Chris Goulding’s 50 points clarifies the NBL finals picture

Players aren’t supposed to score 50 points in a 40-minute game of basketball.

Indeed, the highest tally we’d seen in the NBL this season up to yesterday was 39 points – and even that effort stood out like a sore thumb.

But whenever the ball hit the hands of Chris Goulding in the finals-shaping clash between the Melbourne Tigers and Sydney Kings, he was on.

He put up a shot and it went in. He put up another and it went in. And they just seemed to keep dropping. And dropping. And dropping.

Hisense Arena became his playground.

When the game was winding down, one last bucket ensured the stadium scoreboard had ’50’ next to Goulding’s number.

That tally came from shooting 20 of 33 field goal attempts, with nine triples from 14 attempts.

Remarkably, just one of Goulding’s 50 points came from free throws. (Despite the hot hands, he was 1/3 from the line.)

It was a truly special performance.

In fact, it was a performance the likes of which the NBL hasn’t seen since Ebi Ere’s 51 points in 2008 – and that was during the 48-minute era.

From a Tigers perspective, perhaps the best aspect of it all was that the win actually clinched Melbourne’s spot in the finals.

The NBL finals picture got both a little bit clearer and a little bit messier over the weekend, if that’s possible.

Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne are now all locked-in finalists.

There’s only one side outside the top four that can catch third-placed Melbourne’s win tally – Wollongong – and the Tigers own the split against them. So no matter what, the Tigers are in.

That means fourth spot is the only place left up for grabs, and what’s going to happen there is harder to decipher.

Fourth-placed Sydney have given up the split to fifth-placed Wollongong, meaning if the two finish equal on wins – a likely scenario – it’s the Hawks who’ll advance.

Currently, both teams are on 11 wins, however the Kings have four games remaining while the Hawks have three.

The most intriguing of those remaining matches is their clash against each other in two weeks’ time.

While it won’t affect the split, if the Hawks manage to win all their remaining games they are guaranteed a spot in the finals.

The Kings are allowed to drop a game and still be locked in – as long as that game isn’t the one against Wollongong.

And if that’s not complicated enough for you, it’s worth noting that Cairns and New Zealand are still mathematical chances of making it.

As Cairns showed on Saturday by beating Wollongong, this not an entirely insignificant point.

Until next round, though, the man of the moment is the guard who had 50 of them.

Chris Goulding, take a bow.