Basketball On The Internet.

HERE it all is, wrapped up in one nice big bundle - all our NBL match summaries from Round 19. If you missed any of them, well they're all here in one place now. And perhaps it is time to pose the question, why do referees have such short fuses with polite gentlemen such as Mike Kelly?

It's almost as if constant snipers and sideline berators such as Sydney's manic Mahmoud Abdelfattah, Perth's rarely happy John Rillie, New Zealand's vocal Mody Maor and the occasionally blue Adam Forde and Scott Roth are given great leeway and latitude by our inconsistent whistleblowers.

(Except when an NBL boss says "zero tolerance" of bad behaviour and Maor is thrown out of a game during the halftime break...)

This past round saw an unhappy Kelly, one of the NBL's nice guys - oops, just realised where they'll be finishing - tossed out for what seemed a relatively minor infraction when compared to our previous cast of over-exuberant characters.

It's as if Kelly, Adelaide's Scott Ninnis, Illawarra's Justin Tatum and Brisbane's Justin Schueller, by being more reasonable and amenable, are then held to a higher code of behaviour.

If Kelly dares mutter "Golly Gosh," he'll probably not only get thrown out but also fined.

Melbourne's Dean Vickerman remains in a class of his own. He does a lot of yelling but it's mostly directed at his players. His exchanges with officials only occasionally tread that thin line. Rival club fans will disagree but Vickers does know where the line is.

Frankly, they all do. But Abdelfattah's "if looks could kill" aggressive coach's challenge in the loss to Illawarra was worthy of referee James Grigoul hitting him with a very long overdue technical foul.

But he did not. He should get a rap on the knuckles for letting the Kings coach get away with that degree of disrespect and disdain.

And the referee who tech-fouled Kelly out of the game with Tasmania, Marc Mill, also should have a case to answer for being Marshall Quick Draw McGraw.

His over-reaction was costly for South East Melbourne and it is intriguing now how often a referee will hang around a coach or player after that individual has shown they believe they've been wronged by a call or a non-call.

It is almost as if the ref is waiting for a negative reaction that additionally can be penalised, and that type of abuse of authority also needs policing.

At least Mike Kelly has learnt his lesson and will never again have the audacity or the temerity to utter "Fudge" under his breath.

NOTE to Vaughan. It's no use explaining calls to Bul Kuol or Lat Mayen. They're still going to do the same thing next time.

NOTE to NBL TV commentator Joel Peterson. The first time you said "he recycles the possession" as a reference to an offensive rebound, it was quite a brilliant new line. Loved it. The next time you said it, it still was pretty fresh. But we're up to the 27th mention now and frankly, it has lost its cache. Maybe put it away and come up with another zinger instead. You showed you could.

ROUND 19:

PARKER Jackson-Cartwright staked his case as the NBL's premier "Little Big Man", leading New Zealand to a huge home win over Illawarra, making the Hawks' trip to Sydney massive and the Breakers' visit to Melbourne also critical. In Brisbane, the Bullets ended Adelaide's play-in bid. 

By inflicting the 36ers' 16th loss, Brisbane snuffed out the 36ers' last-gasp at an unlikely presence in the post-season, the pressure of the past two games breaking the Sixers.

Starting Will McDowell-White alongside Jackson-Cartwright worked a treat for Mody Maor and the Breakers. McDowell-White swished his first four 3-point attempts and PJC ran rings around multiple Hawks defenders.

No-one could stop Jackson-Cartwright, on his way to a 31-point haul on 61 percent shooting, plus 2-of-4 threes and seven assists.

His drives to the hoop were immaculate and a thing of beauty, his speed leaving Illawarra bamboozled. McDowell-White, until he injured his foot late, delivered his 16 points at 50 percent, with 4-of-6 triples and three assists.

Mantas Rubstavicius again was solid with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting and Zylan Cheatham's 12-point, 15-rebound double did not speak to the stellar defensive job he did on Hawks superstar Gary Clark.

Clark still finished with 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting but his influence was noticeably curtailed.

The Hawks instead drew better games from Sam Froling and Justin Robinson, Biwali Bayles and William Hickey also adding positive contributions from the bench.

Illawarra missed Todd Blanchfield, though hardly as obviously as New Zealand missed Anthony Lamb, Finn Delany providing some relief.

Ahead 68-61 with a period to play, New Zealand had to weather Tyler Harvey sparking to life, nailing a pair of massive threes alternated by Froling drives which came on top of a Clark triple.

