We have arrived at the final week of the NBL regular season and while the top four has already been confirmed, there is still plenty on the line.
The Bullets and Kings are playing for pride and trying to avoid the wooden spoon on Thursday night, while Round 19 of the NBL will draw to a close in Perth on Sunday when the Wildcats host the Taipans.
The Bullets and Kings will each contest their penultimate games of the season in Brisbane on Thursday night.
Brisbane notched up a smart win over the Illawarra Hawks to open their account in Round 18, but they were unable to match it with the Kings in Sydney on Saturday evening and eventually left on the wrong end of a twelve-point score line. They accounted for life without Perrin Buford quite well, particularly against the Hawks and Travis Trice was typically brilliant for the Brisbane team.
The Kings were in action only once in Round 18, but their form as a whole has been far better recently and they have been capable of competing with most teams in the league. It’s simply too little, too late for Andrew Gaze’s men and sights are set on the 2018/19 campaign.
There is plenty riding on this game as neither team will want to end the season at the bottom of the ladder, but the Kings can heap all the pressure on Brisbane with a tight win.
The Breakers will look to take winning form from their two games in Round 19 into the finals, beginning with Friday evening’s meeting with the Hawks in New Zealand. The Breakers are currently sitting in fourth leading into the post-season, but they cannot fall out of the finals picture and can sew up third position with two strong wins. They were pretty comfortably beaten by title favourites Melbourne United twice last week and if they are any chance of winning this season’s title, they will really need to switch on.
The Hawks failed to fire in Brisbane and trailed the Bullets at every break, before returning home on Sunday for a comprehensive 24-point loss to Adelaide. They have clearly checked out for the season and are another team looking towards the next campaign.
New Zealand will win this game and win well.
Melbourne United have sewn up the minor premiership, but will look to send a warning to their three finals-bound opponents with a big win over the reigning premiers.
Melbourne have been simply outstanding this campaign and will enter the final week of the regular season with a record of 19 wins and only seven losses, having gone within a point of upsetting Oklahoma City Thunder in the United States days prior to this campaign. The title looks to be theirs to lose and they will be extremely difficult to beat in a series.
If there’s one team that can trouble Melbourne, it’s Perth. The Wildcats snuck into the finals last season before winning the whole thing and have continued to produce top-quality performances throughout their defence. Worryingly, they dropped their last two games but will look to tune up before the finals.
Saturday afternoon will see the Bullets travel south for their final game of the season against the finals-bound Adelaide 36ers.
Its been another rough season for the Bullets and they’ve largely failed to make an impression on the competition. They are in action against the Kings two days prior to this game and while the result of that could have some bearing, there won’t be a lot to play for here.
The 36ers enter the final week of the regular season as genuine title contenders and they will look to continue their preparations with a big win over the Bullets. Adelaide destroyed the Hawks last weekend and are playing for a third-consecutive win in this game, having also put Perth to the sword on the final day of Round 17.
Adelaide will win well and can cover a line current set at 8.5 points.
Illawarra will end their season in Melbourne on Saturday night.
Its been a reasonably disappointing season for the Hawks – their inconsistency has been the real killer and recently, they have been playing on tired legs. This will follow a tough trip to New Zealand on Friday and the Hawks will need the likes of Rotnei Clarke and Demitrius Conger to be firing on all cylinders if they are to compete in this.
This is the final opportunity for Melbourne to win before the finals and they will make it count.
The Kings will conclude a forgettable season at home against the finals-bound Breakers on Sunday afternoon.
Boasting a typically-strong roster on paper, it looked like the sky would be the limit for the Kings in 2017/18, but a horror run of form at the beginning of the campaign meant that they were all but out of contention by the mid-way point of the regular season. They have slowly built to the task recently, but it is simply too late.
The Breakers are locked into the top four and have plenty of basketball ahead of them. After hosting the Hawks on Friday night, they should be full of fight and can carry winning form into their post-season campaign.
The final game of the regular season will see the Wildcats and Taipans square off in the nation’s west on Sunday night.
Cairns can end the season in fifth overall, but they will be lamenting the opportunities missed and it is tough to see how they will approach this game. They were terrific in their Round 18 win over the Wildcats in Perth and will need to reproduce that performance, if they are to secure the same result.