Hoops

Tonight - 36ers vs Dragons

Dana, I hinted at this over a year ago and nearly got my head blasted from people on this site claiming to know him as a great bloke. I don't know him at all so I could not compete with them, however my opinion was formed from what my eyes saw and my instincts told me. This opinion not only has not changed but has been strengthened over the course of time.

"Is Chappell being hindered by the ref calls against him. Last night he was called for charging twice when the other player was side onto him. After these 2 usless calls he stopped shooting the ball...
Not the first time hes been in foul trouble by bullshit ref's not knowing what game they are watching."

I agree that the refs were absolutely terrible, I was out of my seat yelling with disgust at them so many times including the two offensive fouls on Chappell. However, the problem is that Chappell's lateral movement is very poor so he can't stay in front of his man defensively leading to him picking up fouls. He also seems to have lost any quickness he had. While Ingles was flopping and those calls probably shouldn't have been charges, he gives the refs the chance to call it as he isn't quick enough to get past his man and therefore has to push off to create space for himself. This was another pretty poor game by him and unless he can start being a threat to beat his man off the dribble, I can't see him scoring enough to warrant his place in the side.

However it was a great game to watch. It's good to see a sixers team playing some good defense - is Davidson the main reason for this or is it adjustments made by Smyth? Whatever it is, its impressive and hopefully it can continue. In the last 3 games we've won, 3 high scoring guards - Penney, Helms and Groves have all been shutdown. Hopefully that trend continues and Homicide is held in check next week against Townsville.

Is it only an Adelaide call when we bring the ball up the floor, get hipped all the way, & be called for out of bounds?

Anon #158261, the umpires were very consistent, they were consistently bad, but more so in the last quarter. So many times during the game, what appeared exactly the same situation, always was called as a charge if we had the ball and a block if the opposition had the ball. It was so infuriating. The errors in those calls alone contributed to the Dragon's 40 points in the last quarter.

Largest crowd? They must be talking about a different game to the one I was at. Looked like the smallest crowd to me (just checked NBL.com: 4379 - not quite the smallest, but not the biggest either).

Coaching was down to the level of the refs. Up by 20 to start the last quarter, looked like we were milking the clock right from the 12:00 mark. We looked like we were happy to get across the timeline against their press. We got out of our normal offence and started settling for jumpshots. Credit to South for making some tough shots, but if we'd played more aggressively (like we had for three quarters) we could have been so far up that it wouldn't have mattered of they never missed.

Bottom line, Smyth looked like his mindset was that he wasn't trying to win, he was trying not to lose, even with a 20-point buffer. Before anyone asks, yes, there is a difference, it's all about attitude and having confidence in yourself and your team. I fear for the damage this game has done to the team's psyche, in spite of the final result.

Special mention to Mottram, he was very effective in the third quarter. I reckon he got at least two blocks that were negated by a team-mate's foul.

Fox mentioned something about largest crowd to attend an NBL games this season. Do we have an official figure?