Suddenly the Hawks were ahead 74-68 and on a 13-0 rampage! 

That was Delany's time to shine, his jumper cutting it to 70-74, PJC to 72-74 and Delany again with a three restoring New Zealand's lead.

Illawarra poked it back to a four-point buffer but a Mangok Mathiang bucket off a Jackson-Cartwright feed, sandwiched between two baskets by the spinning top playmaker, with another to come, gave the Breakers an 85-80 lead.

Harvey's three kept it interesting before an Izayah Le'afa steal led to a big Cheatham punctuation mark dunk and there were only a few seconds of drama left to negotiate.

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 88 (Jackson-Cartwright 31, McDowell-White 16, Rubstavicius 13, Cheatham 12; Cheatham 15 rebs; Jackson-Cartwright 7 assts) d ILLAWARRA HAWKS 85 (Harvey 22, Froling 16, Clark 15, Robinson 14; Froling 10 rebs; Robinson 4 assts) at Spark Arena. Crowd: 3,941.

NATHAN Sobey came out firing, scoring Brisbane's first seven points, then hitting the 3-pointer for a 12-4 lead, his first quarter of 12 points underpinning his exceptional 37-point rout of former club Adelaide.

Gambling youngster Nick Marshall on Sobey early backfired memorably, although the 36ers showed great grit to drag the deficit in, Dejan Vasiljevic (28 points on 11-of-23, 1-of-8 threes) sticking his threeball to tie it at 14-14.

Sobey with a basket, then a steal and assist to Rocco Zikarsky for a trademark slam dunk, had the crowd yelping. A couple of strong plays by Alex Starling had it back level at 20-20 before Casey Prather's vision steered Brisbane to its 22-20 lead after one.

With Isaac Humphries consistently looked off by teammates, and Aron Baynes enjoying his starting role in the absence of Tyrell Harrison, it was only a matter of time Brisbane would prevail.

Trey Kell (1-of-10, 13 points with 11-of-14 free throws) could not buy a basket, the 36ers tying this - appropriately - for the last time at 36-36 on a Kyrin Galloway three.

An Isaac White three-point play, a Mitch Norton triple and successful drives by Sobey and White gave the Bullets a 10-0 sponge and Adelaide was in the rough.

Another Galloway three pointed to hope, but three made free throws by Sobey and a 3-pointer on top - he connected on 6-of-8 dialling long distance - made it 52-39 and it was going to be all uphill for the Sixers.

Despite launching the threeball at an abysmal 14 percent (4-of-28, and Galloway hit 3-of-5), they made a couple of promising runs at it in the second half. But Brisbane was going to the playoffs and Adelaide to those tedious days of rumour and speculation about coaching and personnel changes ... and golfing handicaps.

BRISBANE BULLETS 102 (Sobey 37, Norton 15, Baynes 10; Bannan 11 rebs; Norton 6 assts) d ADELAIDE 36ERS 84 (Vasiljevic 28, Galloway, Kell 13, Humphries 11; Kell 10 rebs; McCarron 4 assts) at Nissan Arena. Crowd: 4,987

BRYCE Cotton put on a show in Perth as the Wildcats ultimately comfortably eliminated Cairns from the post-season and Tasmania flexed its muscles in front of a 10,000-plus crowd at John Cain Arena, formally consigning South East Melbourne to the club's historic first last-placed finish in its NBL life.

There was quite some irony in that latter result, given it was the league's youngest club handing the NBL's second youngest club its passport into the basement, the JackJumpers now in three seasons of existence never missing the playoffs.

But when all 12 members of your roster have scored, seven are in double figures and an eighth has nine points - and none of them are your star import Milton Doyle - your know you're travelling very well.

Doyle still had a game-high five assists after all, as Tasmania swept aside South East Melbourne amid some controversy which saw Phoenix coach Mike Kelly ejected.

He was commending Rhys Vague for his defensive stance despite copping a foul for it, referee Marc Mill suitably and sufficiently unimpressed to issue a technical foul. And a little more Kelly verbal dismay resulted in an unnecessary second tech when Mill simply could have calmed the situation or, better yet, moved away.

By then it already was going pretty poorly for the Phoenix, down Mitch Creek, Alan Williams, Gary Browne, Craig Moller and Owen Foxwell, and needing so much from so few.

Abdel Nader battled away for his 19 points, Ben Ayre was back to his "little man with a chip on his shoulder" attitude, even attracting a technical foul mouthing off after receiving a call in his favour!

