***NBL & WNBL Week #5

YTD: 15-10

Went 4-4 last week, took too many plays and strayed away from discipline. Need to get back on track and only take the plays I like and feel good about.

Looking into the games tonight across both leagues. Melbourne has already ruled out Goulding. DJ looked good the other night vs Sydney. Hawks injury free I believe unless other news comes through. They have played in 2 high scoring games and even though Goulding is out, the offense of Melbourne still runs smoothly as shown against the Taipans the other night. Kings play a slower pace game compared to the other teams and the Hawks play at a good speed and are coming off a disappointing loss to the Kings where Melbourne are coming off a win against the Kings. This game smells to me like another over game to me with these 2 teams involved.

Melbourne United @ Illawarra Hawks: Over 177.5

Goulding is out and still line increased to 2.5. Any feeling that Hawks might get the W here? 

Goulding is out and still line increased to 2.5. Any feeling that Hawks might get the W here? 

thanks BigD. Season is still young and plenty of games on today.. 

Sydney Uni Flames @ Bendigo Spirit: Flames +11.5

there is no way the Spirit should be laying that many points. Sydney chasing their first win as well. They have been close in some games and I think they can get their first win today

Good call mate, flames almost got the W here. 

Yea, they have been good on the 1st half and lose the composure on the 2nd half. 

Any leans for the Bullet game?

Looking into the total for this game. Tough spot for Bullets. Played Friday night, 5 hour flight yesterday back home for this game and now playing tonight. Breakers have been home for a a week and also played Friday night but only had a 3 hour flight yesterday to Brisbane. Played already this season, Brisbane beat them in NZ 86-73 which the total went under. Breakers were trying to find their identity back then with new personnel on the roster. 

In that first game, we only saw 128 total shots, they landed just 58 buckets combined. 

Three point shooting was pretty good from Brisbane in that game and poor by NZ, combined they went for 20/49 3 pointers which is around 39% which is decent. 

Free throws, NZ atrocious hitting just 8/16, Bullets went 15/19, so combined was 23/35 which is 64% which is weak yet the game still hit 159 points which is pretty amazing considering what I explained above.

Since that game, the NZ team has jacked up 83 (vs Melbourne), 76 (Sydney), 84 (Adelaide), 81 (Perth) & 76 (Taipans). So that game vs the Bullets was a lot different pace compared to their following 5 matches which has seen almost 10+ shots extra per game which doesn't seem like much but it is if they land say 4-5 of those helping towards the total.

Brisbane on the other hand are leagues highest 3 point makers, averaging 11 made 3 pointers per game. These 2 teams love shooting 3's and I think they can both get the over tonight. I don't think we see NZ score 7 points in a quarter like they did vs Perth on their last road game. 

NZ Breakers @ Brisbane Bullets: Over 175.5

thanks BigD. These totals are getting super sharp again. That Perth game just went under by 2.5 points.

Interesting game so far, the same amount of shots as the last meeting.

Sitting at the half, we got 93 points and a combined 63 shots between the teams.

Going to need a faster pace 2H IMHO to get this over as the Bullets are starting to look tired out there.