Basketball On The Internet.

THE excitement generated by Cole Anthony's NBL arrival, the potential renewal of hostilities between Kendric Davis and Bryce Cotton, plus the impact of assists king Arnas Velicka may have cast a vast shadow. But Parker Jackson-Cartwright stepped out from under it and into the spotlight this round.

As his New Zealand Breakers routed Cairns before humbling Adelaide, PJC produced a 27-point, 10-assists double IN BOTH GAMES, and for good measure tickled a triple-double against the 36ers with 9 rebounds to boot.

Jaylon Brown assuredly stepped up for Cairns in its classic road win over Melbourne - that's four of the past six road games now it has beaten United - Taran Armstrong magnificent for Tasmania against Brisbane and Cole Anthony producing a season-high 40 points for United.

But make no mistake, Jackson-Cartwright was also sending a message that when you're talking elite PGs, his name needs to be near the very top of that list.

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Talking about Anthony, 40 points was quite the individual achievement but when he has 26 shot attempts and the next three guys - Luke Travers 9, Josh Oduro 9, Malith Machar 7 - total 25, it's dubious that is the correct recipe for consistent success.

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IT was wonderful to see three-time AFL Premiership coach Chris Fagan attending the Bullets-JackJumpers game in Brisbane. Barely a week after steering Brisbane Lions past Fremantle to their third consecutive premiership, the Bullets fans roared their approval when Fages was featured on the scoreboard screen. Good thing no-one noticed the native Tasmanian was in his JackJumpers gear, supporting the opposition!

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Brad&Boti podcast partner Brad Rosen reduced himself from a TV analyst to a gushing fanboy this week on his socials, claiming the Sydney Kings - where he was captain once - are the benchmark until someone knocks them off. This after the defending champions, with no significant changes to their core group of Kendric Davis, Matthew Dellavedova, Torrey Craig, Xavier Cooks, Makuach Maluach and, just as importantly Brian Goorjian have beaten Cairns, Illawarra and Brisbane. All of the wins were at home - the Kings gifted with a generous draw - but let's have a quick show of hands. How many of you had either of those Kings' victims in your Final Four predictions?

After the first two games of Round 3, there is no such thing as a "benchmark", undefeated or not. If memory serves, Melbourne won its first 10 games last season and after that amount of time, OK, you could validly make the benchmark claim. Now remind yourself, how did they finish up? 

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Just when you were ready to write off Jonah Bolden, he comes in for Keanu Pinder early against United and throws down a couple of sweet triples.

The one-time NBA 76er also grabbed 10 boards to lead the resurgent Taipans in that category as they stunned United, yet again.

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Nice to see the TV coverage recognise Max Mackinnon ... even if the graphic misspelt his name!

I'm sure NBL boss Barry Castlemaine and offsider Robert Louis Stevenson were horrified. And no, R.L Stevenson, treasure that he is, did not write the Harry Potter books, but he is certainly in on the whole "NBL is the world's second best league" flight of fantasy.

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Tasmania's home win over Melbourne was another Jackies classic - albeit almost destroyed by terrible officiating. But Will Magnay, in his 100th game for the Ants left us with two lasting memories. One was the fact he iced 12-of-14 free throws - previously his biggest weakness - including 4-of-4 in the endgame. That was a tremendous performance. The other was his block of a dunk attempt by Sam Waardenburg which was simply amazing.

There's two good views of it.

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Sadly, our hopes and dreams commentary teams would drop the tiresome "high octane basketball" refrain - what does that even effing mean? - have been dashed (repeatedly). Give us a John Casey "see-sawing affair" - our favourite kind - any day.

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Heartfelt congratulations to Brisbane coach Will Weaver for having the onions to say what every commentator, NBL media buff or scribe is terrified to even accidentally mention - the on-court decals are dangerous and a serious and ongoing threat to player safety. He called them stickers but we know what he meant and to what he was referring. Players are slipping and sliding in most every game.

Thank Naismith someone on the inside has finally called it out. Will, the league fine is in the mail...

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Makur Maker was a top signing by Illawarra but is he truly what the Hawks needed? Remember, they brought in a big guy last season too in Javale McGee and how did that ultimately work out? Don't let a ferocious and brilliant performance against a depleted Adelaide in the Hawks' first home game fool you. The trip to South East Melbourne showed all the same flaws many saw in Round 1.

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Shout out to Biwali Bayles for his persistent work for Tasmania disrupting Brisbane with his effort and energy. He's a quality pick up as an injury replacement player.

Meanwhile Adelaide today reveals it has grabbed well-travelled Corey Webster, 37 and 188cm as an IRP. A shooting guard is just the man the 36ers need to cover the ongoing absence of 211cm Isaac Humphries. Oops, apparently he's replacing Flynn Cameron. Ah, that makes sense, Kiwi for Kiwi.