Yeah. Not smart, and when he's consumed by behaving that way, his game suffers and so does his team. His six turnovers did not help much either.

Once again needing lesser lights to shine, veterans such as Reuben Te Rangi and Matt Kenyon offered precious little. Returning from injury, Kenyon had an excuse for his seven point contribution.

But Te Rangi yet again was MIA, playing 20 minutes for 0 points, going 0-of-7, with two rebounds, an assist and a turnover. If he isn't already contracted for 2024-25, he should be considering life after basketball on what he has shown this season. And even if he is contracted, he should start planning his life's next phase.

Vague, delivering eight points at 22 percent in 25 minutes, also has been one of this season's major disapppointments and under-achievers.

In contrast and much as it was against Adelaide last round, Tasmania was clinical and precise. Its ball movement was slick, which is why so many shared in the fruits of such unselfish activity.

Leading from tip-off and by as many as 33 points, this only ever was going to be a case of "how much will Tassie win by?"

In the end, the answer was 27.

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 94 (Magnay, McVeigh, MacDonald, Steindl 11, Lee, Crawford, Drmic 10; Lee 7 rebs; Doyle 5 assts) d SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 67 (Nader 19, Ayre 13, Vague, Rissetto 8; Gak 7 rebs; Nader, Ayre 3 assts) at John Cain Arena. Crowd: 10,175

THERE are destined to be changes at Cairns when the regular season closes next week after the Taipans again fell into ill discipline and Patrick "Hey!" Miller decided to play one-on-five late in their unnecessarily big road loss in Perth.

Once popular import Tahjere McCall clearly was out of favour, playing just 8:48 off the bench for four points on 2-of-7 shooting, two rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Maybe he can seek some advice from fellow import Josh Roberts who saw 12:45 of action, or Sam Mennenga, whose daylight consisted of 9:09.

It would not have mattered much if Cairns had been able to sustain its effort for the duration, matching Perth 30-30 in the first and 57-57 to halftime.

Sam Waardenburg was playing like the Sam Waardenburg of 2022-23, scoring 19 points on 7-of-7 shooting before he finally missed his fourth 3-point attempt.

The Cairns strategy of denying Bryce Cotton opportunities worked upto a point, but he had Keanu Pinder and Jordan Usher sharing the scoring load.

Kristian Doolittle quietly paired 15 points and 10 boards as Alex Sarr also shone with 14 points at 67 percent and a game-high 12 boards. His three blocks also were pretty nasty.

Waardenburg had no shortage of willing helpers in the first half and Cairns' tactics of going at Tai Webster resulted in substantially reducing his influence due to foul woes.

Losing Waardenburg to injury was a huge blow, as was Bul Kuol being in foul trouble as usual, fouling out as usual, Lat Mayen also hampering his game with an absence of foul discipline.

Perth's 22-15 third period put it into the box seat but Taran Armstrong, Roberts and Miller - who at one stage scored 10 straight points but with few others handling the ball - kept the scoreboard ticking.

But from 82-84 down, Cairns would score just six more points to the Wildcats' 33, dunks by Pinder and Usher ushering in the avalanche which resulted in a whopping 38-16 final period.

Cotton took over too, on his way to 26 points at 50 percent, with 3-of-5 threes and four assists, Cairns with much to consider in the off-season.  

PERTH WILDCATS 117 (Cotton 26, Pinder, Usher 18, Doolittle 15, Sarr 14; Sarr 12 rebs; Cotton 4 assts) d CAIRNS TAIPANS 88 (Miller 25, Waardenburg 19, Klintman 11; Mayen, Klintman, Armstrong 4 rebs; Miller 5 assts) at RAC Arena. Crowd: 12,895

NEW Zealand remains in control of its own finals destiny despite being devastated by foul woes in its loss to Melbourne, Will McDowell-White the hardest hit, though the NBL coaching future of Sydney's Mahmoud Abdelfattah took a bigger welt as Illawarra again dethroned the Kings, leaving the defending champs' fate at the mercy of others.

For Sydney's vague apparition of a dream of a championship threepeat to take any tangible form, it has to beat South East Melbourne, but also pray for other favourable results elsewhere.

It does not look promising, much as the mounting foul count at John Cain Arena did not look at all reassuring for Breakers' fans against United.

Leading 16-11 and with McDowell-White on fire, New Zealand quickly came back to the pack as the fouls continued to grow. It was eight to four in that first quarter against NZ, and United's fourth foul occurred 6.1 seconds from the first break, by which time they led 27-22.

