NBL Round 15

Singapore v Wollongong

Round 17 wraps up with the Slingers hosting the Hawks.  A win here for the Slingers will give them some hope of avoiding the wooden spoon and also bring the Hawks back into contention for it.

The Slingers last played 11 days ago, where the Wildcats came into their building and demolished them 124-87.  Blagoj Janev top scored with 20 points.  There are two things that really let them down in this game that I believe they will need to rectify if they even want to consider beating the Hawks here.  One, look after the ball, they had 23 turnovers in this game (that’s almost one every two minutes, more than a third of the total shots that they got to put up in this game, which was 61).  Two, get better games from their imports.  Mike Helms and Rod Grizzard combined for 33 points on 8 of 27 shooting.  The Slingers can compete when their imports are on their game.

The Hawks had their two game winning streak snapped by the Kings at home on Wednesday, losing 99-106.  In a game where they threw absolutely everything that they had at the Kings, Matt Campbell (21 points), import Kavossy Franklin (20 points), and Aaron Trahair (18 points), were the main contributors offensively.  They will be keen to wrap up the season series against the Slingers.  Given how tired they looked at the end of the Kings game, along with the travel, it will be a tremendous effort if they do so.

I believe the Hawks may be a little too short.  Having said this, given the inconsistency of the Slingers, I do not think that there is enough value in backing the Slingers and I will not be getting involved.  The points total looks about right to me.