The Melbourne Tigers gave the Gold Coast Blaze a stark reminder of the gap between playoff hopefuls and championship contenders, comfortably beating them by 15 points in their NBL match at the State Netball Centre.

Swingman David Barlow led six Tigers in double-figure scoring as the home side scored a 117-102 win illustrating both their depth and championship credentials.

The Blaze, who have been a revelation in their debut season to currently sit inside the top four, tried desperately to go with the second-placed Tigers - but just kept coming up short.

Melbourne led by six points at quarter-time, then ramped up their intensity in the second quarter with a brutal full court defence.

It choked the life out of their rivals as the Blaze fell behind by 13 points at the long break.

Each time the Blaze threatened to climb out of the hole, Melbourne gave them a not-so-gentle nudge back in - usually by a different player as the Tigers flexed their bench muscle to great effect.

Centre Chris Anstey lit up the first term with nine points and six rebounds on his way to 18 and 11 for the match, veteran Darryl McDonald shone in the second on his way to three first-half steals, before Barlow poured in 15 of his 23 points in the second half.

The Tigers punched the lead out to 15 points early in the fourth term before frustrations boiled over.

Blaze import Jason Crowe and Tigers bench man Tommy Greer wrestled on court in an incident which sparked a player melee and a hail of technical fouls, but little real change in where the result was heading.

While Gold Coast closed to within seven points several times inside the final four minutes, the Tigers never looked in any serious danger of letting the win slip.

For the Blaze, guard James Harvey top-scored with 31 points while Crowe had 23 and 11 rebounds.

The Tigers now have a 15-5 win-loss record and a welcome buffer on third-placed Brisbane, while the Blaze are now 12-9 but remain fourth.

The Blaze had a setback prior to tip-off, with import forward Juaquin Hawkins a late withdrawal because of dehydration and heatstroke.

Blaze coach Brendan Joyce revealed Hawkins had been in and out of hospital over the past two days, including time on an intravenous drip before complaining of illness again and being sent for further tests.

But Joyce was pleased with his side's effort under the circumstances - heavily undersized without injured centre Ben Melmeth.

And he refused to concede his side wasn't capable of matching it with the league's perceived "big three" of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane given a full side to choose from.

"It was an opportunity for the younger guys to play more and it's a great opportunity for them to be put in a pressure situation," Joyce said.

"There is a gap with the talent level, but we've got some young guys getting better as we go along with experience.

"That's our future. We've got a good mix of experience and youth and they're getting better and stepping up each week." "It's going to be really interesting if we can hang in there and get to where we want to be, get Melmeth back, and then we'll have a different match-up situation."

Tigers coach Al Westover felt his team may have eased off the pedal in the final term and that their size and depth proved the difference.

"When you look at the stats, we probably should have won by more but they hung in there with us," Westover said.

"It seemed when we got up we got a little complacent and a little soft. But we were always able to extend the lead out again once they brought it back a bit."

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