Shea Ili had a good quarter as Melbourne seized control of the game but McDowell-White had 10 points and was the most dangerous player on the court.

The clock was showing 7:48 in the second period when New Zealand again already had four team fouls. Unquestionably, there were some undisciplined fouls among them. But there also were a bunch of others that only went one way.

At 6:40 and with McDowell-White now on 15 points, he was caught defending a Matthew Dellavedova driving basket for which Delly was assessed an offensive foul.

Despite nearly every such call going their way, United coach Dean Vickerman challenged that one and, no surprise, the challenge was successful. Delly's basket counted, he received a bonus free throw and McDowell-White was off the court with his third foul.

NZ's most dangerous player on the court now was off it. Melbourne was ahead 31-28 when that crucial call was reversed but baskets by Mangok Mathiang (career high 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting) kept it alive, down 34-40 soon after.

But the inevitable was coming, Ian Clark's three signalling the start of a 15-5 Melbourne run to halftime as the Breakers lost their poise and their way.

Melbourne stroked 7-of-12 threes for the half and by the last break was comfortably clear 78-55.

Izayah Le'afa, who mostly was as useful as a motorbike ash-tray through the first half, found his stroke for two threes and NZ started the long graft back.

It squeezed the deficit back to 15 on several occasions but gave up two Luke Travers dunks. Then it crawled to 75-86 as Parker Jackson-Cartwright threw everything he had at the final term.

But he also missed two open corner threes, Le'afa double-dribbled and even when Melbourne was teched for having six players on court - some might have said eight - the Breakers could not seize their moments.

After shooting the three so well in the first half, Melbourne was 0-of-7 until Clark's corner triple with 2:06 made it 89-75, closing the door and clinching the regular season championship.

MELBOURNE UNITED 94 (Lual-Acuil 19, Clark 18, Ili, Dellavedova 12, Goulding 10; Lual-Acuil 11 rebs; Ili 5 assts) d NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 81 (Jackson-Cartwright 24, McDowell-White 19, Mathiang 17, Cheatham 13; Cheatham 12 rebs; Jackson-Cartwright 5 assts) at John Cain Arena. Crowd: 10,175

RIGHT from the tip-off, Illawarra made its intentions clear against Sydney, going into full attack mode behind All Star forward Gary Clark but with every Hawk on board.

Clark opened proceedings with a three-point play, then further nailed two 3-pointers, dished an assist for a Tyler Harvey three, Todd Blanchfield, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk and Will Hickey all active.

Jaylen Adams gave Sydney its only lead at 10-9, Illawarra on an 11-0 tear for 20-10 until Jaylin Galloway iced a 3-pointer.

Blanchfield erased it, then Justin Robinson joined the party, the Kings needing another Galloway three to stall the onslaught.

A Harvey four-point play and a Hyunjung Lee basket closed the first period with the Hawks flying 31-17.

It only got worse in the second as the assault continued, Justin Tatum using his bench brilliantly while Mahmoud Abdelfattah fumbled around leaving non-contributors such as DJ Hogg on and playing 24 minutes for a return of 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting. As for defence? He was MIA.

Swaka Lo Buluk pushed the lead to 44-24 with 6:20 to halftime, sparking a triple response from Jonah Bolden. Then Denzel Valentine and Adams caught fire, the deficit cut back to 44-54.

Robinson's threeball brought the margin back to 13 by halftime, then Illawarra again managed its ball movement well, Sam Froling with six of his 11 points as the lead ballooned back to 18.

Three consecutibe Froling turnovers helped ignite the Kings, Adams dragging them back to 65-76. Subbed in for the final play of the third quarter, Lee rewarded Tatum's faith with a 3-point swish to end it on a 79-65 lead.

Sydney managed to pull that deficit back to eight with its last hurrahs, Abdelfattah failing to recognise Angus Glover, Alex Toohey, Makuach Maluach, Galloway, Jordie Hunter and even Shaun Bruce - a starter for a few weeks, now not even worth 10 minutes - might have been better utilised.

His manic sideline presence contrasted greatly with Tatum's focused work, and the final result with players such as Hickey coming up big, reflected it.

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 106 (Clark 22, Harvey 21, Swaka Lo Buluk 16, Hickey, Froling 11, Robinson 10; Froling 11 rebs; Harvey, Robinson 6 assts) d SYDNEY KINGS 95 (Valentine 21, Adams 18, Galloway 15, Hunter 13, Hogg 11; Hogg 8 rebs; Adams 7 assts) at Qudos Bank Arena. Crowd: 14,832