After an exciting semi-finals series, the 2015-2016 NBL season is drawing to an end as we offer our NBL Grand Final preview and betting tips.
Starting tonight (Wednesday, March 2), the Perth Wildcats and New Zealand Breakers will do battle to determine our champion. The best-of-3 series will begin in Perth, then the two teams will travel the massive 5,350km to Auckland before Friday night's game. If after 2 games we don't have a winner, the teams will travel back to Perth for the final bout on Sunday night.
New Zealand was on fire against Melbourne United during the Semi-Finals. They swept the series in 2 games and made it look easy. The first game in Melbourne saw the Breakers clean up United 91-82. Cedric Jackson dropped 20 points along with 4 rebounds. While these don't sound like huge numbers, they show just how much the Breakers moved the ball around and shared the workload. Tom Abercrombie and Corey Webster both had double figures and excelled in defense.
Game 2, meanwhile, saw Abercrombie take the reigns, leading the game with 23 points, 3 assists and 4 rebounds. Jackson shot a somewhat modest 19 points, but doubled his rebound numbers with 8 including 7 defensive boards. The Breakers are a team built on rebounds. In their last 2 games they've made 93 rebounds both defensively and offensively. Rebounds equal possession and possession wins games.
The Wildcats unexpectedly went to 3 games against the Illawarra Hawks. They preyed on the their opponents during Game 1, finishing up with a score of 80-68. Game 2, was surprisingly all Illawarra. It felt like the Wildcats stayed in Perth as they conceded 104-87. Game 3 it was back on track with Perth taking to the court with precision and style in front of the home crowd. Jesse Wagstaff scored 17 in just over 20 minutes as well as being a rebound machine with 7 including 5 defensive boards.
Perth Arena is the perhaps the toughest battle ground in the NBL. Its a rough trip simply across the country, let alone New Zealand having to travel across the Tasman as well. The Wildcats don't tend to lose at home, so it might be easy to see a 2-1 Wildcats victory for this one. But New Zealand are just so good. They took apart the best team in the league last week and with the extended break will be ready to do the same thing to the Wildcats. Will be staying away from the series score betting and lean towards a Breakers win with Cedric Jacson bagging the NBL Grand Final MVP.
- Series Tip: New Zealand Breakers to win - $2.30 at Crownbet
- MVP Tip: Cedric Jackson to win the MVP - $5.50 Crownbet
There is more information regarding the Grand Final on the NBL website.
