to keep their heads and win a few. Something they were having trouble with after losing Aaron Bruce and lacking in a real point guard. Shane will get a chance to put a team together for next year and we will be able to see how he is as coach with his team, and not on while he's playing.

Perth Wildcats 85 down Gold Coast 70

The Perth Wildcats defeated the Gold Coast Blaze 85-70 last night at "the jungle" in Perth. The Wildcats man handled the blaze to cruise to a 15 point win. The first half saw both teams playing some good basketball but leading into half time the Wildcats took the lead 55-42 with 5 three pointers in 3 min. Jesse Wagstaff had another impressive game draining the 3 pointer on consecutive shots with 15 points 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Kevin lisch also played well although Gold Coast did all they could to slow his impact on the game finishing with 12 points and 7 assists and was a decent defensice effort to keep him to a lower number with his high scoring ability. But when the Wildcats have so many offensive threats its a tough team to beat, especially at there home court. They finished with 5 players in double figures and Gold Coast were lacking for players to step up. Luke Neville was a force on the inside the giant that he is had 14 points 6 rebounds and two decent alley oops. Damian Martin was fouled out it the second half with 11 points and 5 assists.

Anthony Petrie had a very good game and was a work horse on both ends of the court finishing with 20 points and 8 rebounds. For a large majority of the game he was there top point scorer while he and Deleon tried to keep the Wildcats still within reach.

Gold Coast just werent hitting a lot of there shots and giving away to many second chance points on the boards. Deleon tried to take the game into his hands in the second half as they fell to a 19 point deficit but wasnt enough with his 23 points 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Mark Worthington, Chris Goulding and Adam Gibson just looked nervous missing some open looks. What happened to the Goulding of last week he couldn't miss in that first quarter against New Zeland.

The second half the Blaze were just managing to stay within reach of the Wildcats but never threatening to come back. Adam Gibson played limited minutes with a slight calf tear and you could see the blaze needed him at his best. Cadee was getting man handled when Deleon got a chance for a rest. After Martin came out with 5 fouls the Blaze made a small run at it but were slowed down with some impressive three point shooting from Lish and Wagstaff. From there it was just a slow down to the finish half way through the last quarter. Perth played smart and held onto there lead. Wildcats Coach Rob Beveridge was happy with how his team performed."We had been tested throughout the year and once you experience being up by 20 and losing a game, you learn from it. We've had our ups and downs, we know that, but we are becoming a very consistent team now and for us to put four quarters together like that was pretty good."

It was a very intense and physical game. Im surprised there weren't more injuries with the amount of contact the Wildcats were getting away with. Adris Deleon came off with an injury to the head colliding with Cam Tovey and big man Will Hudson hit the floor hard after taking a hit and a rebound and looked to have injured his hand/arm. Hopefully it wasn't serious and will still play later this week. Stephen hoar also looked to have injured his hand in a rebound contest. All might I add without a whistle being blown.

But the Gold Coast should have expected this and played at a higher intensity, harder... It was finals basketball and both teams will play with everything. If Gold Coast stand a chance on Wednesday on the Gold Coast they will need to up there game. But Coach Joey Wright is confident of his teams chances
"I thought in the first quarter we came out and for most of that quarter we were stable, but we had way too many breakdowns defensively which caused too many open shots," he said.

"We play with a little more confidence when our crowd's behind us and they probably play with a little less when their crowd isn’t behind them.

"That's probably the difference. When you look at the team stats throughout the year we almost mirror Perth so that crowd is a difference."

Mark Worthington will really need to step up to lead his team if they hope to win a championship. Adam Gibson will still be hampered from an injury for game 2 but looks like it should be another physical great game.

Perth Wildcats 85 (Wagstaff 16, Nevill 14, Lisch 12, Redhage 12, Martin 11)

Gold Coast Blaze 70 (Deleon 23, Petrie 20)