NBL Round 10

Brisbane v Gold Coast

The Bullets will host the Blaze without 2 of their Internationals.  Reigning MVP Sam Mackinnon (knee) and Tall Black Craig Bradshaw (ankle) will be missing in this Queensland matchup between 3rd and 6th.

Last weekend the Bullets easily accounted for Singapore with a 19 point win on their home floor.  With their team outs, they face a very tough test against Gold Coast, especially their frontcourt.  Tall Black Dillon Boucher and import Dusty Rychart will really need to step up (both are more than capable).

The Blaze enter this game on the back of 2 wins last round (South Dragons away, West Sydney home).  They will be keen to avenge the loss to the Bullets in round 1 and are more than capable of doing so as they are a much better team than the one that turned out in their season opener.  I would expect the Blaze to pound the ball inside to the likes of Ben Melmeth and Tall Blacks Pero Cameron and Casey Frank, looking to get Boucher and Rychart in foul trouble and test out Brisbane’s young bigs.

The key to this game will be who gets the better of the inside matchups.  If Rychart and Boucher can stay out of foul trouble, Brisbane will have enough depth elsewhere to get the job done.  Otherwise, it could get ugly for the reigning champions.

I think the Bullets are too short here.  They do still have enough depth to churn out a win.  Having said this, I definitely do give the Blaze a decent chance.  I expect a high scoring game.  Given Brisbane’s outs (and a potential focus from them on defence), it is hard to argue with the current points total in the market.

Gold Coast +6.5 @ $1.926 Pinnacle Sports - 1 unit
Gold Coast at $3.47 Pinnacle Sports - 1 unit

Perth v Melbourne

Sixth place Perth will be looking to build a winning streak whilst second place Melbourne will be looking to end a 2 game slide.  This will be Melbourne’s second game in 4 days as they embark on the second part of a pretty tough away double (Townsville-Perth).  Perth will come into this game fresh as their last game was last Saturday against Wollongong (as Melbourne showed on Wednesday, this is not always a good thing).

Perth ended a 3 game losing streak by easily accounting for the Hawks last weekend (who were the team that started that slide).  Paul Rogers (hip), Alex Loughton (foot) and Brad Robbins (knee) all pulled up sore from this win.  Coach Scott Fisher during the week said that they should all be fit to play.  New import Gerald Brown seems to be finally adjusting to the league after a sluggish start to his NBL career.

Melbourne, after what Corey Williams did to them on Wednesday night, will be relieved knowing that Perth do not have speedy import Rashad Phillips on their roster.  After a 10-day break they looked surprisingly flat.  They are still a great team and they will use Wednesday’s loss as a wakeup call.  I would expect them to arrive in Perth ready to play.

I don’t think that Perth have the team that can trouble the Tigers the way Townsville and Sydney can (getting rid of Phillips did not help them in this regard).  Melbourne may begin sluggish as a result of the travel but I believe they will get their legs and grind out a decent victory in the end.  I initially thought that the points total was at least 5 points too low.  Then considering the travel Melbourne has done and how they shot the other night, as well as Perth not being an up-tempo team, the points total market seems about right.