Basketball On The Internet.

JOSH Childress' run of bad luck has continued with Sydney Kings' star import again out indefinitely after reinjuring his hand in the NBL loss to Cairns.

It was a difficult opening night for new coach Joe Connelly, who did a lot of impressive towel waving, defensive shuffling, pointing and cajoling along the sidelines.

(Ah. So THAT'S  what a coach is supposed to look like. I get it now.)

Cairns was never going to let this one slip, Torrey Craig having a big game (20 and 9) and the Taipans weathering all of Sydney's runs.

Just for the hell of it, the Kings Board rang Damian Cotter post-game and sacked him again.

CHILDRESS, AS KINGS FANS REMEMBER HIM: Yeah, I don't need much excuse to run this pic again.

IN Perth, the little love lost between the Wildcats and 36ers threatened to erupt a number of times, Perth pulling away on a huge play which, apparently was exactly 0.1 of a second before halftime.

Sixers coach Joey Wright - the clock showing 0.0 - was irate at the call against Adam Gibson to put Jermaine Beal to the FT line and received an additional tech for his trouble.

The clock was wound back to 0.1 to reveal Wright was wrong, as it turned out. Well, after the clock was wound back. After it had run down and shown 0.0. The upshot was a 10-point interval deficit which the 36ers couldn't do much to haul in, Casey Prather, Jesse Wagstaff - why hasn't he been snapped up by another program yet? - steering Perth to a comfortable win.

A couple of incidents involving Nate Jawai, Anthony Petrie, Shawn Redhage gave fans something to get excited about because the game was no classic. Jawai copping a tech for slapping Nathan Sobey was a little unusual. Then again, according to one WA report, it was a "soft slap" so I can't imagine why anyone got excited!

Tonight: LOVING what Shawn Dennis draws from his young, enthusiastic group but there's a serious talent discrepancy with visiting New Zealand and the champs will have just too much firepower.

Last night: CAIRNS TAIPANS 101 (Craig 20, Starks 18, Tragardh, Gliddon 11, Burston 10; Craig 9 rebs; Starks 5 assts) d SYDNEY KINGS 83 (Brandt, Garlepp 16, Khazzouh 14, Thornton 11, Cadee 10; Khazzouh 7 rebs; Childress 5 assts) at Cairns Convention Centre. PERTH WILDCATS 90 (Prather 23, Wagstaff 16, Knight, Beal 13; Knight 11 rebs; Beal 5 assts) d ADELAIDE 36ERS 72 (Randle 18, Petrie 17, Sobey 11; Carlin, Petrie 6 rebs; 3 with 2 assts) at Perth Arena.