Hoops

Sixers @ Perth

Great refs for only the third time this season!

That was Weigh's fist sub-30 min game all season.

It was also Simpson's 4th double-double in a row, and DJ's third.

great game from Simpson but sorry Isaac I think Abercrombie has POTW all wrapped up this week. Wildcats, Tigers and Taipans all dropped games this week sitting the Breakers top of the table.

Very happy I attended this game... My first Sixer's game away from home and have an 100% record so far!

Funnily enough, the Sixers have won more games in Perth than they have at home this season.

Simpson was enormously impressive - he has no jumpshot but makes up for it with smart play on the post, creating high percentage shots for himself. His length is awesome and helps him on defence and in grabbing key rebounds.

Ballinger was three point happy and just wasn't getting the ball in spots where he's used to. I know he can hit the three but he didn't seem to have his legs under him. It still is good to know that the Sixers have improvement left in them when Ballinger finds his game.

Challenge Stadium is a pretty good venue to watch basketball - not really a bad seat in the house. They run gameday very well. The Wildcats fans were pretty chilled really - certainly not as loud as Adelaide Arena but that may have been partly because their team was playing below par.

Great to see some other Sixer fans in the building, including the Sixer's court announcer, sporting Sixer blue against the sea of Wildcat red. A real shame this game wasn't televised!

I think we're referring to an import combination. They might not be the best we've ever had (Jones/Davis and Brooks/Mee are our two best ever IMO) but they are on their way to being up there with the best of them if they continue playing like they are. Of course it would help if the rest of the team played like they have on their last 2 trips to Perth.

Right now I'd say the 36ers have their imports right and hopefully we can keep them here beyond this season (on current form). I don't know how good or bad Williamson would have proved to be but I doubt anyone would want to lose Simpson right now. And while he may be more of a scoring rather than a passing point guard but after some that we've had here Warren has been bloody good for us also.

Agreed they are a great import combo, i hope we can keep them for a few seasons.

Great win, its funny/frustrating how we can beat the top team at their stadium and cant beat most of the middle teams at home, ah well.

With minutes, am i correct in thinking that when the game was 48 mins top players regularly played 35+ mins, so why cant our top players do that now, i personally think we should use a main 7 man rotation, the 8th man gets say 5-10 mins and 9 and 10 dont play much except for foul trouble, match ups or in blow outs.

I personally would play both our imports and Johnson 30-35 mins per game, Weaigh can play 25-30, Creek 25 mins, Crosswell around 25 mins and Ballinger 10-20 mins depending on his form. Herbert can be used as our 8th man for 5-10 mins and id rotate something like, ive given 9-10th man 5 mins each but this depends on form of their own and game circumstances some games they will get DNP and others they may play upto 20 if they do really well or the guys ahead have foul trouble ect.

C Johnson (30)/Ballinger (5)/Helliwell (5)
PF Simpson (30)/Ballinger (10)
SF Weigh (25)/Creek (15)
SG Croswell (15)/Creek (10)/Herbert (10)/Ng (5)
PG Warren (30)/Crosswell (10)

And no weird combos, eg Helliwell and Johnson shouldnt be on together, as most teams dont run a big line up and they will get out quicked, Ballinger and Simpson would also be able to guard guys like Knight and Tragardh should they slide to PF in a big line up anyway.

Ng only gets more than 5 mins if his shot is dropping, i know its not long to prove himself, but run a few plays for him straight away for some quick points and if he makes the shots he gets a tad longer, no point playing him much if his shot isnt dropping IMO, some games he has played far too many minutes for not many shots going in.

If Ballinger finds form, he can get more minutes, but he has to prove himself at training and in games before even consider starting him or increase his minutes largely, basically put it to him 'if you want to start you have to out play Simpson'. If he can get to that level than thats great for the team and gives us an amazing bigman rotation. Until he does that he play back up big man. If he gets to top form then you would have to reduce Simpson and Johnson's minutes a bit to give him more and simply who ever is playing well plays each week, gives them good competition at training having to earn every minute they get, which is a good thing IMO.

