1988 NBL season explained

1988 NBL season
League:	National Basketball League
Sport:	Basketball
Duration:	12 February – 9 July 1988 (Regular Season) 14 – 24 July 1988 (Elimination/Semi-finals) 30 July – 7 August 1988 (Grand Finals)
No Of Teams:	13
Season:	Regular season
Season Champs:	Adelaide 36ers
Top Scorer:	Andrew Gaze (Melbourne)
Top Scorer Link:	List of National Basketball League (Australia) annual scoring leaders
Mvp:	Joe Hurst (Hobart)
Mvp Link:	NBL (Australia) Most Valuable Player
Finals:	Finals
Finals Link:	1988 NBL Finals
Finals Champ:	Canberra Cannons (3rd title)
Finals Runner-Up:	North Melbourne Giants
Finals Mvp:	Phil Smyth (Canberra)
Finals Mvp Link:	NBL (Australia) Most Valuable Player – Grand Final
Seasonslist:	List of NBL seasons
Seasonslistnames:	NBL
Prevseason Link:	1987 NBL season
Prevseason Year:	1987
Nextseason Link:	1989 NBL season
Nextseason Year:	1989

The 1988 NBL season was the tenth season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of 13 teams contested the league.

Clubs

Following the merger of the Sydney Supersonics and West Sydney Westars to form the Sydney Kings, the NBL had 13 clubs spread across all Australian states and territories with the exception of the Northern Territory.

Club	Location	Home Venue	Capacity	Founded	Head coach
Adelaide 36ers	Adelaide, South Australia	Apollo Stadium	3,000	1982	Gary Fox
Brisbane Bullets	Brisbane, Queensland	Brisbane Entertainment Centre	13,500	1979	Brian Kerle
Canberra Cannons	Canberra, Australian Capital Territory	AIS Arena	5,200	1979	Jerry Lee
Eastside Spectres	Melbourne, Victoria	Burwood Stadium	2,000	1979	Brian Goorjian
Geelong Supercats	Geelong, Victoria	Geelong Arena	2,000	1982	Pete Mathieson ^[1]
Hobart Tassie Devils	Hobart, Tasmania	Kingborough Sports Centre	1,800	1983
Illawarra Hawks	Wollongong, New South Wales	Illawarra Basketball Stadium	2,000	1979	Dave Lindstrom
Melbourne Tigers	Melbourne, Victoria	The Glass House	7,200	1931	Lindsay Gaze
Newcastle Falcons	Newcastle, New South Wales	Broadmeadow Basketball Stadium	2,200	1979	Ken Cole
North Melbourne Giants	Melbourne, Victoria	The Glass House	7,200	1980	Bruce Palmer
Perth Wildcats	Perth, Western Australia	Perth Superdome	4,500	1982	Cal Bruton
Sydney Kings	Sydney, New South Wales	State Sports Centre	5,006	1988	Claude Williams
Westside Saints	Melbourne, Victoria	Keilor Stadium	2,000	1979	Andris Blicavs

Regular season

The 1988 regular season took place over 21 rounds between 12 February 1988 and 9 July 1988.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Ladder

This is the ladder at the end of season, before the finals. The top 6 teams qualified for the finals series.

The NBL tie-breaker system as outlined in the NBL Rules and Regulations states that in the case of an identical win–loss record, the results in games played between the teams will determine order of seeding.

¹Head-to-Head between North Melbourne Giants and Brisbane Bullets (1-1). North Melbourne Giants won For and Against (+9).

²Newcastle Falcons won Head-to-Head (2-0).

³Head-to-Head between Illawarra Hawks and Eastside Spectres (1-1). Illawarra Hawks won For and Against (+9).

⁴Head-to-Head between Hobart Tassie Devils and Sydney Kings (1-1). Hobart Tassie Devils won For and Against (+12).

Finals

See main article: 1988 NBL Finals.

Elimination Finals

Both matches were single game elimination contests. The team that qualified 3rd at the end of the regular season would host the team that finished 6th, with the team finishing 4th hosting the team placed 5th.^[2] The teams that finished the regular season 1st and 2nd had a bye into the semi-final stage.
|- bgcolor="#CCCCFF" font size=1!width=90| Date!width=180| Home!width=60| Score!width=180| Away!width=260| Venue!width=70| Crowd!width=70| Box Score

Semifinals

Each were played as a best of 3-game series

Grand Final

1988 NBL statistics leaders


Category	Player	Team	Stat
Points per game			36.9
Rebounds per game			17.2
Assists per game			7.9
Steals per game			2.8
Blocks per game			3.6
Free throw percentage			85.6%

NBL awards

Most Valuable Player: Joe Hurst, Hobart Tassie Devils
Most Valuable Player Grand Final: Phil Smyth, Canberra Cannons
Rookie of the Year: Shane Heal, Brisbane Bullets
Coach of the Year: Bruce Palmer, North Melbourne Giants

All NBL Team

width=25	width=150	Player	width=150	Team
PG	Canberra Cannons
SG	Melbourne Tigers
SF	Brisbane Bullets
PF	Adelaide 36ers
C	North Melbourne Giants

References

Web site: Honour Boards.
Web site: Results for NBL 1988.