Thursday 29 November 2012

Friday Round 9 preview and Betting Tips

Round 9 is looking like it will be another tight round with some well matched teams. This round will see a 5 game rounds due to the by Adelaide had last week.

First up this friday is the New Zealand Breakers vs Melbourne Tigers game. This is looking like a great match up with two of the best guards in the league going at each other in Jonny Flynn (Melbourne) and Cedric Jackon (Breakers). The breakers are at second on the ladder with a 7-2 record with their only losses coming from the Perth wildcats. The New Zealand breakers are coming off a loss in Perth last week and will be keen to get another win in their home arena. The Tigers are also coming off a loss to the Wollongong Hawks and need to get some wins to get their season going.
Both teams have been affected by the flu this week with Alex Pledger missing training and Adam Ballinger had a small role last week due to sickness. Lucas walker also has a small knee injury however is likely to play.
You cant go past the Breakers at home to get the W so my tip wil be the Breakers by 7. However as a betting man i think the tigers will be closer then expected and if they can get a lead out early may be able to hold off the clutch plays of CJ Bruton and Cedric Jackson to get the win.
Gambling sites are placing the new zealand breakers at $1.18 and the Melbourne tigers at $4.85 for the win. These are odds i cant pass up. If Flynn finally starts draining some of his field goals they definitely can get up over the breakers. Worth a small bet for the punters out there.

The second game on friday night will see the Perth Wildcats face up against the Sydney Kings in Perth. Last week the Wildcats destroyed the New Zealand Breakers in Perth and then backed that up by taking down the Townsville crocodiles in Townsville. The Sydney Kings are coming off of three straight wins and want to keep that streak going. Shane Heal is doing an excellent job of coaching this team who many believed to be playing for the wooden spoon. Ben Madgen is one of the main reasons the Kings are doing so well and is having a stand out season scoring 29 points last week. Perth will be missing powerhouse big man Matt Knight for some weeks with a calf injury and are also missing back up guard Brad Robbins. The loss of Knight can not be understated. He has been a force in the paint and have carried the Wildcats through many games this season. It should be another great game in the Perth arena with hopefully another sell out game of over 11,000. If sydney can hold their nerve in that arena i am going to against the majority and tip the Sydney Kings to scrape over the line to win by 3
Gambling sites have tipped Perth to get the W this week paying $1.35 while the Kings pay out at $3.20. This is a good bet but will still be a tough game when perth are playing at home in that huge new arena.

Thirdly on Friday night Townsville Crocodiles are going up against the Adelaide 36ers. Townsville are at 0-10 for the season and need a win badly for their fans. They have just recruited former Perth big man Luke Neville who is coming off a trial with the Huston Rockets in the NBA. Neville stands at just over 7 foot and will hopefully bring some much needed rebounds that the Crocs have been missing. Adelaide however are a great looking team that need to gell and work together to establish the role player in the team. They are a very deep team with Adam Gibson leading the floor with Jason Cadee as back up it is hard attempt for defender with 2 quality ball handlers. This game should see the 36ers take down the crocs only having a week to introduce Neville into the Crocs offence and may need a another week befor they can finally notch on up in the win column. Im tipping the 36ers to keep the Crocs winless up by 8. The 36ers at paying at $1.60 and the crocs at $2.35 for the win. Not sure if its worth a gamble on this one. Neville's influence may get them over the line with a desperate team behind him but its hard to pick.


Monday 26 November 2012

Kevin Lisch wins round 8 Player of the Week


Kevin Lish was named the Player of the week for round 8 of the 2012/13 IInet NBL championship. Lish led the Perth Wildcats to two victorys over the weekend, starting with the 18 points and 6 rebounds at home in the 89-64 win against the New Zealand Breakers and then with a 15 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block in the 68-63 victory over the Townsville Crocs in Townsville.

Lisch was given the POW award to the dissapointment of many fans of the NBL with Ben Madgen once again having a stellar performance in the Sydney Kings victory over the Cairsns Taipans with 29 points and 4 rebounds. Following from Madgen Adris Deleon got a mention in the award though he was probably another more worthy candidate getting the better of the NBA player Jonny Flynn with his 18 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assist game leading his team to a close victroy in Melbourne. Even Flynn would have come close over the Perth star totalling 19 points and 8 assists against Wollongong. However the NBL seems to like to share the player of the week award around it was Lisch's turn perhaps. Just another bush league mistake in the NBL...