Same should apply with Weigh and Creek at SF. Who ever is in better traning/match form each week plays more. Weigh is being slightly overplayed but he is our 2nd best aussie, behind Johnson IMO, so he deserves atleast 20-25 mins IMO, unless he is in bad form or Creek out plays him.

SG some would say Creek and Crosswell arent really SG's and neither are great shooters, but both are big enough and atheltic enough to play SG, can contribute well from there and Warren is a good perimeter shooter at PG to balance out their lack of perimeter shooting, basically Crosswell would handle the ball more and Warren would be the shooter when on together.

To me that would be a well balanced line up and would go along way to helping us win more, than some of the 'interesting' combos and rotations we see at times

IMO (and others may agree or not) but Simpson and Warren are shaping up to be our best imports since Darnell Mee and Kevin Brooks.

It is not merely the best Import pairing , it is that they are great guys also.
Even the lack of minutes given to Simpson does not minimalize this effect.

I think your right PJ. My mistake, from what I can work out we have actually moved off the bottom of the ladder at the expense of Wollongong.

Another great win over the Cats. I don't think it's got to do with Perth, it's just that Simpson had a big game, herbie played a key role and Warren was solid. Wish I'd been watching!

I've written more here if you wanna read

http://36reasons.blogspot.com/2011/12/minutes-pt-2.html

I now appoint the Sixers as the official bogey side for the Wildcats

PeterJohn, we're still on the bottom of the NBL ladder only because Wollongong have played 1 more game. The 36ers and Hawks have won 3 games so IF we can do over either the Kings in Sydney or the Breakers at home next week and Wollongong lose at home to Perth then we will finally stop holding up the rest of the damn ladder.

Winning 1 would be good next week. Winning 2 would be better. Losing both would be a killer.

before any one starts disecting this game and starts to single out players , coaches , etc, lets just say what a wonderful effort to the 36ers. who gets what minutes , who scores what points does not matter. What REALLY matters is that the 36ers rode the storm and finished the job. and Bevo was once again out coached. These guys need your support. Let's start being positive and Stop only saying nice things about them, when they win. How about they are a team and every small effort as a team is what contributes a win. Let them feel like they have a home court advantage when they play at home. Support your team, loose or win.
WELL DONE GUYS AND COACHING STAff.

And yet ANOTHER double double from both Simpson and Johnson. At least this time their effort was rewarded and good to see, we need more of it.

Balls.....what's doing son?

Diamon Simpson wins the inaugural Paul Rogers Medal as game MVP. Could have gone to either Simpson or Warren IMO.

Great effort from the team tonight. But why can't we play like this all the bloody time? If we could bottle this form and the game in Round 4 we'd hardly ever lose a bloody game.

A brilliant win.

OMG WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both Warren and Simpson have just been subbed out by Clarke with 5 minutes left and we're up by 6.....I hope it doesn't bite us.

Spot on "haha". Simpson should be playing 80-90% of the game. Weigh is getting too many minutes and even though we need to get Ballinger some court time, it shouldn't come at Simpson's expense. I'm doing a blog on it now, one has just gone up, the 2nd will be up shortly after the game.

HOOPS SA is the SA Basketabll forum.

Does anyone know what forums are used by the other states.

I have search google and cannot find any.

Hey ajay.....Snap on the Perth Radio :P (but you did it first, I missed that lol)

http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/sportfm913

Live Perth Radio

does anyone have a link for the game as they are not showing it on onehd

gold

For a funny clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGbRHxM4X2g

The 29th was when he died, when I say "this week", I mean this current week which ends tomorrow....

I can't believe it was 10 years ago this week that he passed away. We have a lot of things to thank him for - even "The Life of Brian"

as a Breakers fan I def hope the Sixers can get up for the win.