Crocs vs Blaze

I made the trip down the coast today to see the Townsville Crocs take on the Gold Coast Blaze, my 2nd NBL game this season. The Blaze have been playing better over the last month (since I saw them get spanked by the Breakers) but I wasn't expecting too much. Townsville have also been very up and down with their form this season so it was going to be a case of which Crocs team showed up.

I knew there wouldn't be too much of a crowd so I figured there'd be no problem getting tickets at the game. Obviously a few people thought the same thing as there was a fair queue waiting to get tickets. GC is obviously like LA, very casual and fans wander in to the venue well after tip-off as there were plenty of people after us in the line and we missed the opening 2 minutes.

Townsville looked like they wanted the game more and seemed to always have it control. Like their season, they had spurts where they played well and time when they didn't ... inconsistent. Their defence wasn't great but they were active and they showed hustle.

Corey Williams (25 points) seemed quiet early but really came in to his own in the second quarter. Cameron Tovey was very active and Rosell Ellis did what he always does (work hard, board and provide a presence inside). I was pleased to see John Rillie hit his first two attempts from downtown and he did cool down but continued to play well.

For the Blaze, James Harvey (27 points) was dangerous and heated up in the second half. Luke Whitehead was active and tried hard. Justin Bowen got his numbers but you didn't really notice him. Maybe that's because he was doing more of the ball-handling rather than being a target or main option in the offence. At times the Blaze "offence" looked horrible and unorganised.

Haven't seen the numbers from the game yet so I could be missing a few producers but that's the read I got from watching. Final score Crocs 105 Blaze 88.