Hoops

SF1 Game 3 36ers v Hawks Feb 23rd

The problem for Adelaide is that when they're either shut down or having a poor night offensively, they can't stop their opposition at the same time. You really need to be able to do that in crunch games like last night. Perth show the league how it's done.

I think for Adelaide to have another go at winning a championship, it's going to depend on how much Joey Evolves and learns each time we get close.

What was the crowd number?

FSTOS - "Was it Randle's wifes tucker. She must have been really angry because she don't look like the type who would easily part with food."

That shouldn't have been the only thing to brighten my day today, but here we are.

Yeah, Johnson, I totally turned on my team. Not sure how you managed to come to that conclusion but there's something wrong with you if you think that.

His 2nd technical was for abuse not flopping. Joey can't even sledge the refs in the media correctly.

I think you're right on about the flop calls Rat10. It is a very subjective call that refs get wrong very often and too harsh a penalty when a player can end up being thrown out of a game for it.

Joey has already blamed the refs!

First it was sauce, then Chinese food, now chips and sauce.

Was it Randle's wifes tucker. She must have been really angry because she don't look like the type who would easily part with food.

Congrats to the 6ers fans on here. Of all the years I have posted on this forum this would have to be the least amount of "blame the refs" type posts I have ever seen following a loss.

Of course Joey will still blame them for allowing the Hawks to defend "that way" whatever the f*** "that way" is.

Adelaide needed there four best players to play at a high level in defence and offence, just didn't happen though. Randle was a 6/10 all game Johnson was a 3/10 all game, Creek a 5/10 all game, Sobey was 2/10 till half time, 4/10 third quarter and finally showed some form in the last 7.5/10.
Can't win big games playing like that. As mentioned else Drimic does remind you of Tomic, great for bits to the rediculously bad and temperamental.

Randle's wife behaviour was terrible and language that would make any soldier blush, then at the end to throw Chinese food over a lady who had done/said nothing was outrageous. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this goes legal.

Joey Wright hasn't got a good playoff record besides the purchased Brisbane title. I don't know how to explain it, he deserves the coy I loved the way they played for the most part of the season. But come playoff time I had absolutely no confidence in his ability to coach. He isn't a tactician has no ability to call timeouts when needed etc yet again I couldnt imagine that team doing as well under another coach. Perhaps he would be best as a lead assistant role.

By my count Joey Wright is now 2-7 in SF series, and 0-3 against Rob Beveridge.

Adelaide either have to get better at executing in the half-court at both ends or better at speeding up playoff games. Maybe a bit more Creek at PF could help both those areas?

Completely agree with most of what's been said in regards to Adelaide having a successful season. It's just a real shame that we went back to some old defensive habits that i thought we'd learnt from earlier in the year.

This might be a case of objectivity syndrome where you're prone to notice more flaws about your own team and be harsher on them because of that, but why do Adelaide continuously get burnt from the perimeter? I know it has a lot to do with Joey's defensive philosophy, but i just think it seems a little bit too easy for teams like The Hawks to keep knocking down casual three pointers. I know some of Clarke's shots were frustrating, but we really needed to do a better job defending shooters. Away teams get so confident when they get their flow going and it silences the crowd. Can someone help? Is it just the way Joey defends?

All credit to The Hawks though who somehow managed to sweep the home team aside without Ogilvy and being in serious foul trouble for most of the game.

Good season, but ultimately Adelaide weren't drilled well enough for those crunch games. Perth might not look pretty sometimes but their defence is going to win them another crown. Adelaide just have to learn again next season.

Aside from Adelaide United getting it done, us Adelaideans are a tortured group of people - there is definitely a choker mentality about Adelaide sides when it comes to finals.

Drmic was a block call, that's agreeable. I think how the NBL deals with flopping is a subject that will be discussed in the off-season.

If we want to stamp out flopping, then maybe we take the risk of an incorrect call having an unfortunate disproportionate effect on the game or the player.

Drmic will need to learn to avoid flopping and to react a little better when he feels screwed. That will come with experience. I think 36ers let themselves down this year in the category of "silly fouls", hopefully with development and experience we see less of these, particularly by Jacobsen/Hodgson if they return.

It's hard to be too disappointed given there were legitimate expectations of last place - the 36ers went far above and beyond I feel it would be greedy to be all that critical of Adelaide.

A tremendous season, an unexpectedly successful one and I don't think i've seen so many 36ers games live and in full since about 2005 - so that's a good thing!

The Drmic block was UNDOUBTEDLY the correct call. He was still moving very very clearly when Ellis hit him. Shows the immaturity when he reacted they way he did.

