The New Zealand Breakers might not have managed to make the NBL playoffs this season, so instead they found a group of opponents that they could beat up on a bit.

Much like the Wollongong Hawks with their 'Cinderella Story', the Perth Wildcats have their own. It's not a fairytale and its a adaptation of a more modern story.The Perth story isn't as publicised and romanticised as the Wollongong fairytale but the message is just as important. Sung to the beat of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', I give to you 'Harmie and his Wildcat Factory'

The National Basketball League Grand Final series is under way, with the Perth Wildcats running away in the final quarter from the Wollongong Hawks for a 75-64 victory in game one.  American imports Kevin Lisch and Shawn Redhage led the way for the Cats with 15 points each, while the Hawks got a huge game out of rookie swingman Tim Coenraad with 16 points.

Game two will be back in Hawks territory on Tuesday, with the boys from the 'Gong likely to have a huge home court advantage, which has carried them all season. They will be looking to get more from the likes of Cameron "Trigger" Tragardh who grabbed nine rebounds, but was held to five points on 2/8 shooting from the field.

[boxscore] [match report] [Daniel Eade's season preview]

[watch the Grand Final episode of Inside the Game TV]

With the NBL Finals in full swing and the New Zealand Breakers missing out, for the first time in Tony Ronaldson's illustrious career, the boys from across the ditch had other things to concentrate on. Table tennis. Super-heavyweight table tennis. According to the Breakers' youtube feed: "Each season the Team has a running Table Tennis ladder. On February 23rd it was time for playoffs - CJ Bruton (2008-09 champion) versus Rookie Tom Abercrombie. The winner would see Judd Flavell in the finals."

Editor's Note: Here is another entertaining NBL piece from Haggard of Can't Buy a Basket. You should be checking out their site on a regular basis as the NBL Grand Final series progresses.

There has been a lot of talk about Wollongong and their ‘Cinderella Story' this year. A lot of the basketball nation would love to see this come true and see the Hawks crowned NBL Royalty this season (Bevo is sickened by that very idea). I must say I travelled to the ‘Gong a few months ago. My most vivid memory of that place is the fact that my baby girl (now 8 months old) ate sweet potato at a café there.

Though for this to work we need to look at the real world and see how their real life counterparts fit the stories plot.

The following roles will be played by:-

Cinderella: The Wollongong Hawks

The Prince: The NBL

Step Mother: Perth Wildcats

The Step Sisters: Townsville Crocs & Gold Coast Blaze

Fairy Godmother: The referees

For our international visitors, I should point out that not all Australians can play the didgeridoo, contrary to popular belief. Luke Schenscher, the seven-footer and former Chicago Bull/Portland Trail Blazer/Georgia Tech big man, is one who has the talent to play it.

What is a didgeridoo? An Australian Aboriginal instrument, which produces some pretty impressive noises when blown into the right way!

Big Schensch is part of the NBL Grand Final series that tips off this week as his Perth Wildcats take on the Wollongong Hawks. The video below also breaks the news that the big fella is going to shave his beautiful flowing ginger locks for charity -- a noble gesture. If you want to donate to the cause, you can do so here.

In case you missed it, the Wollongong Hawks took down the Townsville Crocodiles on Saturday night in their NBL semi-final match-up, putting the Steel City team through to the NBL Grand Final series against the Perth Wildcats. The Hawks defeated Croc Nation 88-76, with a strong all-around display by the team as five players scored between 12 and 16 points (boxscore). Corey Williams' huge 27 points, seven rebounds and five assists was not enough for the visitors.

Dave Gruber was one such Hawks catalyst, scoring 15 points to go along with five rebounds and a dunk over Rolan Roberts that got the local crowd excited in the 'Gong. You can check out the dunk in isolation on the quality dunks site, Get Banged On, as well as watching on below. The guys at the Hawks have put together a compilation of Gruber's highlights from the game along with the post-game press conference.

Whilst the headline to this article may be somewhat premature, the hype certainly suggests that we will see a National Basketball League in Sydney next season and that the likely name of that team will be the Sydney Kings. Announcements by the NBL have been somewhat delayed, as they've pushed back the date for final submissions by parties interested in entering teams in the 2010/11 Australian NBL competition.

Those delays have reportedly come from a combination of three teams looking to make bids for next season and needing more time to finalise their proposals -- being the Sydney consortium, an entry from Brisbane looking to revive the Bullets and the renewal of the Cairns Taipans licence. Word is that the Brisbane bid has come up short, whilst the Taipans are unlikely to have the legs due to financial reasons. Cairns' team has been run through a community-based model, relying on devoted fans and the surity provided by a $1 million bank guarantee by the Cairns Regional Council. Team president Denis Donaghy has reportedly been working feverishly to keep the team afloat, but things don't sound good at this stage.

Editor's Note: Haggard of Can't Buy A Basket continues with the great NBL content today, as the Finals series continues, with a comic focusing on James Harvey of the Gold Coast Blaze. Along with R-Diddy, Haggard puts out some hilarious Australian basketball-related work at CBAB -- definitely worth checking out.

Click on the comic to see it in larger format.

Now have a look at CBAB's NBL mock advertising piece.

Editor's Note: The ever-awesome Haggard of Can't Buy a Basket has been good enough to provide us with a preview of the NBL 2010 Semi-Final series, as the world of Australian basketball gets down to the business end of things. Being overseas myself, I rely on CBAB to get my fill of NBL analysis, humour and recaps. In the future you'll see more great articles from Haggard here.

NBL Semi Final Previews

With the regular season now complete, half the teams are taking forced holidays. The remaining four teams prepare to knuckle down and focus on winning and being crowned with NBL supremacy for the 2009/10 season.

Gone this season are the sudden death elimination finals which did the league no favors. Elimination finals don't really decide who the better team is. It's a game of Chance where a team is hoping they are on and their opponents are off.... But that's another story. On with the previews.