Hoops

Crocs @ Breakers

Quite right Cats Fan. We are pretenders.
When you compare last time the Crocs came to town, we played without Penney and with Storey who lit them up, the Crocs were a shambles.
I've always considered them a flaky team, but they seem to have gone to a new level and are playing with maturity.
Roberts played about 6 minutes last time and this time he was in game until FT woes forced him out. Hard to believe we actually beat them in Townsville.
W/L is 2/3 since Penney's return.
Good points XY, 15/13 will qualify but there could be a couple on 14/14 for that last playoff spot. Breakers would have to win 7 of last 11 to make it. Melbourne is a must.

Our biggest problem is defense.
We can't get stops regularly and in the final quarter teams pretty much have their way with us.
Lemanis has misplaced confidence in Oscar re defence, rebounding and sreak shooting. Oscar is a 15 minute shooter off the bench.He simply can't play 4th quarter.
Ronaldson if he isn't scoring is also a liability defensively.
Rillie is a streak shooter, not a defender and was supposed to only be a backup should Penney not recover.
Rickert our most consistent player offensively, has foot speed problems against more agile forwards.
Lemanis doesn't trust Abercrombie fully so we are left with Boucher and Henare(limited time with Penney back) the only sources of defensive pressure down the stretch.
Penney is not a good one on one defender so as a team when our offence is stuttering we don't get stops to stay in game.
Lemanis may or may not have been burned with Storey, but he is unwilling to make changes. He can't seem to see the forest for the trees.
Lemanis's model is flawed.
We play 7/11 games left on road.

Lemanis has a team he has selected and developed over the past couple of years which uses the entire salary cap and boasts last years MVP yet we still are loosing.
Storey was a massive mistake in my eyes but on paper and going on the info he may or may not have had it may have been not entirely his fault. To think we almost lost Rickket in the off season due to affordability says alot and we gave up Phil Jones for Abercrombie to get more court time but then got an import that couldn't score more than a few and now have Rillie, I would way rather have Jones who could play d shoot the ball and get in the lanes and go to the hole especially late in the game when the scoring is drying up and CJ or Penney are tired or have foul trouble.
Lemanis doesn't seem to have a plan b for when the 3's aren't dropping and it's a concern.
Pledger will be back soon I hope from injury and I would hope he gets some court time as Ricket gets in foul trouble early and is forced to sit and then all of a sudden we are reduced to a team full of shooting guards sitting around the arc with their hands up for the ball yet no one to rebound it when it misses.

It is a strange season no doubt. There really are six very competitive teams, and one other team (Melbourne) that will cause a lot of headaches in the second half of the year.

Sixers have an 8-8 record, but are two games out of the finals equation at the moment. Teams may well have to win 16 games to have a chance of securing 4th spot. Alternatively, we could end up with three or four teams tied up for the last spot with a 14-14 or 15-13 record.

NZ definitely underperforming IMO.

I have never thought much of Lemanis as a coach. I don't know enough about the Breakers set up to make a well informed call, however with the talent on that team surely some questions should be asked of the coach?

Mystro, I'd be interested in your thoughts mon Lemanis?

Not sure who writes the NBL write up of game but this one is more accurate.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/basketball/3173517/Breakers-drop-third-straight-on-North-Shore/

Rickert has been getting it done all season but yet he seems to be an after thought on offense if Penney isn't open for a trey.
Ronaldson needs to be inside using his big frame to bang the shit out of opposition forwards.
Rickert is our most consistant player, agree Bill that he should be the go to guy in that 4th q.
Abercrombies defence and offensive ability warrants him starting.

Lemanis doen't want to upset team chemistry bringing in another import.
He dosn't realise the chemistry is not there to start with.
Agree MACDUB but Oscar is symptomatic of the team.
When pressure goes on we go to pieces. Penney stuggles with on ball when D switches. His ball handling is limited. His game is moving without ball, getting open, having people fly at him and THEN put it on floor for pull ups or take to hoop. He did this in first half. But his second half (until junk time)when Crocs D tightened up was poor by comparison.
CJ seems content to hand it over to Penney in crunch time. He is best equipped to create.
He should be leading the team in assists.

Rickert, CJ,Penney, Abercrombie accounted for 69 points. Not enough support.
Bringing in Storey was a mistake, but getting rid of him was an even bigger mistake.
Why is Rillie still there? Team chemistry?

Forman should not start. Get Abercrombie in there to start in his place. Abercrombie can actually play defence, rebound, score and distribute. Forman is as one-dimensional as they come, and nothing more than solely a spot-up shooter. That's fine if he's nailing them at a lights out clip (Like he was 2 weeks ago)..But when he isn't hitting..he brings nothing else to the team.
The boys just commit silly turnovers..Passing when the defence has their hands in the passing lanes, trying to penetrate a driving lane that doesn't exist,passing the ball to the guy who you think is zigging but instead zagged.
They also gave up too any second-chance opportunities and failed to secure defensive rebounds. They also lacked execution down the stretch, and didn't run any specific stuff; Instead they just gave it to Penney and hoped that he would score with a simple high on-ball that Townsville covered quite well.
What really frustrates me is when the players make obvious mistakes, Lemanis turns straight towards the referees and releases his anger at them.
Questions must be asked of Lemanis

Beaten fair and square tonight. Unlike last couple where we have been in postion to win, this time battling just to stay close.
Crocs cleaned us up on boards and coasted home on the back of FT's.
6/23 from downtown not good enough.
Ronaldson dreadful. Can't really understand why he was out there in 4th Q.
Penney ended up trying to do too much down stretch. Not his game.
Rickert had a hell of a game. Can't understand why he wasn't the go to guy in P4. He had been doing it all game.
Roberts played big. Woeful FT shooter. Great rebounder.
Williamson got redemption after last visit here.
Off to Melbourne now. No gimme either.