Sunday, October 3, 2010

Wildcats still the team to beat

Going in to the NBL season, which is now only 12 days away from tip-off, the defending Perth Wildcats have shown they are still the team to beat by winning the pre-season Top End Challenge.

A comfortable 20 point win the final against a surprising Cairns Taipans gave them the pre-season title and this is reflected in the current betting odds for the NBL season:

Winner
Perth Wildcats 4.00
Gold Coast Blaze 4.50
New Zealand Breakers 6.50
Townsville Crocodiles 6.50
Melbourne Tigers 9.00
Sydney Kings 12.00
Adelaide 36ers 13.00
Cairns Taipans 15.00
Wollongong Hawks 15.00

I'm not quite sure why the Hawks are at the bottom of the table but what the prices show is that any team could win right now.


National Basketball League: Wildcats down Taipans, win Top End Challenge

October 02, 2010, 03:58 PM AEST
By: Matt McQuade

In front of a big crowd Saturday night at Marrara Indoor Stadium in Darwin, the Perth Wildcats won the 2010 Top End Challenge preseason championship with a dominant 72-52 win over the Cairns Taipans.

Cairns came into the game as decided underdogs after going 1-1 in the preliminary rounds, and weren’t able to put the lie to that status as they were overwhelmed by Perth in a first and third quarter blitzkrieg and never looked like upsetting the 2009/2010 NBL champions, who added the 2010/11 preseason crown to their bulging trophy cabinet.

The Wildcats finished the tournament with a perfect 3-0 record after wins over Adelaide, Melbourne and then Cairns in the final, and there’s little doubt are primed to go back to back and win an unprecedented sixth National Basketball League championship this season.


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