Hoops

Sixers vs Wildcats, Fri 22 Nov

Wildcats have definitely been put on notice by that game; next two between these teams will be massive. And if what everyone's expectations come true, the next three after that ;)

When J.Frye began to play on Ennis I thought Frye was gonna have a good game.

You can't say you didn't get your moneys worth last night.

Small problem though! More people means its harder to get a beer at half time.

That was the best game I have seen DJ play. It was also the first time he went hard to the basket and not try to draw fouls. Great.

Trevor "Jackie" Gleeson seems to have an optical problem, maybe refractive error, if he believes that all his players that are fouled are standing straight up. His constant carping to the junior ref almost had the desired effect. Maybe that's the next Gorgian play that will be targeted by the NBL.

that first half had me wondering 'these are meant to be the kindest rings in the league'?

was a pretty decent game and Johnson was amazing (he always seemed to pop up throughout the game) but I did find it a little unusual seeing 7 men in the key going for a rebound and then he grabs it near the 3 point line... what was he doing out there on defense?

Ervin and Cadee were brilliant and they really kept you guys rolling.

Is Schenscher getting any fitter or is he regressing into retirement (oh but he has to wait till 70 years of age now) as him and Knight seemed about the same form and fitness?

I wonder how Hammer feels now that Perth have lost... if Sydney win on Sunday will they get the credit or will it be seen as a mini slump?

^ Adelaide is very good at defending home court this year. I would not be surprised to see Perth and Adelaide go 14-0 at home. Road form will become critical to determine minor premier. Will probably be between Perth & Adelaide, with Melbourne and Sydney the next two playoff berths.

36ers going 2/2 in NZ will be a huge advantage, puts enormous pressure on Perth to try and eke out a win at Vector.

His scoring wasn't so high, but his other stats were good; 13p, 9r, 3a, 3s, 1b

Nearly a double-double, but needed more scoring output. But that was a general issue, scoring at a better %age outside than inside is more symptom than accomplishment here.

You are so funny cats 4 life saying if the sixes lose we will be complaining about something and then the cats lose and you are the first person to complain. Joshuapending frye was interviewed upstairs after the game and had a bit of a limp but looks like it will probably be ok. He said he wasn't sure if he landed on someone's foot or just rolled it.

Well done, 36ers, thunderous first half. Well done, Adelaide, thunderous home court.

We'll have to go off and lick our wounds after this one. Shame we couldn't peg back a bit more in the third, left too much to overcome in the fourth.

Bad for us, but good for the league; competition has opened up again. But thankfully, we can still end the weekend on a high; Sydney await with another cracking game.

And hey, if we were going to get a loss, may as well be on the road in Adelaide. ;)

Best game of basketball at the Dome since Brett's last game.

Great crowd of 6,585. Thank goodness BSA had the foresight to keep the district schedule, the stadium wouldn't have been able to handle the extra 1,500.

I am here knob, wortho better than redhage??? Guess u guy's no ure stuff!!! Golden ring on dj and u guy's get free shots on the stripe in the last qtr?? Maybe frye did his ankle and that's why we came back??? Thought so

Martin is more important to Perth than Gibson is to Adelaide and Redhage is running at career best form. Both players were awesome tonight.

Ervin and Johnson were brilliant for the Sixers.

Knight is not in elite status at the moment, looked very out of touch and Perth saw Frye at his best in a pre-season game. Cancelled each other out tonight.

These two teams are going to have some absolute beauties this season and the sledging between fans is going to be worth a few LOL moments.

Sixers were probably helped out in the last minute and a bit with some favourable calls but in general the referees were pretty good.

Not bad against the team with the five best players in the league (or was it six?)

Well, I'm distressed.

The cricket has been doing an admirable job keeping the nerves distracted, though now Townsville and New Zealand will be helping out with that.

Spot on Isaac, unless the Sixers go down by 50 it will be a great game and these games are the games season ticket holders want to see.

Only way the stadium would erupt would be if a Perth pussycat stomped on Brett's signature.

Yes you are! Shine on you crazy diamond!

^ lol, settle gretel, you're no catch yourself.

It's going to be a baptism by fire for Carmouche and the new dynamic, that's for sure. If they can make it work in Perth then everyone should watch out, cause they'll make it work anywhere.

nice one hanging around.

The Situation, like they say "A champion team beats a team of champions" If the Wildcats DO have the best players in position 1 to 5, we had better get the chippies down to the Dome to widen the doors to ensure head clearance for the visiting team.

Don't limit yourself, Situation, god in his infinite wisdom saw fit to allow for three digits for times like this.

Jack (446320)-- would be like a gunfight in an old western, but in very slow motion, as they both make out to draw their wallet from the back pocket to pay for the beer!

If Erik does that we will mail him back to you guys in Perth one piece at a time ;/

@cats 4 life,

Don't be so touchy lol

^ Erik Burden to hit the 3pt winner on the buzzer and then start dancing in front of the 36ers chairman's box ;)

I'm tipping Sixers to throw out the spinnaker in front of the home crowd.

My predictions:
Crowd 5,999
Sixers by 1

Scoreboard
Qtr time 25:24
Half time 49:49
3 QT 73:75
FT 93:92

Redhage to have 3 fouls by half time and be a protected species by the refs in the second half.
Ennis will bowl over someone - no charge call.
Gibbo will brush Redhage with a feather, he will flop like Sponge Bob and charge on Gibbo.

Looking forward to seeing Erik play and hope he outscores most of his team.
Beal looks like he could go for 25 points this game.

