After two rounds of the NBL season only one team is yet to win a match, the ladder is looking closer than ever, and we have already had two thrilling overtime games.
The final game of Round 2 headlined the weekend’s action, as the Brisbane Bullets went down by three to the Adelaide 36ers in overtime.
The match marked Cameron Bairstow’s return to the floor after his injury at the Olympics, and he made an immediate difference – even if he couldn’t get his side, who were first coming into the game, over the line.
Elsewhere, the Sydney Kings and Melbourne United both bounced back from horrific starts to the season, recording a pair of wins each to rocket up the table, while the 36ers lost captain Mitch Creek for up to eight weeks with a foot injury.
The Perth Wildcats played out a thrilling two-point victory over the New Zealand Breakers, and then decided to cut their import guard Jaron Johnson – more on this shortly – while the Illawarra Hawks lost against Sydney and Melbourne.
Round 3 sees a couple of firsts for the season, with the first Monday night fixture and an extra game, meaning seven matches across the weekend.
The Kings start the round off with a trip across the Tasman to take on the Breakers in a match that could be marked as season defining for the hosts, even at this early stage.
Sydney are coming off back-to-back wins against Illawarra and Cairns, and will be out to make a statement against last season’s runner-up.
With the Breakers going down to Perth last weekend, and narrowly beating Melbourne in their first game, playing Sydney and Brisbane is of paramount importance for the club.
Melbourne host Brisbane in the second game of Thursday night, with Australian Boomers David Andersen and Cameron Bairstow to go head-to-head.
Friday sees the Adelaide 36ers host the Cairns Taipans, who are the only team in the competition to not have a victory thus far, and the pressure will be right on them.
Illawarra will be looking to reverse their decade-long hoodoo in the west on Friday, but will have to overcome the outside scoring threat of new import Andre Ingram. Ingram is one of the best three-point shooters in the D-League, and as such will have a mountain of pressure on him to replace Jaron Johnson, who was struggling but beginning to find his feet.
The round finishes with a couple of cracking match ups as Melbourne United take on the Perth Wildcats, in a battle of last year’s top-two regular season teams, before Sydney take on Illawarra in the season’s second installment of the all-New South Wales rivalry.
Fixtures (times AEDT)
New Zealand Breakers vs Sydney Kings at North Shore Events Centre (Thursday, 5:30pm – live Fox Sports 3)
Melbourne United vs Brisbane Bullets at Hisense Arena (Thursday, 7:30pm – live Fox Sports 3)
Adelaide 36ers vs Cairns Taipans at Adelaide Arena (Friday, 7:30pm – live Fox Sports 3)
Perth Wildcats vs Illawarra Hawks at Perth Arena (Friday 9:30pm – live Fox Sports 3)
Brisbane Bullets vs New Zealand Breakers at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (Saturday 7:30pm – live Fox Sports 3)
Melbourne United vs Perth Wildcats at Hisense Arena (Sunday 3pm – live Fox Sports 3 and SBS)
Sydney Kings vs Illawarra Hawks at Qudos Bank Arena (Monday 7pm – live Fox Sports 3)
My tips
Breakers by 4
United by 3 (overtime)
Taipans by 5 (overtime)
Wildcats by 12
Bullets by 6
United by 4
Hawks by 7
Lock of the week: Battle of the Boomers to explode in Melbourne
This shapes as the best individual battle in the NBL for quite some time – certainly as far back as I can remember.
Both David Andersen for Melbourne and Cameron Bairstow for Brisbane played staring roles at the Rio Olympic games for the Boomers and will be looking to follow that up for their clubs.
For a while it looked like this was the match-up that was never going to happen, with Bairstow struggling through injury, but he made his return on Sunday against the 36ers and will now travel to Melbourne.
With minutes back under his belt, and quality ones for the most part, he should be elevated into the starting side and will face off directly with Andersen.
Andersen, returning to the league after a long stint in Europe, has been solid without being spectacular for United, and needs to improve his output. He wasn’t brilliant in the first round and didn’t need to do a whole lot last weekend as his teammates, Todd Blanchfield in particular, delivered.
Still, you feel he will be up for the battle of the Boomers to headline Round 3.
Big question of the week: Can Cairns get their first victory?
While they have found it difficult to build momentum, playing two tough road games to start their season against Perth and Sydney, Cairns must get on the board against Adelaide this weekend.
The 36ers, who will be still without captain Mitch Creek found a way to get the job done over Brisbane last weekend, but it doesn’t mean they will play as well again.
The biggest problem for the Taipans is that their imports are yet to really take over, despite what Nnanna Egwu did against Perth in Round 1. That has to change here.
Simply put, if Travis Trice doesn’t get his game right, especially on the defensive end, Jerome Randle is going to rip them in half. It will start but won’t end there for Trice – Randle is a great defender as well, and if Trice can’t get the creativity flowing, especially in his combination with Egwu and Fuquan Edwin, they can forget about the win.
The bottom line is secure the win or it could be curtains on their season, despite it being so early in the piece. Zero and three in this competition is not good enough.
Don’t forget to tune into The Roar throughout the week as we bring you live coverage of the NBL season.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde
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