KEY POINTS:
Rampaging Brisbane moved within sight of the Australian National Basketball League minor premiership as defending champions Melbourne suffered another setback in their bid for back-to-back titles.
The Bullets, with a 19-5 win-loss record, extended the gap at the top of the table with a 121-113 win over Wollongong and a 131-116 triumph over Singapore on Saturday, leaving them one game shy of equalling their club record of 10 straight wins.
After squeezing out a 117-111 win over Wollongong (8-14) on Friday, the Tigers crashed to a 114-96 home loss against Adelaide (10-14) on Saturday, with former Tiger Marcus Timmons scoring 27 for the 36ers.
It was the spluttering Tigers' third loss in their last five games.
"We've been a bit error prone and a lot of that's credit to the opposition with the hustling pressure defence, but we've got to take better care of the ball," Melbourne coach Al Westover said after his side tallied 22 turnovers against Adelaide.
Perth (17-7) climbed into second above Melbourne with a 101-81 home win over the last placed West Sydney (2-21), who crashed to a 19th successive loss.
"It's in our own hands now to finish second and not have to worry about Melbourne or Brisbane falling over," Perth coach Scott Fisher said.
The Breakers' away blues continued with a 112-106 loss to the Cairns Taipans on Saturday.
Aaron Olson tied the scores 97-97 on the stroke of fulltime with a three-pointer but the Taipans drew clear in overtime to seal victory, their 11th from 12 home matches this season.
Poor shooting proved the Breakers' major problem with just a 48 per cent success rate, 16 from 33 attempts, while from three-point range it was another disappointing effort at 20 per cent.
Coach Andrej Lemanis praised his side from not dropping their heads in the final quarter.
"That's one of the things I like about this group, they really stuck together."
New American import Pierre Wooten, replacing Brian Wethers who has a season-ending knee injury, played just eight minutes in his debut appearance and missed all four of his shots.
