Hoops

Perth vs Adelaide, Jan 29

I agree with Xztatiks point that NZ's starting 5 is no bigger than the Sixers yet have no problem rebounding, and it does just come down to effort. Guys like Vukona and Abercrombie want the ball and go after it, as do Wilkinson and Pledger.

What a great win! Shame I didnt find out the scores til 4am when the net became free!!!

At this late stage of the year, I am more happy with a win than worrying about petty crap like 'you wont be playing finals and we will be'.

Bottom line, we bet Perth again and thats the ball game. Any club who wins a title the year before, goes under close crutiny of all the other clubs. Regardless of injuries, second units are asked to step up to the plate and those that do, do well for themselves and the club.

Seems like with Perth slipping away from pole position, NZ will host the GF's with home court advantage and Perth will be left to rubble.

Works for me! :)

*sigh*.

Isaac, can you put a filter on forum threads that detects constant bagging and whining and just removes posts after the first 2-3?

There's about 2/3rds content and 1/3 inane dribble in alot of these recent posts.

Probably suspended due to some large bets put on the Sixers in market (NBL) that wouldnt usually attract large bets.

Punters would have been riding the Sixers for a few weeks now looking for them to eventual snap that away losing streak and this presented a good value bet at over $4 closing into around $3.50

Now I have faith in Bevo, but there are many questionable decisions from this game. These are not made in hindsight because we lost, I was yelling from the stands while this was taking place!
1. Down by 5 second quarter, Greg Hire enters the game??? I know we have a short rotation now, but we didn't use any 1st half timeouts to rest players & come on the quarters only 10min now.
2. Majok plays 6 solid 2qtr mins, then doesn't play the rest of the game??? The guy is a proven defensive game winner (re: Gold Coast) and with the amount of layups they were getting we could of used his intimidation factor.
3. Why wasn't Damo instructed to miss the final free throw of the game to give us a chance to rebound and win??? There was only 3sec left and we had no timeouts to advance the ball anyway had we got tie to foul.

Adelaide played average last night - Perth played worse. Weigh the only shining light, good to see he got best on court for the cats.

The wildcats are in effect only missing one of their 10 in redhage as Wagstaff and Knight have been replaced by Brown and Majok.

Same as we are only really missing Bruce as the others have been replaced ala Herbert with Creek and Ng with Bruce.

So both teams are only really missing 1 player each, yes Redhage is better than Bruce, so the 36ers had an advantage there, but in last nights game with Shannon barely playing and missing Bruce, we had to use Carter and Daly who is really our 11th man on our roster down the stretch against the wildcats quality guards, so to win like that is impressive IMO, shows great coaching from Clarke/Radford and putting faith in young guys like Carter and Daly will only help there development. Its great to see another young SA guy in Daly get his chance to play.

So great effort 36ers, if we can win the rest of our home games and beat sydney twice on the road, which is do able IMO the playoffs may be a chance. Next game in Sydney is crucial IMO. Especially considering the wildcats wont be as good without Redhage.

My current tip is a NZ/Cairns grand final with Daniel Dillon being the find of the year, i thought it was weird he wasn't in the NBL after HSH and was glad to see him get a chance and prove himself. I'm a huge fan and wanted the 36ers to sign him after HSH.

The Situation: So by that reasoning no one should be happy about any wins against the Blaze or any recent victories against the Hawks?

Yep, with Sav possibly returning next weekend for the Hawks we are suddenly looking very vulnerable. (especially since we play the Hawks in a couple of weeks the night after a Kings game, which virtually guarantees a loss to them)

Our schedule has been pretty friendly in recent weeks, but the next 5 are tougher:
- Taipans (Away) - probably loss
- Blaze (Home, but < 2 days later) - a must-win
- Kings (Away) - a must-win
- Hawks (Away, next night) - probable loss
- NZ (Away) - probable loss

"at the risk of getting into another 3-day argument with a mentally disabled monkey"

LOL. Isaac, That deserves a little basketball

Great win sixes. Good to get the road jinx broken. As for playoffs, as mentioned above, we have to win 3 more games than Townsville, 4 more than Cairns or Perth, or 6 more than New Zealand. We have 10 games left, most on the road. Given last night's rebounding and plethora of turnovers, the best chance would be to displace Perth. If we're missing Shannon for more than a week of games, no chance.