Well, at least we're incredibly consistent come finals time; 15 consecutive wasted seasons.

Congrats to Adelaide on a brilliant season, they played incredible basketball for much of it. A poor way to finish, but that often happens with inexperienced teams come playoffs.

An amazing season from Illawarra too. To lose Penney and Lisch and then make the GF in probably the toughest year in league history is quite remarkable.

Rat10, I have no sympathy for Drmic. He flopped in G2 as well and was warned from what I could tell from the broadcast. Needs to remove that from his game completely because it will be costly again in the future. Countless players in the NBL are capable of shooting a three and landing without falling backwards.

In a block/charge situation, I think it's often more subjective. For a corner three, you generally have a ref right there in position to judge - silly move.

The reason flops are penalised in game is because referees are unable and inept at distinguishing when a player flops ironically allowing them to penalise doesn't help, who knew!

Drimic was unlucky on the three yes, however het likely got a warning on the previous 3, it's NBL referees do you really want to tempt fate?

I'm not sure your refereed on reputation is accurate, Sobey is likely the largest flopper and always gets the calls so..

the second T was there, silly reaction, at a silly time by a silly player.

For some reason drimic reminds me of Bernad Tomic...

It looked like Clarke wanted to prove he was the better MVP in this league.

The Hawks are having a party(sorry Kings)the Hawks are having a party.The Kings sing this after a regular season win so hopefully Hawks can go all the way then the region of Wollongong can celebrate by having a massive party.

Sixers pulled a United and choked after winning the Minor Premiership lol.
Credit to the Hawks but laughing my ass off at the Sixers, made my morning.

The only penalty for flopping should be to leave the flopper on the floor to his earned disadvantage and let the game continue. Ignore him.The idea of giving the referees the power to adjudge intent and punish someone for momentarily dropping out of the game is just stupid.
They have enough trouble finding a level of acceptable competence with the simplest of calls without the burden of such punitive decisions. The referees struggle every game with lack of consistency and this has been the case all season win or lose! If a flop is to punished so harshly a physical unsportsmanlike foul should surely require instant ejection from the NBL for multiple games. Let the crowd deal with the floppers and get on with playing basketball.

As for the Sixers tonight was disappointing but the season generally has been the most entertaining and enjoyable for many years.

There has been so many wow! moments in so many games this season despite the limitations of budget..Every player has contributed. The style of a high scoring transition game.The development of such youth, the inclusion of young Terence, Sobey stepping up and bringing much of the team with him. What an exciting ally he has been with Jerome. Even in games we lost there has been great moments and all season they played in crunch times without fear. The maturity achieved by such youth this season has been amazing. Trolls can say what they like, the Sixers have stuck with the same team all season and done so well. The crowd numbers have increased dramatically and surely we are well placed to build into next season.

Thank you Sixers.


PS Thanks NBL for bringing us NBL TV this season. I have loved being able to support the Sixes in their away games. Thank You.

For a team that many picked to finish last the Sixers exceeded all expectations but when you finish first on the ladder with 4 games to go in the regular season, not making it past the first round and into a Grand Final is a major disappointment.

Full credit to the Hawks - they were able to settle in such a big game before the nervous Sixers and hit some massive shots when it mattered. I thought the Sixers would always be in trouble in Clarke fired as he'd been below par in the first 2 games. The law of averages won in this game.

Although it was such a tight season, I honestly thought that the Hawks were the second best team throughout the regular season and the worst match-up for Adelaide. If the Sixers had played better in those last 4 games and not tanked in Cairns they may well have avoided a match-up with the Hawks which I feel would have been to their advantage.

I need to talk about Drmic. He was refereed purely on reputation tonight. The refs obviously have reviewed tapes of him and earmarked him down as a "flopper". For most other players the three that he took where Hollyfield closed out too hard and didn't let him land would have been three shots. But because he has a reputation of being a flopper Hollyfield is deemed not to have fouled and Drmic simply "faked it". The commentators certainly thought it was a foul on Hollyfield. "You gotta be smarter than that if you're Hollyfield, you have to give him room to land" said Tommy Greer.

And then when he gets called for the block instead of the charge he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt either. Plenty of times in the NBL that call goes the other way. Should he have reacted the way he did? No. But he's not a robot and it's a high stakes emotional final. The refs need to give him some leeway. It's just a shame that the refs decided to make Drmic pay for his sins of the past in the biggest game of the season for the Sixers. I really hope this gives Drmic a wake-up call to eliminate this from his game next season so it doesn't come back to bite him and the Sixers when it really matters next season. I also hope the refs apply the flopping rule as harshly as they did tonight to Drmic to other notorious floppers in the league.

