Basketball On The Internet.

WITHOUT any shadow of a doubt, that non-call when Cairns' Keanu Pinder openly mugged Tasmania's Dakota Mathias at the end of their NBL thriller easily was the single most heinous, obvious, blatant miscarriage of justice I have seen since the league launched in 1979.

No, don't even think about throwing the 2001 Damon Lowery three free throws foul against Darnell Mee at the close of Game 3 of Illawarra's semi final against Adelaide as a counter.

You can debate that call until the cows come home. Pinder simply, vigorously and deliberately ensured Mathias' corner three attempt would miss by hammering him, clearly ready to give up the foul with Cairns nursing a four-point lead and 10 seconds left.

But the baseline ref, standing very close and with a completely unobstructed view, instead blew an out of bounds call as Mathias held his head in abject dismay.

We're with you Dakota. I have never, in almost 50 years of covering the NBL since Day 1, seen a worse non-call.

Whatever the NBL says tomorrow - whether it says the call was correct or it actually uses some intelligence and observes the non-call was wrong - it will make no difference to the result.

Agreed, maybe Mathias' free throws make no difference to the result either, but we'll never know because another of these officiating strangers got it wrong, 100 per cent wrong.

Sadly, for those who whisper conspiracy theories about match fixing, it is difficult to find a counter argument after what we've just witnessed.

The already absurd NBL claims to be the world's second best league become even more laughable when the shot clock isn't functioning and a referee checks out with 10 seconds left to play.

But here's the worst part of this disgraceful second officiating debacle in two rounds - most will now not actually be able to enjoy what otherwise was a highly entertaining game of basketball.

Cairns bursting out to a 20-point lead at 36-16 early in the second quarter was joyous to behold.

Taran Armstrong, David Johnson, Will Magnay and Nick Marshall dragging Tasmania to within a point by halftime also was a treat.

Then Kyrin Galloway rediscovers his shooting touch with 5-of-7 threes in a 19-point return as Cairns again seizes control. Jaylon Brown hits some huge hoops and it is 66-66 with a period to play.

The Taipans again take control with important contributions from Sunday Dech and Malique Lewis, the latter with a double-double.

Time for the JackJumpers to swarm and they do, scurrying back into a match Cairns thought it had won.

Then along comes the non-call and we're all back to shaking our heads and waiting to see if the NBL has the kahoonas to stand down the ref who thought a flat-out mugging was just fine. Where did we get this one? New York, Baltimore? Or worse still, BrisVegas?

Round 2, Wednesday

Cairns Taipans 93 (Brown 20, K.Galloway 19, McVeigh 17, Pinder 11, Lewis 10; Lewis 10 rebs; Bruce, Lewis, Brown 4 assts) d Tasmania JackJumpers 87 (Armstrong 20, Johnson 18, Magnay 17, Mathias 15, Marshall 13; Marshall 9 rebs; Armstrong 7 assts) at Cairns Convention Centre.

Thursday: Melbourne at South East Melbourne, Adelaide at Perth.