Crocs coach slams NBL schedule

Townsville coach Shawn Dennis has labelled his side's punishing early NBL schedule as crazy and nuts.

The Crocs (2-6) have slipped to last on the ladder after losing 88-96 at home to Illawarra (3-4) and 87-78 to Sydney (2-5), who they replaced at the bottom.

Townsville have played just two of their eight matches at home.

Conversely, ladder leaders Melbourne (7-0), who scored a 96-82 win over visiting Sydney on Sunday, have played six in a row at home since their opening game away to Townsville.

Melbourne United coach Dean Demopoulos became the first coach in league history to win his first seven game as an NBL coach.

Townsville are the only side in the league that have played away in all four rounds and had to play twice each week.

They play ten of their first 14 on the road and travel every week for the first eight rounds.

Dennis was both angry and almost apologetic as he unloaded on the schedule following the loss to Sydney.

"We don't get a chance to work on anything, you get one damn day (of practice)," Dennis said.

"I'm only comparing it to some of these other teams we're coming up against.

"Sydney sit here for seven days, so they get probably four or five practices in to work on what they need to work on.

"It's just crazy. I'm sorry, I know everyone has got to go through it.

"The other problem with all this travel schedule is you've got to rest your players otherwise we'll just have injury after injury.

"We don't finally play (just) one game in a week until the following week against Adelaide and we're the only team that's had to do that and that's just nuts."

Earlier in the round Melbourne moved further ahead of second-placed Perth (4-2) with a dramatic 75-73 home win over the Wildcats.

United sharpshooter Chris Goulding topscored with 19 in that game and then torched the Kings for 25 on Sunday, though Sydney import Marcus Thornton responded with a 29-point bag.

Perth made it an unhappy homecoming for former Wildcats championship winning coach Rob Beveridge and their former league MVP Kevin Lisch, spanking their new club Illawarra 91-62.

New Kings import and former NBA star Al Harrington scored 12 against the Crocs and 11 versus Melbourne, but showed a little rustiness by hitting just seven of 20 field goal attempts across the two games.

Corey Webster rattled up 35 points in just under 32 minutes, as NZ Breakers (3-3) notched a 90-67 home win over Cairns (3-4).

The Taipans rebounded on Saturday with import guard Markel Starks hitting a three pointer on the buzzer to earn the visitors a 104-101 win over Adelaide (3-3).

Starks, who had struggled offensively in previous matches scored 27, while for Adelaide, Daniel Johnson bagged 29 and new import Jerome Randle 25.