Hoops

Oct 29: 36ers vs Breakers

Statman,

N I C E C A R !!!!!

The free throw debate is academic.

The real problem for the Sixers was the Breakers inbounds play after Hill made his second.
They fronted the unbound pass and CJ was able to take ball almost at half heading downcourt. In fact there were 3 Sixers fronting the inbounds and those 3 players were left behind the ball.
This only left 2 Sixers in front of CJ. CJ's task would have been a little harder had he had to go baseline to 3pt line.
He still may have made shot but it would have been harder.

I 100% agree with thedoctor - Cortez should have pulled it out - for the simple fact that if he misses and they go down and get a quick score then they can get back in the game ... and what happened.

Yes Jack - Its a green JGS - my toy ;)

Statman,
quick question: what's the car in your pic? is it a JGS?

From memory there was actually some defence being plsyed? (I havnt had a replay just from what I remembr watching live)

I recall seing Groves catch the pass, dribble and go at the hoop with intent, then IMO he 2nd guessed himself - probably thinking 'no pull it out and run the clock' but he was too committed by then with the defense was almost on him so he went up for the layup and stuffed it. If he backed himself 100% from the start he would have dunked it...but he didnt.

Im with the doc on this one though - if I was the coach my instruction everytime is spread the floor and play keepers off, if you do it properly you can actually run significant time off the clock before being fouled.

Oh well - lets look at the positives, the team showed they have the ability, just a pity they needed to be ot of the game before they clicked. Cairns 'should' be a nice confidence boost for them as they really are crap :)

If making shots like that aren't a given, then why are we paying these guys again? That was a freak miss - possibly explained a little if Groves was indeed concussed at the time - but under normal circumstances anyone who can play basketball would expect to make that shot every time!

As far as the second part of your justification goes - that NZ scored down the other end because of the miss - Xztatik already nailed it. Whats to stop them scoring just as easily off a missed FT? Nothing!

In other circumstances I would totally agree that he should have held the ball and waited to get fouled, but with an easy chance to make it a 6 point lead, he made the right decision, but got an epic fail for his execution.

Agreed Isaac, pretty poor quality game. Don't know what the Breakers were celebrating at end of game.
Cashed in our get out of jail free card last night.
Hard to see us threatening Perth or Woolongong after that. When the 3's dry up we don't seem to have the composure to adjust. 18% is not going to get it done against better teams.
Worse was giving up 35 points in a quarter. Usually the only way a team gets that is if they are red hot, making runaway lay ups or score 18 points at the line. I didn't see any of those senarios.
And we should have broken the momentum by going inside getting two or to line.
I feel more deflated after that than if we had lost.

thedoctor, sorry but in that situation we had last night, you absolutely take the free two points. The only advantage to not shooting is shaving time off the clock and if Groves didn't shoot that, I guarantee he would have been fouled within a couple more seconds. So for the sake of a couple of seconds, why force yourself to make two free throws when you could make a layup instead?

Anon, if you think Brad Hill is a scrub, you know nothing about basketball. After Ballinger he is already the best pure scorer on this team. He is also by far the most likely Aussie player on the Sixers to take that next step to being a star in the league. The only thing that has held him back is lack of court time due to injuries. If he stays healthy for the rest of this season, he will almost certainly be one of the teams top three scorers along with Balls and Gilchrist.

About last night, it was disappointing to see the Sixers throw the game away late, but I'm willing to accept a few growing pains as long as Scotty and the players contiue to learn from their mistakes.

Judging by last night's peformance, they have already made progress from the Perth and Melbourne games. Gilchrist and Holmes in particular stood out to me during the comeback for their determination, passion and ability to execute good plays.

If we take care of business and beat Cairns Saturday night then we will be okay. I think most of us expected to lose to the Breakers and beat Cairns this week right?

So if we win Saturday then we are 4-4. Burston is due back perhaps next week and should make a massive difference to our team balance. I see us continuing to be a bit uneven throughout the season, but I think with Burston back we will make the finals and that will be a good step forward for a club that has been struggling for the last 4 years.

Would have been an exciting night at North Shore, no doubt.

lucky to scrape home but we'll take that. yeah some questionable calls but it's not like the Breakers get a lot of love from the refs when they are on the road.
there are always going to be games like that. Abercrombie played well and Storey had a nice volley ball spike block. heaps of dunks, Pledger was effective.

Didn't see Ng injured or anything - Scotty just sat him down. Only came on when it was long range prayer time. Which has bugged me for longer than I can remember.

MVP Points:
Where do you get the Dreamteam scores from X?

My ranking would be:

Gilly (45)
Balls (24)
Groves (22)
Holmes (21)
Hill (17)
Cooper (7)
Ng (2)
Herbert (1)

After looking at the box, what happened to the Ninja?

Winning over there will always be difficult. I was expecting 89:77, so to draw 84:84 at full time is a good result.

It is disappointing that some plays didn't go our way, but at least it wasn't a Perth result.

