Sports Betting, Sports News, Sports Updates, Australia

Where and When: Sunday 8 March, Hisense Arena, 7.30pm (AEDT)

Past Three Head-to-Head
Melbourne Tigers 88-83 South Dragons, Game 2, Grand Final 2009.
South Dragons 93-81 Melbourne Tigers, Game 1, Grand Final 2009.
South Dragons 93-83 Melbourne Tigers, Round 21 2009.

Season Series
Dragons 3-1

Final Standings
Dragons 22-8 (first), Tigers 20-10 (second)

Melbourne were far from their best on Wednesday night but they did enough to get the job done.

The pressure is now on the South Dragons to maintain their impressive record at home and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five grand final series.

One slip up and the Tigers will fancy their chances of securing the championship at The Cage on Wednesday night.

Instrumental in the game two win was swingman David Barlow who scored a game-high 26 points, which included four three-pointers.

Barlow is in pretty good form at the moment – he scored 23 and 19 points in the two wins over the New Zealand Breakers in the semi-finals series.

The Dragons will need to keep him quiet if they are going to secure a vital win at home.

Expect Joe Ingles to go head-to-head with Barlow in what shapes as being a crucial match-up in determining the outcome of this match.

The Dragons will need Ingles to be aggressive at the offensive end and also apply plenty of defensive pressure and deny Barlow the time and space to knock down the three-ball.

While Barlow fired on Wednesday night, import Ebi Ere had yet another poor shooting night.

The former Brisbane Bullet has shot 11-of-33 from the field so far this series but Ere will fire at some stage during this series.

South Dragons import Tremmell Darden is likely to be given the task of minding Ere.

Darden will need to be in Ere’s face all night and force him to take tough shots from beyond the arc.

For the Dragons, Mark Worthington and import Donta Smith are the key players.

In game two the Dragons got to the free-throw line just 10 times while the Tigers managed to get to the charity stripe on 25 occasions.

The Tigers also managed 16 offensive rebounds.

If the Dragons are going to take a 2-1 lead in the series they will need Worthington and Smith to attack the basket and get to the foul line and also crash the boards and prevent the likes of Chris Anstey from getting easy second chance points.

The two games so far in this series have been hard-fought and low-scoring and you wouldn’t expect it to be any different on Sunday.

Melbourne has the big-game players in Anstey and Ere and an in-form Barlow but with a parochial home crowd behind them the Dragons should prevail in what shapes as being yet another epic contest.

This punter is putting his money on a Dragons’ win by 1-10, offering $2.80.