I expecting to see Mark Hubbard and Dean Parker sharing a beer in the bar.

Oh hell with it, may as well throw my hat in the ring.

Cats by 4 on the back of 4Q D, 10-0 come monday.

Sixers by 9
Crowd 5811

agreed Macdub, quiet night on the couch with a few cold beers watching some quality basketball & the Breakers ;)

Love the coverage over here in NZ.

Get the NZ game at 7.30pm, then the blockbuster PER-ADL game after.

No complaining from me.

36 Reasons tipping 36ers by 7

Knight would have to be considered 'poetry-in-somewhat-faster-motion' compared to Rees. Arguably, fast forward. Knight has a range of offensive moves in his toolkit that Rees could only have dreamt of (love the big guy).

Close enough is good enough!

On an unrelated note, bookies look stumped by this one. All odds I'm seeing are basically straight down the middle, or with a 0.5 line to the Cats.

Boti Nagy is tipping Sixers though (and for Wildcats to finish the round 9-1).

Nathan, I have a few burnt bridges you may be interested in?

Yes, EC, I am totally for real. I am seriously asking that.

Also, if you have any bridges for sale, I'm in the market.

http://www.botinagy.com/blog/nblwnbl---all-the-winners/

For a non-Wikipedia link.

And yes, I'd take Knight, even though I was a strong admirer of Mike's love of Nandos peri-peri.

@bk,

Good comment - I've supported some teams (soccer/AFL) that have gone on real rollercoasters and no matter how trite the cliche seems, the downs do make the ups all the sweeter.

Who cares everyone has their opinions and no amount of facts that get thrown around is going to change anyone's opinion. Lets just agree to disagree and concentrate on the game. I hope it's an entertaining competitive one no matter what the result is. I feel it is a dangerous game for both teams and could go either way. Perth probably have an edge but you can't be sure with Adelaide. Looking like they will have a big crowd behind them and the way they have dug deep to pull off some wins especially last weeks game might just be enough to get them over the line. All I know is I will be there cheering the 6ers on hoping for a win and remembering how much more fun this season has been than the last 5-6.

Knight floated for a deep 2/3? He took one 3pt shot that I can recall all year and that was the hail mary dagger to sink Townsville at Perth Arena. And that wasn't even off a pick and roll and was *definitely* the first 3pt or even near 3pt attempt he'd had all year.

Those stat-lines may be the best that can be used, but that doesn't actually mean they have any real utility. But even then, 15pt, 9pt, 9pt, 13pt, these are not big hauls by any means except maybe Ballinger, even by the reduced standards of last year.

The All-NBL first team Centre was a good role player, well that does beat all...

Let me elaborate further; you are trying to use a stat line comparison to show things that they don't actually track, the head to head performance of two players when matched on each other. To assess their head to head footage we'd need to go to the tapes (if they're still available on NBL tv, which I haven't checked) or find a copy of live scores that still has the play by play so you can check who was on court for what figures. Crudely jamming two stat lines next to each other is of relatively little utility, especially as defensive effort is very badly reflected in them and we are trying to assess whether he is an elite defensive centre, which encompasses so many more facets of the game than raw points and rebounds.

Remember we were an outside shooting team who did not run our O through Knight, and his backup in Trueman (who it turns out is no Tom Jervis) played almost as many minutes as he did despite the fact opposition players would feast on him. Remember too that one of Knight's habits was simply knocking on the rebounds towards other people who got credit for the board.

And despite the fact we were an outside shooting team who did not direct much of the offense through Knight, he still averaged over 14pts for the season.

And as paul said, if you can find one person who is actually in the NBL in a playing or coaching capacity to say even off the record that Knight is anything but elite, you will have found a very, very rare bird indeed. Again, I am not saying he is the best C in the NBL, or as good as Ogilvy. But if you don't think Knight is an elite player then I'm flabbergasted.

@BJF,

What part did you have a problem with?

He was also playing (considerably) fewer minutes than his counterparts because of Bevo's rotation philosophy and because, in most of those, we were handing out thrashings.

@BJF,

Knight played 22min, Trueman 19min.
Trigger 24min, Loughton 30min.

And judging by Trueman's stat line, he was given a bath in those 19 minutes. I'd suspect strongly that's who was guarding in the bulk of those points/rebounds. Unfortunately my memory of that night is kind of hazy, it might be a game I didn't get out to.

Unfortunately, sportingpulse doesn't have the play-by-play to track the +/- of those matchups.

Yeah, the problem with just matching C statline to C statline is its impossible to account for how much was accrued against the starter and how much was accrued against the bench player.

@XY,
According to the legends, he was well-accustomed to only handling a single ball.

If you wanted me to put together a Top 5 by position as it stands for the NBL I'd go:

PG Martin or Ervin - depending on time of day, position of jupiter, price of wheat, etc
SG Goulding - love Beal but no one has even slowed Goulding down yet.
SF Ennis - don't even argue gentlemen
PF Redhage - now Worthington is a great player but Redhage has already punched the tickets of 3 teams with his 4Q efforts this season. When the game is on the line, Redhage will always be the one I want shooting
C Ogilvy - having a ripper of a season, scoring and rebounding machine inside.

Didn't you know that Hitler could ball?

^ It's not Godwin's Law if I don't compare him to Hitler :D

I don't think its inconceivable - I don't agree with it, but I could understand someone taking the position. Well, less so in Gibbo over Damo, that's just weird :)

Don't try to suggest it is inconceivable someone could rate Wortho more than Redhage, or Gibbo over Martin.