Hoops

Game Night: Sixers/Taipans: Last roll of the dice!

I've wanted to say this since I first saw Darren Ng nail his 1st 3pointer:

Brett Maher, the heir to your throne may have arrived.

I friggin knew Ninja could shoot the lights out like that; nailed some great quick-release threes in the collection too. Great composure all night. Just needs to work more on his pick and pop shooting, then I think we may have a true replacement for Maher.

As for the reffing "It's called Pivoting!; I'm sorry that your eyes can't keep up with the movement, but you don't call travel when you can't keep up with the footwork. Skip mills step-back moves were Travel. Crossing over then leaping back with two feet for a jump shot is travel. This isn't the NBA; and he isn't Kobe."

That bloody travel on Cortez was a joke.

The behind the back was a nice one, but that three missed.
There was one earlier than that where Ng passed it up to I'm pretty sure it was Hill who nailed it from the corner.

Will have to have another viewing of the Ng show tonight I think ;) After the Breakers Tigers game.

Good:
Ng's shooting, supported by a good cast.
Cortez playing point - just seems more natural there.
Winning one that needed winning, even if it was ugly at times.
Cortez's fast break dunk.
Playing a more uptempo game in the second half.
Skip Mills hitting some clutch shots with the shotclock running out.

Bad:
Won't always shoot that well - live by the 3, die by the 3.
Have to say it unfortunately, Ballinger's defence. Almost all of Cairn's first ten point came from defensive lapses by Ballinger. Just where was his head last night for the first three quarters?
Brad Hill - where is his head any night? Much better use of him in the second half as a spot up shooter only (but only because the shots dropped last night).
Relapses to the old stagnant offense, particularly in the second half.
Last night at times looked like the battle of who could care less. We only won because Cairns was more incompetent than us.

Ugly:
Incompetent team defence in the first half. I really dislike the spread 3-2 zone the team plays.
Skip Mills - taking CJ Bruton's title as the leagues most shameless flopper. (Gilchrist tried hard to take this award, but was totally outclassed)
The umpires - particularly for falling for Mill's flop 'charge'.

A win is a win. A platform from which to build on.

Rotations seemed better for me..

I actually liked the team dynamics when Groves had the ball as the point...Gilchrist holds it way too long...

they still seem tentative to feed the post at the right times...not sure if that is a coaches directive...doubt it..but if it is, no point in running with Burston at all..

NG was exceptional, and a great value off the bench....

was a decent game to watch...

"Much better in the second half when they made quick decisions on Offense. They need to push the ball much quicker, we have spot up shooters and drivers. They can't let the other team setup their D everytime before trying to run isolation plays. Move the ball quickly so players can get open early in the shot clock and the D isn't setup."

Spot on Aussie bballer. It was there for all to see when we broke the game open with some quick offence that got us several open threes in a row.

I think you can see that the guys are trying to improve their offence. There was much more of an attempt to move the ball tonight and Ng benefited big time from that. It was fortunate that he was on, because our big men couldn't buy a basket with 4 points between Balls and Buston at the half!

X - I also thought Burston was slipping his defender off the screen well and getting good position, so it was disappointing that our guards couldn't find an angle to get it to him more often. Same thing in the open court - I feel our guards don't do a good enough job of advancing the ball quickly to guys running the floor. Guys like Groves and Hill should be getting several fast break layups a game if we run it right.

Does anyone else think the Sixers do an unusual amount of gesturing, trying to get their team mates into the right position at both ends of the floor? I really noticed it last night and I think that it shows, unfortunately, that most our guys still aren't on the same wavelength most of the time. Something Scotty needs to work on big time, because we just aren't a cohesive team most of the time.

Anyway, thats enough negativity. Bottom line is we needed this one and we got it. Hopefully our team learnt that if you move the ball and get the Ninja some open looks, you can stay in games even when Balls has zero points at half time!

Lets hope they have a good crack at the Blaze on Friday. I think we can get the win up there if we take care of the ball and keep it moving on offence.

Sorry just saw you asked quasi.

Tez looked like he couldn't wait to get away. Same as Ng at the end of the game, jogged off half way through a question from Heal.

BT actually made the call on Burston, then was good enough to correct himself. Heal was typical Heal, calling Ng Darren all night. Could be worse, could have no coverage at all.

Well done Sixers, 4 on the road now..Missed my tip by 1 point.

The behind-the-back was to Herbert I reckon.

What was the Fox broadcast like? Did H-E-A-L descend to pronouncing Ng's name properly? Not like he could have ignored him last night!

That three that Ng missed/was blocked on/looked like on the coverage he jumped up to shoot than was looking for the pass into the bigs in the key who were not looking, not sure if the defender still got a piece of the shot/pass.

Great shooting display by Ng and great to see him pass up a half open look at one point to give it to a WIDE open look in the corner, not too many hot shooters will do that!