Watch out Satdee...

Yeah, all fair points.

Then again, I agree with every single thing quasi posted.

Seen the box scores, and had we shot rasonably we would have won by 15.
Only 22% from downtown, and we had the better inside when we decided to go there which wasn't very often in the second half.Rickert another solid outing. CJ 27 but took and missed a lot. Abercrombie nearly there. Bear efficient. Probably boards just made up for poor shooting.

Gilchrist shot well, and pulled Sixers back into it. But still not very impressed with ball handling and decision making. Poor Groves, got fouled a couple of times on drives but couldn't get a call and had another miserable night.
Holmes Mr Steady. Ballinger steady but needs room to operate. Tried giving the up fake that no one bought and got into trouble.

Unfortunately 3 home referees. Hate to see a different game refereed here to Australia.

C'mon. We've seen Michael Jordan miss uncontested dunks/lay ups and lose a bunch of games. Cut him some slack.

Like I said elsewhere, I'm as pissed as everyone else, but putting it ALL on 'Tez ain't fair.

Just got home from the pub. First I want to say GREAT COMEBACK Sixers. They at least showed progress from the Melbourne and Perth games where they just laid down and died. Much better response this time around.

In the end though, the game was there to be won and we made too many errors. X, you're absolutely right about Balls not closing CJ out for that tying three. That was terrible. As CJ was coming up the court I was silently screaming for the defenders to come right out to the three point line and as soon as he got his man on his hip I KNEW he was going to take a deep three in rhythm. Could Balls not see that? C'mon! Let the guy blow you for two - who cares - just don't allow CJ to take a three point shot in rhythm like that. Aaaargh!

The other HORRIBLE error was Groves blowing the layup. Can't believe he missed that. That was the game right there! I've been trying to defend the guy, but after tonight he has convinced me he can't hit the side of a barn with mack truck! I'm not expecting Julius Hodge, but we need an import that can make a few jump shots!

Anyhow, thats my drunken rant... might say something more coherent later when I've looked at the box score!

We get screwed at the Dome, not away teams.

We werelucky to get out of jail on that one.

Disappointing display by Breakers that we could not repel the Sixers challenge in that 3rd quarter and even worse that it was a CJ, Abercrombie show in the 4th shooting from the perimeter and we just got lucky at the end to get OT.

Sixers would have won some lost fans back with their second half. Thought Hill was outstanding.

Sixers lose. ugh.

Oh don't get me wrong, Sixers blew it. We should have closed in regular time. Our fault.

Still doesn't mean I'm impressed with the calls.

Saw the first half, saw the last 1.30 in regular and the O/T - don't blame the refs for the poor offence, the poor shot selection and the missed shots.

'Home court calls'. Even Kiwi commentators called it. Way to get 'em home. Pathetic.

Kiwi refs are on par with Kiwi coverage. Ugh.

Call travel again, you stupid jerks. That only makes about 9 of them.

CJ 3.

OT

Credit CJ. That is pedigree right there. OT.

John Gilchrist, freethrow made
John Gilchrist, freethrow made
John Gilchrist, foulon
Cj Bruton, foul unsportsmanlike 79-81 -2
Cj Bruton, turnover ballhandling 79-81 -2
John Gilchrist, steal
John Gilchrist, shot 2pt made

What more can you say??!!

He's got that look back. Thank GOD Gilchrist has that look back.

25 sec left, up by 2 "23, Cj Bruton, foul unsportsmanlike" looks like Gilly knocking down free shots and we get the restart.

Sink 'em

YEAH!!! PITBULL!!! C'mon!! Finish!!

My post correction, not yours Jack.

Correction - 1.24

1:27 left, we are up by 3

How tough is Holmes? Massive rebound when it counted.

Up 3 - Sixer's ball. Little over 2 mins to play.

Q4 foul count 6:2 their way- home court advantage?

I am SO FREAKING sick of CJ initiating contact and gettig the call. Oscar nominee for the crap. Lowry HOF nominee.

That was CRAP. 'Tez stripped CJ clean and CJ kicked it! Ugh.

Dear CJ - quit flopping. Ballinger just kicked your ass.

Massive three from CJ with 1 sec left.

BIGGER 3 from Herbert to reply!!

Up 3 with 6mins to play... c'mon Sixers.

(Refs are beyond bad).

Did we just play.... defence?

The Breakers had OUR third quarter fade away - how dare they deny us the opportunity!

35 - 15 3rd Quarter!! C'MON!!!

OH. HELL. YEAH!!!

5 point game. Dare I hope? Gilly looking real good.

'Tez looking better.

You know youy are in trouble when Ronaldson leads the transition and penetrates the lane!!!
Schoolboy defence giving up somany dunks.
Offence stagnant 1 on 5.
How do you get some respect back after that half?
Gilchrist shaky.
Groves looks assured just can't buy a basket.

First play of game what a misread. Ballinger marked by Boucher, no post up. on ball screen right into Boucher, dumb play.