NBL Round 11 Tips & Preview

The Breakers will “host” Melbourne United in Bendigo as Central Victoria gets a taste of Thursday night hoops.

Melbourne United broke their losing streak with a much-needed win over the Illawarra Hawks on Sunday, but they were smashed by the Sydney Kings just 48 hours prior, which many including their coach has described as their poorest performance this season to date.

However, you’re only as good as your last performance and a win is a win.

Holding the Hawks to just 65 points showed that Melbourne United can build on it and continue to get their season back on track with a win over the Breakers.

New Zealand looked to improve during the NBL Cup but have lost their past three and was soundly beaten by the Brisbane Bullets who had most of their players missing due to injury.

When these two sides met during the NBL Cup, it was a thriller, with Melbourne United just getting over the line by 3 points.

We shouldn’t expect something similar in this clash, Melbourne United need to get back on the winner’s list and a big win over the Breakers will do them a world of good.

This game is set to be a beauty and a potential finals preview.

The Perth Wildcats are looking the goods yet again.

Currently sitting on top of the NBL ladder, the Wildcats have won their past five matches and are back at their RAC Arena fortress.

Illawarra is coming off a 10 point loss away against Melbourne United last Sunday and Brian Goorjians men simply cannot be underestimated this season.

If any team is going to end the Wildcats streak at RAC Arena, it’ll be the Hawks.

We’re hopefully in for a shoot out this Friday night, with both sides averaging a total points of 169 from their past 10 matches, the over looks to be real value in this one.

The Breakers will have just 48-hours to back it up from a close loss to Melbourne United on Thursday, heading up North to take on the Bullets.

Both the Bullets and Breakers met at the same venue and the same time last week when the Bullets who were missing a few players with a non-covid virus managed to get the job done 88-67.

The Brisbane Bullets have been in excellent form of late, having won four out of their past five and are knocking on the door of the top 4.

A win over the Breakers on Saturday should get them into playoff contention and with the fresh legs and home-court advantage, it’s a pretty straight forward tip.

Another local derby is on the cards, or “Throwdown” as they call it with South East Melbourne Phoenix taking on Melbourne United.

After a bit of a rough patch, Melbourne United have gotten back on the winner’s list, winning their last two games, including a 3 point thriller over the Breakers on Thursday night in Bendigo and will have to back it up just 48 hours later in the Throwdown.

Melbourne United currently sit second on the NBL table, but dependent on results could find themselves back on top of the league with a win over the cross-town rivals, who are in red-hot form.

South East Melbourne Phoenix is third on the NBL table and are very much one of the in-form teams of the NBL currently on a four-game winning streak.

These two sides met only a couple of weeks ago, for which South East Melbourne Phoneix registered a thrilling 97-92 win over United, however, the establishment has the upper hand winning four of the last six clashes.

Throwdown VII should be a beauty and in its short history has become one of the must-see NBL fixtures.

I’m on the Phoneix in this one, Melbourne United still seem a bit off and South East Melbourne is excellent value at $2.10

There will be a bit of feeling in this one, given it’s the rematch of the 2020 NBL Grand Final, for which the series was abruptly cancelled when the COVID pandemic struck, giving the Perth Wildcats the title by default.

This will be the second time these two sides have met, and this time it’s on Sydney’s home court.

Any Kings fan will regard Perth’s recent championship as a default/asterisk win and will have had this game pencilled in for a very long time.

Perth will have just 48 hours from their Friday night clash to head over to Sydney to face the Kings, and while they are the better team on paper and favourite in the market right now, if there’s one game the Sydney Kings are going to get themselves up for – it’s this one.

I’ll take the Sydney Kings at the line.

Both sides are currently on a long five-game losing streak and one will get the monkey off the back in this clash.

Who will that team be?

I’m really not sure to honest, however, I expect this to be highly entertaining and a high scoring affair.

So we’ll go the Over.

We’ve got an absolute beauty on our hands to finish the round with the 4th placed Illawarra Hawks hosting the 5th placed Brisbane Bullets.

Both sides are nine wins and eight losses, separated by percentage.

This will be the first time in over 47 days since the Hawks stepped on to their home court and Brian Goorjian’s men can find themselves third on the table with a win.

In fact, this will only be the second time the Hawks have played at home all season.

A win for the Bullets can see them jump into 4th place, however, with the NBL ladder being thrown into chaos with various results over the weekend, the loser will find themselves in 6th spot and out of playoff contention.

This will be the second game both of these sides gave played this weekend, the Hawks lost to the Wildcats over in Perth and the Bullets bubble burst against the NZ Breakers on Saturday night.

The past three games between Illawarra and Brisbane have been decided by around the 6-8 point margin, and with the home-court advantage always a factor, Illawarra Hawks at the 1-10 margin looks like a good value play.