The Wollongong Hawks And Adris Deleon take down Jonny Flynn's Melbourne tigers

The Wollongong Hawks have defeated the Melbourne tigers on sunday, led by Import point guard Adris "2Hard2Guard" Deleon. It was a hard fought victory for the Hawks being down for the majority of the contest. Mellbournes point guard NBA player Jonny Flynn put on an impressive performance to try to lead his team to victory however the hawks were to composed down the stretch with Deleon putting on a late poinds explosion with a display play of skill and clutch to seal the victory.
This was a game I had been looking forward to with Adris Deleon to match up against "Mr Basketball" Jonny Flynn. Flynn put on a great effort to finish with 19 points and 8 assists while Deleon had 18 points 5 rebounds and 5 assists. It looked like Deleon had the upper hand against Flynn in this match up with his speed and skill with the ball. Deleon pentrated at will and set up plays for his team mates. He is currently the leading scorer for the Hawks but still doesnt get a starting spot on the team. He doesnt start but he definitly finishes leading his team to another win going 7-1 for the season.

Jonny Flynn has become the benchmark for guards in the NBL and they all look like they cant wait to show what they can do against a star of his calibre. So far the guards of the NBL have played well and been very competitive.
Next week we will see another great guard match up when Cedric Jackson goes up against Jonny Flynn in New Zealand on Friday. Jackson and Deleon have been the two best point guards in the league this season with Flynn coming in behind them. It will be interesting to see if he can step up and stamp his skill on the league and start winning some games.

Monday 12 November 2012

Cedric "the action" Jackson wins round 6 player of the week


Cedric Jackson led the New Zealand breakers to 2 wins across 24 hrs in round 6 of the NBL championship and was awarded the player of the week. Jackson averaged an impressive double double with 17 points, 11.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 3.5 rebounds.

On friday night the breakers defeated the Townsville Crocodiles in a closer then expected game where Jackson filled the stat sheet with 14 points, 11 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals.
He then backed up on on saturday night to help the Breakers destroy the Cairns taipans 73-54 with an impressive defensive game. Jackson finished the game with 20 points, 12 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. His definitely looking like the best point guard in the league and if he can continue his form he may take out the league MVP at the end of the season. Cedric jackson is the first person since Derek Rucker in 1998 to have double figure assists on consecutive nights.
Runner ups for the award this week were Chris Goulding (Melbourne) who drained 24 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists against adelaide, Seth Scott (Melbourne) with a tidy double double of 18 points and 10 rebounds and Corin Henry (Sydney) who had 19 points 6 rebounds and 3 assists in Syndey's defeat of Wollongong.

Ben madgen and Geordie McLeod win monthly awards

Ben Madgen has taken away the player of the month award along side Geordie McLeod coach of the Month for October in the 2012/13 NBL championship.
Madgen has had a stellar start to the season and has stepped up to fill the hole left in the Sydney Kings by injured veteran James Harvey. Madgen averaged 18.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists a game for the 5 games the Kings played through October. Madgen helped the Kings to a 3-2 record for the month with three 20 plus point games. Madgen was shooting at a blistering 55% from the 3 points line 52% field goals and 81% from the free throw line. The South Australian has his eyes on making the Australian team in the future and if he continues playing as he has been may get the chance. Cedric Jackson was a close runner up to Madgen this month.
Geordie Mcleod lead his team the Wollongong Hawks to a perfect start to the NBL championship season going on an 8-0 run. The team McLeod put together has been viewed as underdogs going into the season but has had a impressive start with exciting new import guards Lance Hurdle and Adris "2Hard2Guard" Deleon and teams know the powerhouse they go against in the coming matches. 
The October player of the month awards took into account rounds 1-4 of the IINet NBL championships.  

