With
the finals series underway and an upset in the making the pointy end of the
season has started with a bang. But what
about the teams left out of these festivities, why can’t they have some
glory. The NCAA has the NIT and the NBL
Dream Team has a minor championship (which I came runners up to in my league),
so why can’t the NBL have a second tier trophy for teams to fight over. As the NBL Finals MVP award is named after
Larry Sengstock who won five championships in his career, the minor
championship’s MVP award is named after Simon Dwight who took his West Sydney
Razorbacks to one game of winning the championship in both 2002 and 2004, the
only times the team made it to the finals.
I
will be simulating what would happen to this season’s B Grade championship through
very complex algorhythms, processed by a supercomputer that can compare to the best
technology that the CIA and FBI combined cannot afford. Or it would have been if I could be bothered,
so here is my take.
This year the B-Finals is sponsored by The NBL
Blog who is contributing massive amounts of funding and advertising space for
this tournament, please see www.thenblblog.blogspot.com
for more details.
The 2012 NBL Blog “B” Grade
NBL Championship
(The
team on top have home court advantage)
Game 1 - #4 Wollongong Hawks vs. Adelaide 36ers
After their shellacking by the Hawks in the last game of the
season, Adelaide wanted revenge. The
Wollongong crowd wanted to keep this season going to honour their retiring hero
and the home side got out to a blinder, getting out to a 27-15 first quarter
lead behind Oscar Forman who had 12 points on 4/5 shooting from behind the
arc. Luckily for the 36ers it wouldn’t
be a repeat of their last meeting, going on a 14-5 run to bring it to within
three points, where both teams battled to a draw and at half time the Hawks led
52-49. The best players so far on each
team were Rhys Martin who had 10 points and a whopping 8 assists, while Diamon
Simpson was doing it all by himself, racking up 18 first half points to go with
5 rebounds.
In the second half both teams fought gallantly but Adelaide
just couldn’t get in front, tying the game twice but never taking the
lead. Stephen Weigh was having a
shocker, going 3-14 from the field through three quarters with 4
turnovers. The third quarter ended with
the home side up by five, 67-62.
Starting the fourth the crow-eaters turned on the jets, breaking out a
10-0 run to silence the home side and take the lead behind Daniel Johnson who
had finally broken the shackles of Larry Davidson who was now in foul trouble,
with rarely used Daniel Jackson having to be used. The game wasn’t over yet and with three
minutes to go Wollongong went on their own run to wrestle the lead back and
from there the home side took the game out and lived to see another battle,
winning 85-79.
Notable performance (Wollongong) – Rhys Martin: 13 points
(5/13 FG), 3 rebounds, 13 assists, 5 turnovers.
Notable performance (Adelaide) – Diamon Simpson: 26 points
(11/18 FG), 12 rebounds, 3 blocks.
Game 2 - #1 Cairns Taipans vs. #4 Wollongong Hawks
Doubling up is always tough but going up against a team that
was in the proper finals chase is a massive undertaking. For the Taipans, they wanted to show the
league that they are finals material.
Unfortunately for them, Wollongong still had the hot hand and tore
through the home side like they were a dead snake. The Hawks had a massive 24-6 lead with two
minutes remaining in the first quarter with veteran Mat Campbell already going
to the line six times, making them all.
Andrew Warren was the main culprit as he missed all of his five shots
and receiving a spray in a time out from Dusty Rychart, demanding that Jamar
Wilson get the ball more as the Taipans’ top scorer not putting a shot up in
the whole quarter. At the first break
Wollongong was leading 26-10.
The home crowd was uneasy and with good reason, as Cairns
was renowned for a grinding style of play.
They didn’t disappoint in the second and third quarter, outscoring the
Hawks by twenty points while keeping the visitors to only 22 points in those
two quarters. After that the Hawks had
run out of luck and were steamrolled in the final term, losing to the Taipans
by twelve, 76-64.
Notable performance (Cairns) – Alex Loughton: 15 points, 9
rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals.
