Hoops

Preview: Sixers vs. Blaze

I watched Joyce Junior quite deliberately last night on several occasions so if there was an iffy call, I would have witnessed it. What I saw in that time is that when he had an opposition player close to him, although no contact was made, he would jerk his body to make it look like he had been pushed. Now I saw him do that atleast 4 times throughout the game and he did get a couple of calls in his favour. The refs are normally bad but last night was the progressive result of them getting worse week after week. They have practised all season at being bad and are now quite good at it.

That would be the best I've seen Holmes and Cooper play. ( Ballinger and Maher's best , also for a while)
The others I've seen play better, but still good.

* folds arms *

Fine. You win THIS round, objectivity.

Almost forgot - great call playing the P-Iddy-Biddy-Diddy "Come With Me" track Skip.

Isaac - he had position, but there was absolutely negligible contact from what I could see (ie big time flop).

(I sit center aisle 8 rows back from there, so was side on to the call).

Whitehead also wound up playing the 5 spot on D here and there, and rather successfully (thanks in part to some help from the men in grey).

Grizz to start - picked it.
Davidson to start - picked it.
Crowd of 5,000 - picked it.
Sixers by 9 - ok, not so much with the picked it.
I can live with 3 out of 4 :p

I'm glad Scotty persisted with Grizz in an effort to integrate him pre-finals.

I'm also glad the coaching staff identified the need for a different game plan against the Blaze and executed it effectively, leaving Harvey and Heal as relative non-factors.

I realise ref bashing isn't new, especially from me, but they're really starting to make the Sixer's experience a lot less enjoyable. Last night was just horrible.

Burdon was blatantly tripped - no call.
The charges on Ballinger and - was it Davo in front of the scorers bench? - were ridiculous.
Schenscher as always was mauled on both ends of the floor.
Consistancy was atroscious - they let hard fouls slide and nothing calls were blown. There's just no ryhme or reason to it. Come finals time, it could get ugly. Well, uglier.

At one point I was forced to shout out to the blonde idiot "Are you happy now? You're making Haines look competent!"

/rant

Good win, although a little scrappy for mine. But then, that was the plan.

KingJames, I wasn't expecting a 50 point victory, I was expecting a 20 point victory spread evenly over 4 quarters. That would have indicated that the 36ers were consistently superior throughout the whole game.

Bizzy

Don't get me wrong, I am always happy with a win but you have to look at it realistically in terms of how deep the team will go into playoffs. Your comment "Even if the Blaze had of kept it closer in the first we still would have smacked them", yeah just like we did on NYE. The positive thing about this game was that the 36ers didn't allow them to get back into it after the first quarter. I want to come away from a game feeling that the 36ers can beat anyone in the league. I did feel that way before the Qld double last weekend but that was enough to sow the seeds of doubt again. The team have been totally up and down all season. In fact this is the area that their consistency comes from. All season they have had some great wins and then backed them up with terrible losses. The worst record comes on the road. When you consider that we are struggling now to make 4th and probably wont, the only playoff action we will see is probably on the road and judging on how the team handle road trips, how much further can they go?

Wouldn't like to play finals without Maher or Davo.
I think we would have still beaten the blaze though.
Burdon might have got 18points in 6mins.
Bruce and Paora were ok.
( Pero was a disgrace to the game of basketball. Not a good advert for the game.)

Anyone know how much the bucket boys got for Brett Wheeler?

I agree with ay jay, considering it was a home game against the lowest ranked team on the ladder, it was not a convincing win. You look at the final score showing the 36ers won by 22 but when you dissect the game up into 4 quarters, you will find only 1 quarter decided the game and that was the first quarter. 36ers led by 17 after first quarter, 22 at half time, 17 again at 3/4 time and 22 in the end. They played 3/4 of this game only outscoring by 5 points. Whilst it was good that Blaze did not make a comeback from the poor first quarter, they did manage to keep up for the rest of the game. A good first quarter for the Blaze would have seen a different result.

Sixers looked pretty good , I thought. Hill was a a bit quiet and Bruce tossed a few away. Burdon 3mins 3 shots 9points. Makes me wonder if he could get a few more minutes. Crowd 4965 I think they said. Heal didn't do anything. Maher was good.
Not quite sure if Pero is a basketballer, looks and plays like a wrestler.