Friday 9 November 2012

Jonny Flynn and the Melbourne Tigers demolish the Adelaide 36ers


Was the addition of star point guard Jonny Flynn exactly what the tigers were missing or was his addition to the tigers just good timing. The Melbourne Tigers demolished the Adelaide 36ers by 30 points with a high scoring 96-66 game. Jonny Flynn had a slow start missing his first 8 shots but as a professional that didn't slow him down going on to finish with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.  Melbourne have started to come together as a team and are playing some good basketball after their win against Townsville last week and now the 36ers. The tigers may just string a few victories together. One of the big differences was the the decrease in turnovers, the Tigers had only 6 turnovers compared to last weeks total of 21. This was due to the ball handling abilities of Jonny Flynn who has brought some class to the Tigers and the players around him have stepped up to another level. Whether they can maintain this run will be something to see in the coming weeks with Flynn adjusting to the NBL game style. Going into the game Gibson was competing well against Flynn and containing him. However Flynn stepped up his game and utilised the players around him. Chris Goulding had a hot hand shooting at 75% from the field and finished with 24 points. Seth Scott also had big game recording a tidy double double with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
For Adelaide Anthony Petrie put in a big effort as he does every week and finished with the highest points for Adelaide with 15 points and 7 rebounds but it wasnt enough with Adelaide just looking like they weren't putting in the effort that was required in the fast up and down game.
With the fast game style Chris Anstey said “There wasn’t a hell of a lot of coaching done tonight,” 
“The tempo of the game was faster, our wings were rewarded for running, our bigs were rewarded for working hard. It allowed our personality to come out a bit."

But Marty Clark was not happy with the effort put in by Adelaide stating,
“It’s an emotional league, emotional game. They caught fire and it was like a death by a thousand cuts."

It will be great to see how Melbourne back up next week with Flynn getting a chance to adjust to Melbourne's style of play and how well Anstey can coach the team now that they have possibly the best guard in the league.

Melbourne Tigers 96
      (Goulding 24, Scott 18, Flynn 12)
Adelaide 36ers 66
     (Petrie 15, Johnson 12, Cadee 10)

Crowd: 5283 at Hisense Arena, Melbourne

Monday 5 November 2012

Adris "2Hard2Guard" Deleon wins player of the week for Round 4


Round 4 in the IINet NBL championship saw some big inputs from a number of players across the round. But this week the weekly honour goes to Adris "2Hard2Guard" Deleon for his 26 point capitulation of the Perth wildcats in only 21 minutes of court time. The Wollongong Hawks remain the only undefeated team in the league this season after defeating the Perth wildcats 100-68. This was a top of the table clash both teams going into the game undefeated but the Hawks were to good for the slower Wildcats. The First quarter saw the hawks break out to a 24 point lead and never looked back from there. Deleon coming off the bench in every quarter looked like he had something to prove and increased his performance from his last weeks 23 points to take out the player of the week.
Ben Madgen was unlucky to not win back to back player of the weeks averaging 25 points, 3 rebounds and 3.5 assists across the two games the Kings lost over the weekend.  Cedric Jackson is another runner up in their win over the Kings with 22 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and 4 steals.
But Deleon was all class in his 26 points shooting at 70% from the field. At the end of nearly every shot clock Deleon had the ball to make the play and came through on most occasions. I predict the Deleon jersey will be the Highest bought Jersey for the Hawks this season. He penetrates to the rim at will off those high ball screens and makes the plays when the team needs him to. I missed out on a Gold Coast Blaze Deleon Jersey last season as they only made one extra which the owner kept.
I cant wait to see the match up of Adris Deleon vs Jonny Flynn in the coming weeks. 

Sunday 4 November 2012

Ex NBA player Jonny Flynn to play for the Melbourne Tigers


Former NBA player Jonny Flynn may suit up for the Melbourne Tigers this friday. The Melbourne Tigers have had a dismall start to the season under their new Coach Chris Anstey and have fired their current import guard Kevin Braswell. Jonny Flynn will fly in to take over from the aging and still injured Brasswell and may play in the friday game against the Adelaide 36ers. Jonny Flynn was the No. 6 overall draft pick in the 2009 NBA draft after a stellar performance at the unviversity of Syracuse. Since then he has played for Minnesota, Houston, Portland and most recently Detroit.
Chris Anstey said that Flynn is the one of the highest quality players the NBL has seen in some time.
"He's in his prime and wanted to reinvigorate his career and we're really excited about what he's going to bring,"

Releasing Brasswell who has had some big games for the Tigers Anstey had this to say, "Kev has been an absoute pro this whole time but he has been playing hurt and we need someone with a few different capabilities to really help us build on what we are doing here," Anstey said

Jonny Flynn stands 6ft at 1.83m and in his prefessional career averages 9.2 points and 3.9 assists per game at around 22min a game.

This is a huge pick up not only for the Melbourne tigers who are trying to turn their season around but also for the NBL as a whole to still recruit NBA players. From last season's Patty Mills to now Jonny Flynn hopefully NBA players who may be having a slump in form may see Australia as a place to turn around their carreer and get some big contracts out of it as Mills did when he went to play in China. 

Check out some of Flynns highlights below. He will definitly be one to see in his coming matches and I'm sure the other point guards in the league will love a chance to run at him and test him every chance they get.