Seriously Hill will be feeling real pressure now..when the home crowd is against you...you know it will take something to get big to get you back in favour...

i like Hill tho, so i hope he does something big to get himself more court time...

they all talk about the knowledge of the 36ers crowd...sometimes its a disadvantage when yr a player on the wrong side...

5,627 as the official crowd on Sunday - there were more punters there tonight than Sunday.

I would have said 6,510 if SUnday was correct

official crowd 5,510 ?????

I would have thought a few more than on Sunday. The place was rocking and weren't too many empty seats.

Perhaps the Tristar kids were not counted

PS Good to see #15 on the court

Umpiring was shocking!

Give the MARS green shirts a go

What was up with that pass out-of-bounds along the baseline at the end of the first half? I didn't know that was legal.

The Sixers played a rubbish three quarters and one good quarter and won, so yay I guess. Cairns was cover-your-eyes-awful for much of the second half. Ballinger was ice-cold until the last quarter or so - he seemed shocked that he was getting the ball the rest of the time. Ng was great, no idea why the Taipans didn't play physical defence on him more often - Phillll did once or twice and Ng coughed it up. Molitor came on for the last couple of minutes and seemed a bit overawed - didn't really get a chance to do anything.

Worst reffing ever by the guy with grey hair... I think he just likes the sound of his own whistle.

Oh, and if I see Scott Ninnis pull his petulant "WHAAAT?" face one more time, I am going to... I dunno. Probably I'll do nothing, but it's very embarrassing. Not a good look Scotty. Passion is all well and good; constant whining is all bad.

(Mod: The pass along the baseline is legal. It's a simple method to assist in beating the trap. As long as both players are out of court they can pass back and forth all night. 'or until the ref calls 5 seconds')

How did the u14 Boys do?

Groves starting! and Ng off the bench and yes their best games of the year - interesting.
Wonder who was best of the 2 - pretty close - maybe Groves just.

Aw well - I was 3points out - on Groves and the margin

Come on Tez - you gotta get my prediction right.

Worst. Charge. Ever.

From memory we beat them by 37points in Cairns.
Lets think... a wild guess .. Adelaide by 17points tonite. Top scorer - Cortez Groves.

I think you will find little scotty ninnis fits the budget of the sixers and therefore they will stick with it...

would love to see a gorj at the helm, but he would command the salary cap alone...no i'm not kidding...well slightly exaggerated...but you get my gist...

this game will go to OT!!!

"I have read so many times people complaining about Gilchrist dribbling the ball on top of the key. The reason is that he is running a play and waiting for the two wing players to cut."

I've seen that too Big Sexy and pointed it out after a game I saw awhile back. You can see him gesturing to players to get in position sometimes. I think sometimes it is his fault, but in general I think its his team-mates that are clueless most of the time.

Whatever happens this season, our roster needs to be settled early in the off-season and whoever is coach needs to drill them like SAS rookies until they can run half a dozen plays in their sleep!

36ers by 13.
Burston top scorer, Gilly top rebounds.

In a way, I hope we get put out of our misery tonight... even if we win against Cairns, fanboyisms aside, does anyone here *actually* believe that it will be the start of a worthwhile playoff run? I am semi-dreading going... life's too short to watch this indolent lot! If they don't care, which seemed to me to be the case on Sunday in the fourth-quarter (what happened to that first-quarter passion?), then I sure don't care. And at least if they flame-out badly this year, it will hopefully bring some significant changes for next season.

Anyway, that's my depressing rant over. Try not to project any exploding brain fragments on my row on your way out, Loco!

Gilchrist is the problem with the team. Its his ball handling that fails to set up the plays they need. What is the sense in dribbling that ball for 18 seconds and watching the keyway congest with traffic before you even get there, then have 6 seconds to fight your way through that bottleneck. He is also completely blind when it comes to realising Ballinger's position on court. Ninnis has addressed this problem and the last 3 weeks or so has seen him change for the first half and then automatically revert back to his old habits. He does not suit the fast free flowing game style and will always stifle the keyway. He has definitely got to go.

TC, that's the key. Need to feed the ball to Big Bird and Big Red. Once Cairns expect the feed, pop it out to a loosely guarded Ninja for a three shot, then we already have some tall timber for the rebounds if there's a miss.

Need to give Miss Molly some court time too......yes, I sound like a broken record

This has to be it - no more chances. If the Sixers can't get a 20 point win tonight, I think we can free up our calendars during the finals.

Lose tonight, then get a new coach and start building for next year. Isaac made a good point in a thread about last Sunday's game, that if we do replace him, at least we have a running start to build a team, rather than waiting to find a replacement coach in the off season.

Will always be a supporter, but it is getting bloody hard!!

Yup, do or die for the Sixers tonight. Gotta win at least 2 of 3 this week as well. If we can do that, might squeak into the playoffs by winning remaining home games and jagging one more road win.

Hope Holmes is back! We need his toughness. Sixers will be all out of excuses if they can't beat Cairns.

Is Holmes definitely back in then?

If 6ers can't win this game they donm't deserve to be playing finals...

Adelaide to win by 5.