Now sixers - prove me wrong!

Cool story Anon

Dear Sixers

great win last night in a tough enviroment against a solid team regardless of injuries (how many other teams are going through the same thing this season, Blaze , Hawks ect).
Cheers ;)

Breakers Fans

The Cats shot poorly because a) the 36ers did a great job of denying us any hint of breathing space in our normal sets, and b) because the loss of Redhage threw our offence out of kilter. I thought Adelaide did a great job of staying in front of us even after switching, and we just could not buy half a metre of space all night. Daring guys like Robbo, Martin & Tovey to shoot from range is just smart policy. When Lisch & Williamson got it there was a defender in their shorts.
Marty, no doubt helped a heck of a lot by Radford, scouted us beautifully.

Forget the big loss last season, I am not reporting on last season. Tonight they dealt with the pressure well, stayed composed, and high screen & rolled the hell out of us.

Well played by the 6ers tonight. Having Carter back proved to be extremely valuable, as the Cats' backcourt pressure wasn't as effective as it usually is. You guys do a much better job than most teams of dealing with it, and also of punishing our trap when it breaks down. I was surprised when Ballinger had so few points fairly late into the game, but he was still working hard out there, and proved to be clutch down the stretch.
For us, well, the absence of Redhage was obvious for all to see. Our offence has gone to absolute crap. It's going to be a very tough month ahead for this Cats team ... our famous depth has now been pushed one player past its limit.

Horrible conditions out there on the court with a humidity that must have been in the 90% range, the ball needing to be changed every few minutes, the towel kids working overtime, and still players were slipping all over the place.
I hope none of those injuries turn out to be more than minor.

The amazing competitiveness between the Cats & 6ers continues, but this season you've got our measure. I can't quite put my finger on why but the matchups just work very well for Adelaide in this series.

NEVER been so happy to be wrong! Gutsy win! The streak has ENDED!

this is crap! My tips this week are fu*ked! Dont mind being wrong in this instance but damn

66 Sixers 65 Wildcats! WOOO!

Found it in the thread - cheers.

Link to listen / follow please guys?

Clarke seems eager to sub , in the first qtr ?

At almost 8.30pm , I can follow the Liz Cambage spectacular , while waiting for this to start, eventually.

SportFM radio webcast link:
http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/sportfm913

Strange how the team that's hit rock bottom on the road ,
won in Perth and Illawarra , last season.

"Matter closed"

Yeah, we've all heard that one before.

So, I'm thinking that the longer we go without winning an away game, the more likely we are to win one, eventually.
That's why we might win this one.

This might be a lot closer than people think.

* Redhage out - a number of people think he is a c*$%, but he is their leading scorer (18 ppg), and also gets 5.8 rpg, 1.7 apg. This should have an impact on their offence and he will be missed. Who will step up?
* Majok drama - Is he in/out? How much has this distracted Bevo from the game? What will the ripple effect be?
* Carter is back. Probably won't be a game winner, but he gives us a lot of defensive hustle which will help. Would love to see Robbins fouled out, or ejected.
* Balls is on a high. Balls seems to be a player who plays a lot better with confidence. I would suggest that after nailing a 3 to win a game, his confidence is 110%! When Balls plays well, Sixers play well.

Pressure is on both teams, but more so on Perth not to choke.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/a/-/basketball/8731070/straying-wildcat-read-the-riot-act/

Wow, thats big news about Majok.

That could be enough to swing it in our favour. There are really going to need a big performance from Brown now you would think.

Game will be over by the third quarter - we'll be 20 something down and rapidly capitulating.

Final difference likely to be 12 to 15 thanks to junk time.

Sad but true, I feel after 12 consecutive road failures.

(Cheers for the heads up re: Majok, Anon).

It's always tough in perth but I really feel that the comeback/game winner from Balls will lift our guys.

It could be a season defining moment if we can back it up with our first road win in god knows how long....I think we can steal it in a close one...again.

Although I may just be overly optimistic and no doubt I will be wrong like many of my other bold predictions this season!

Perth in Perth is almost a guaranteed loss.

Sixers need to shoot in the 50% range to get the W over there. Provided the Cats can't match that of course.

Despite loss of Redhage, expect Wildcats to win it comfortably. (Shame too). Wildcats by 12.

12 straight road losses makes it hard to be even slightly optimistic.