Notable performance (Wollongong) – Mat Campbell: 17 points,
5 rebounds.
Game 3 - #2 Melbourne Tigers vs. #3 Sydney Kings
A game between the two biggest cities is always a big deal
and with the rambunctious crowd at The Cage it was ramped up to eleven. The Kings behind Shane Heal were ready to go
and showed uncharacteristic ‘mongrel-ness’, winning both the first and second
terms to take a fifteen point lead at the half.
Julian Khazzouh was a man among boys, notching up a whopping 12 rebounds
to go with his 14 points while Cameron Tragardh was having a stinker, shooting
4-10 while being hamstrung with fouls.
The second half wasn’t much different apart from a small comeback from
the Tigers that brought the lead back to single digits but the Kings were just
too composed and won the game easily and causing the first upset of the
tournament, the final score 80-63.
Notable performance (Melbourne) – Myron Allen: 16 points, 8
rebounds, 6 assists, 7 turnovers.
Notable performance (Sydney) – Julian Khazzouh: 25 points,
15 rebounds, 3 blocks.
The 2012 NBL Blog “B” Grade
NBL Championship – Championship Game
Game 4 - #1 Cairns Taipans vs. #3 Sydney Kings
Here it is the massive game that over 10 people will
see. Obviously it is not being telecast
on One HD, they would rather show a repeat of the 2005 movie Aeon Flux,
starring Charlize Theron that no one will ever see.
But onto the game, the crowd is packed and the teams are
raring to go. Unfortunately most of the
energy was nervousness, with both teams making silly plays and taking bad
shots, as the first quarter total shows – 12-10. Yuck.
They opened up a little in the second, with Jamar Wilson hitting two
quick three pointers and was fouled in the space of about a minute and a half,
pushing the Taipans’ lead out to ten points at the half time break with the
score at 47-37. Julian Khazzouh was
being doubled teamed for most of the half, shown by his 2-6 shooting. He should have heaps of assists if his
perimeter players could shoot as they have missed quite a few easy kick out
shots that would have had the Kings closer than the score indicates.
The second half started like the second quarter started,
with both teams trading baskets until the Kings went on a run behind Ben Madgen
who was finally hitting shots that he was missing in the first half and the
score was all knotted up before Kerry Williams made a cameo at the buzzer,
hitting a half court shot that set the crowd alight. It would be his only made basket. Cairns – 66, Sydney – 63.
The final quarter of both their season’s was electric, with
massive shots, hard fouls and a minor scuffle when Aaron Grabau pushed Anatoly
Bose out of bounds, causing the rest of the Kings players to fight for him, but
after the players were separated it was shown on the replay that Bose had
flopped, causing the Cairns crowd to boo him every time he touched the ball for
the remainder of the game. With thirty
second left on the clock the score was tied and after coming out of a time out
the ball was given to Jamar Wilson who calmly crossed over Luke Martin and
drained a mid range floater over the stretched out arms of Jerai Grant with seven
seconds on the clock. Cairns by two. Another time out ensues, with Sydney drawing
up what could be their final shot of the season. The ball is inbounded by Ben Madgen to
Anatoly Bose who dribbled twice, pumped faked and shot over two defenders. The ball bounced once, twice and rolled out
to the left as Cairns pulled off the win 88-86.
The crowd erupts as Bose crumples to the ground while Julian Khazzouh
looks to the scoreboard. Jamar Wilson
and Ian Crosswhite are celebrating at midcourt while Aaron Fearne is calmly
shaking Shane Heal’s hand before joining in on the party.
Notable performance (Cairns) – Jamar Wilson: 20 points, 4
rebounds, 5 assists.
Notable performance (Sydney) – Ben Madgen: 24 points.
At the podium the Cairns Taipans are awarded their medals
while Jamar Wilson was given the Simon Dwight Award for Most Valuable
Player. Congratulations to the Cairns
Taipans who have won The 2012 NBL Blog “B” Grade
NBL Championship!