Sams Report Volume 3 Turning up the Heat! The NBA playoffs heat up as the BASA state champs draw to a close, a great time for basketball fans and players. Arizonas own Phoenix and Floridas Miami are looking good in the playoffs. These two teams are heating the competition up on different sides of the conference. The State Champs The skill of South Australias greatest junior players showcased all weekend, most teams I saw lifted their intensity greatly and created a lot of close matches. I spent a lot of my time at Wayville during the course of the weekend and it was great to see a lot of people showing up to watch top quality matches. If you missed the State Champs, then you missed a lot. Miami Heat Miami have white washed their second straight series in the NBA playoffs. Without star centre Shaq, the Heat turned it up and knocked off Washington, they advance to the conference finals and look very strong so far. Watching Miami during the year I never saw anything to special, but in the playoffs they have showed a great deal and improvement. The Phoenix Suns Phoenix white-washed Memphis early and now facing Texas Dallas, they are still leading the series. Steve Nash would have got a great confidence booster being named NBA MVP for the 2004/2005 Season. Nash hopefully will continue his great form and lead Phoenix through to the conference final. The 36ers The 36ers, I havent really read much into them but if anyone wants to give their opinion of how they think the 36ers are going to shape up this season, then give your thoughts, it would be highly appreciated. For the love of the money or the game Seriously, do some players lose it? Do they think that they are that damn good and deserve more money; the NBA pays ridiculous amounts to some players, only because they have a good rep. This is getting stupid, I play basketball because I love the game, getting paid for doing something you love is a luxury and you shouldnt abuse it. A lot of professional athletes are now complaining and leaving clubs and teams, even though their time might be over. ABA/L Blockbuster Whatever you want to call it, ABL or ABA, I am actually unsure of the correct one; please tell me the official one. Anyway, North Adelaide and Forestville go at it on May 21st. This promises to be huge, not just basketball will be on, a BBQ as usual, wine testing and a free raffle plus more! It would be great to see the entire supporter basis from both teams shows up. Theyre trying to pull in a big crowd. So become a part of history and come down to Wayville. Women 6:30pm, Men 8:30pm Saturday 21st of May. NBA Champions Phoenix I think will win, they will bring the pride to the Arizona desert, the talent and motivation they currently have is over-whelming, I would think they will go all the way, if they dont my second pick would be the in-form Miami Heat. Your tips, out of: The Miami Heat The San Antonio Spurs The Phoenix Suns The Dallas Mavericks The Seattle Super Sonics The Indiana Pacers The Detroit Pistons Your thoughts on any of the topics will be greatly appreciated.

Not alot of good bets on offer for this one.
Have gone for big luke to score more than Harvey ($2.50), Ballinger ($3.00) & Bowen ($5.00) - long shot but it's only a measley dollar and its paying $4.25

Sixers should win, and by more than 10 but after 2 terrible performances against the blaze in the past it's a tough gig to bet on a win at only $1.09 and a big win 10.5+ at only $1.65

I'd assume their primary concern will be shutting down the run-and-gun style offence as well as rotation to perimeter shots. The Blaze have made no secret that they live and die on both, particularly in Melmeth's absence.

They'd also be wary of being blown away early by a perimeter barrage after the Crocs 7 minutes of perfect shooting last Saturday.

To that end, I wouldn't be suprised to see Grizzard in for Holmes. Whilst Holmes has better interior D and bangs bodies, Grizz is more likely to pressure outside shooters and get a hand. He'll also help more in an open court transition game.

I'd also not be suprised to see Davidson replace Bruce and immediately start dogging Heal and Harvey. I'd expect to see more minutes from Hill even if he misses the first five.

Re: the confidence argument with Bruce, the flip side might be true. Sit him down, shake him up, get him determined. I know a lot of players that respond to losing their spot by coming out firing. Plus, we don't exactly have the luxury of carrying players that our down on form at this stage of our campaign. Hopefully Bruce comes good tonight.

My posts keep disappearing on me. I blame the heat.

How do we know Bruce isn't starting?

I'd guess about 5,000.

Aw. OK and thanks. Sorry. I meant to ask. What sorta crowd would you expect ?

I'd just be curious to know the blaze odds.
Not that I would back them. But just wondered what their odds are, compared to ours ?

Cheers man. I'll have to wait until I get home - filtered at work.

I'll throw some cash on them though - and I'll be sure to leave some left over to donate to Big Wheels.

Skip - really? Where?

I enjoyed Heal chatting away about Hodge and the quality of imports. The aussie dollar. Anderson and Neilsen, money in Europe. Taylor , Jackson , Maher. Dragons, Gold Coast. As well as the game.
It was very interesting to hear him speak.
Different guy to the one that's on the court.

Skip, do you have a CD of people clapping that you can play full blast. The reason being is that when the players come on court, there is going to be a noticeable difference because of 1 person that will not be applauding. Your CD can be used to boost it up and then no one will ever know that there is a disgruntled fan in the building, haha.

bring on the fanfare!

Wasn't that Munchen Olympics?

Aw, and .. ' sixers are a good team , but they always give you a chance. Will be a high scoring game '

We really need to fire up for this week's slapfest.

Shane Heal interview on fiveaa ( so I guess he's here, already), said he's in pain with his back. So definately finishing his career. Struggled with it this season, but will try to finish off the season.
He said blaze owner definately wants a team in next year.
Loves you guys booing him.

And, the last thing Ninnis would have wanted was a difficult american, turning up late for training.
Al Green and Mark Davis, there was none better.

Apparently Melmeth isnt' as bad as first thought. He's now saying he may only miss 2 games with a compressed disc in his lower back. From NBL.com: <a href="http://linky.com.au/p34rm">Melmeth Injury Not So Bad</a> Also from NBL.com, Matt McQuade's preview: <a href="http://linky.com.au/m1lm2" target="_blank">Big Wednesday Watch - 36ers v Blaze</a> "Boy, its gotta be incredibly frustrating to be an Adelaide fan these days". Yes sir, yes it is.

Luke will be fine - the refs protect him like he's Andrew Gaze down here.









Wait.