Basketball On The Internet.

THE NBL is on the threshold of its 2026 best-of-three semi finals, giving Brad&Boti podcast colleague Brad Rosen and I plenty to discuss, but before we even do, over in Turkey our Australian Opals are in action against Argentina, Japan, Hungary, Turkey and Canada.

Fortunately they already have qualified for the 2026 FIBA World Cup but are joining in with those five quality national teams who are competing for spots in what are key games for them.

For us it's a chance to see how the "new crew" is doing. Though, frankly, how Courtney Woods is not in that team - and yes, she was available - is baffling to me.

How great a job did Tasmania coach Scott Roth do in not only getting his sorely depleted line-up first to the playoffs, but then on to a position of scaring the living daylights out of Melbourne?

All without Bryce Hamilton, Will Magnay, Ben Ayre and Sean MacDoanld.

The fact Roth confirmed post-game he will be seeing out his contract in the 2026-27 season also would have delighted JackJumpers' fans.

Let's hope he can suit a healthy team.

South East Melbourne's fullcourt pressure exposed Perth's backcourt weaknesses in their qualifying final, but United was unable to duplicate that and had no answer for Wildcats "bigs" Jo Lual-Acuil and Kristian Doolittle.

After halftime, it was one-way traffic, the road for Perth now leading into Sydney and a semi final series against the regular season champion Kings.

Lual-Acuil and Kings centre Tim Soares had more than a few words when last these teams met, suggesting a potentially fiery showdown at Qudos Bank Arena.

Brad has strong views on where he sees Adelaide right now and is backing the relentless pressure of the Phoenix to be the key element in deciding the rival semi final series.

My Nagy Nasty is, sadly, an ongoing lament but Brad has a chirpy Rattler to close us on a high note.

And you can hear all this, and more, right now simply by clicking onto this LINK, or by going to your favourite podcast destinations.