The following are previews with betting tips for selected fixtures in Round 9 of the 2024/25 NBL season.
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Cairns Taipans vs New Zealand BreakersSaturday November 16, 5:30pm |
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Currently situated in last place on the NBL ladder things are looking incredibly bleak for the ‘venomless’ Taipans at the moment. They have a paltry 3-8 record for the season and have lost their last seven games on the trot. The latest of which was a 23-point thrashing at the hands of fellow cellar dwellers South East Melbourne. Now they must attempt to break their losing drought against none other than the ‘breaking everyone and everything in their path’ Breakers. The New Zealanders are currently situated in 2nd position and have comfortably won four of their last six clashes. Over the course of this month they have battered Melbourne United 113-79 away from home, as well as having put on a clinic at their own home venue against the Adelaide 36ers, prevailing comfortably 109-82. The Breakers are firing on all cylinders at the moment and with them also having won nine of their last 14 clashes against Adam Forde’s Men they may well be in for another hiding this Saturday afternoon unless they can perform a miracle at the Cairns Convention Centre.
Cairn’s latest three home results and top performers; L 92-88 vs Brisbane – Rob Edwards w 27PTS, 2REB and 3AST, L 75-87 vs Illawarra – Pedro Bradshaw w 18PTS, 14REB and 3AST and L 90-87 vs Perth – Rob Edwards w 24PTS, 7REB and 1AST.
New Zealand’s latest three away results and top performers; L 83-64 vs Tasmania – Parker Jackson-Cartwright w 15PTS and 9AST, W 113-79 vs Melbourne – Sam Mennenga w 25PTS, 4REB and 2AST and W 93-89 vs Sydney – Matt Mooney w 24PTS, 2REB and 5AST.
Rob Edwards and Parker Jackson-Cartwright will undoubtedly be the stars of the show here. But the big question is which player will lead their team to victory?
For ex-Oklahoma City Thunder SG Edwards, he is one of the sole lifelines that the Taipans seemingly have in their possession this campaign. The Detroit-born twenty-seven year old is putting up 19.2PPG, 3.9RPG, 2.8APG and just under 1SPG. All the while averaging 47.1% from beyond the arc. With the way he’s currently playing this may well prove to be his sole season with Cairns. How well he can carry the workload when the Breakers put two players on him at a time potentially will be quite telling within the overall context of the affair. New Zealand will have to be fast in order to thwart him from pulling up from deep too often. Whilst their normally precise defence will also have to be competing at it’s regular high level in order to prevent him from using the suction-tight opposition to his advantage, aka presenting opportunities for his fellow open Taipans.
Whilst for Jackson-Cartwright, the ex-Bundesliga MVP, he is on fire this campaign putting up 19.4PPG, 3.3RPG, 7.7APG and 2.1SPG. Whilst also shooting 48.1% overall as the electric PG is doing it all. He will undoubtedly keep the Taipans ‘slithering’ along all afternoon long. They will have to be so, so, so good in order to prevent him for raking up some big numbers right here and unfortunately I don’t think they have it in them. Edwards may well play his heart out, however Jackson-Cartwright will be the big name that he normally is and should deliver the Breakers a landslide victory.
Betting tips; Pick an easy Breakers dub at $1.52 (PlayUp)
Also pick them to win Q1 as well at $1.73 (BetRight)
And also back New Zealand to win the race to 10, 15 and 20 PTS first in Q1 at $1.71, $1.66 and $1.80 (Bet365)
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Illawarra Hawks vs Sydney KingsSaturday November 16, 8:00pm |
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The last time the Hawks and the Kings met it was Illawarra who flew away with Sydney’s throne as they narrowly defeated them 96-89 at Qudos Bank Arena in what was in all honesty a five-star performance from the visitors. From the outset they curtailed them as they were victorious by 12-points in the opening quarter. And from there onwards they witnessed their simply magnificent backcourt of Tyler Harvey & Trey Kell combine for 41PTS, 7REB and 5AST. Spicily it was also Brian Goorjian’s first game against his ex-employers and as he prepares to travel to Wollongong for this one he’ll no doubt be in for some ‘special’ treatment at the ‘Snake Pit’ as well. In spite of all the success that the famous NBL head coach had there, a lot of ‘Hawk heads’ argue that he left them in a pretty perilous position once Jacob Jackomas took over the team. 2023 NBL MVP and NBL Grand Final MVP Xavier Cooks also went to high school in the region and started his professional career repping them in the NBL1 East. He normally cops it from the supporters as well. There’s so much fire going around in this Derby it’s unbelievable. Tune in because you simply won’t want to miss it.
Illawarra’s latest three home results and top performers; L 87-92 vs Melbourne – Will Hickey w 17PTS, 5REB and 6AST, W 109-76 vs Tasmania – Sam Froling w 21PTS, 5REB and 2AST and L 100-102 vs Adelaide – Trey Kell w 29PTS, 4REB and 4AST.
Sydney’s latest three away results and top performers; L 87-83 vs Melbourne – Cameron Oliver w 18PTS, 16REB and 2AST, L 87-84 vs Perth – Xavier Cooks w 22PTS, 11REB and 6AST, W 80-71 vs Tasmania – Xavier Cooks w 15PTS, 12REB and 6AST.
Did you know that 13 out of these two rivals last 17 H2Hs have been decided by just 10PTS or less? It is a simply damming stat that displays just how incredibly tight this Derby has been over recent years. Rarely does one smash the other and you would expect that another incredible and another close battle awaits them on Saturday night. Whether it’s Tyler Harvey’s heroics dethroning the Kings, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk giving it to his former club, Xavier Cooks sending his old school region home sad or Cameron Oliver doing Cameron Oliver-like things to the Hawks, there will undoubtedly be plenty and plenty and plenty of scintillating stuff to watch out for in this matchup.
However of note Oliver has been particularly pertinent recently for Sydney. The ex-Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets Center has been on a tear. He was kept quiet recently against the Phoenix but prior to that vs the ‘Jackies’ he had 12PTS & 11REB. Whilst prior to that against Melbourne he had 18PTS & 16REB and so on. This will be a true test right here of his credentials against an incredibly effective Illawarra Hawks defence. If he can do great things then that’s great for the Kings, but if not then it might be the hosts ‘soaring’ high post the full-time siren going off.
Betting tips; Pick the total points scored in H1 to be 92 or more at $1.90 (Unibet)
Also back Illawarra to have 23 + PTS in Q1 and for Sydney to have 24 + at $1.75 and $1.95 (Bet365)