Furthermore I believe it's unnecessarily harsh that a player can get ejected in the NBL for a tech on a flop and another tech of any sort. Calling flops vs non-flops is so subjective. What one ref calls a flop another calls a foul. See Matt Knight flopping against Randle in Perth in their 1 point victory earlier this season. It's a clear flop if you're a Sixers fan and it's Knight moving his feet well and taking the charge if you're a Perth fan. You might argue that all techs are subjective but it's generally more clear cut if a tech is given for abuse or an over the top reaction. It's not clear cut if someone flops. Judging how hard someone has been hit and whether this is enough to knock them to the ground is not easy especially when you're trying to make the call at game pace speed. Witness how many times in the NBA the commentators will say "that's a flop" when the ref has called the offensive foul and there will be disagreement between Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen. Penalise someone with a tech if you want to discourage flopping but don't make it count towards ejections. The punishment doesn't fit the crime.

As a Sixers fan you still have to be very hopeful about the future. So long as the core can be kept together this team can do some damage. They'll be better for going through this experience. Replace Ferguson with an import that can contribute and the Sixers will be right up there again.

Kyrie2Nation turning on his team now that's GOLD.Great supporter of Adelaide you are.You haven't told me where Adelaide are going for there holiday.I told you where my team the Hawks are going and that is a Perth/Wollongong/Perth/Wollongong/Perth trip.

The kid was a grown woman. But I know nothing else about it. What I do know is that was a wasted season, and adelaide ended up back firing on themselves with the Ferguson experiment. Free player or not needed an extra hontobguy tonight and we didn't have it. One of the worst losses in the clubs history. Huge stakes and that's what was served up.

The owner of the Hawks was the person that reported on twitter that Randles wife threw sauce at a young hawks fan.I guess she had to pick on a kid which is about the same size as her hubby and talk about being DIRTY.It's a low act from a sore loser or was she unhappy that she couldn't sit on the Adelaide bench.

Could this be the Hawk's year? Now that Adelaide are out, I feel Hawks have been the most consistent team. It was also evident in this game that Bevo adapts well, and that his team has depth. Be fascinating to see whether the vaunted Perth Defence can contain the Hawks plethora of shooters.

At their best I feel Perth are superior, however I am less confident they can string those games together consistently? I think there's a good chance the Wildcats could ice this in 3 or 4 games. If it goes to 5 I'm not too sure.

So, although I usually like to wait until after the grand final for these types of posts, I though this was the more appropriate time to reflect on the following quote from my post in this thread merely 4 weeks ago:

https://www.hoops.com.au/forum/40745-wildcats-vs-united-28th-jan/#p621219

mmm.. If it's one thing non Perth fans haven't learnt yet, is that it's not over until the Trophy is hoisted.

I've been following this team for 33 years, and time and time again I see people write them off because they are playing like shit (which, incidentally they are right now). Yet time and time again I see them peak at the right end of the season while other teams (ala Adelaide this year and Melbourne last year) peak early and fall in a heap the moment the pressure is really on (yes, I'm aware that this may not eventuate for Adelaide yet - and good luck to them - unfortunately I live there now *sigh*).

...... I will revisit the above sentiments at the end of the season. Exactly the way I did when I was picked out by a Melbourne fan on twitter last year as a target of his attempted trolling while Melbourne was smashing everyone.

Illawarra with 66 of the 106 points off the bench....

Russell Hinder is clear to play in Townsville's next game after being cleared by the NBL Tribunal following a official complaint by the Cairns Taipans.

The NBL office received a formal complaint from the Taipans on Tuesday afternoon regarding an alleged elbow by Hinder to Cairns player Alex Loughton during the second quarter of the Taipans’ 81-74 loss to the Crocodiles at the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre on Sunday afternoon.

After viewing footage of the incident and speaking to match officials, it was determined that there were insufficient grounds to charge Hinder and he therefore had no case to answer.
Hinder is therefore free to play in Townsville’s next match.

Yeah. They're still searching for his heart and nuts.

Yeah i went searching it myself. Seems a couple of people said they witnessed martin helping to clean her up.

But you know... this is the internet so who knows

"Is that #saucegate incident true??"

Not sure, just saw it pop up on twitter from that guy, he seems like a fairly reliable source

Johnson stop stalking me on twitter you psychopath. Learn some proper grammar while you're at it.

Any news on AJ?

All the fouls committed by the Hawks worked in their favour, Adelaide couldn't get any flow going.

Is that #saucegate incident true??

How bad did Adelaide play, lost a game with 39 free throw attempts.

Still a very positive season for you guys.

Any Bevo coached team is a threat because he let's players fire at will, when it's dropping they can be unstoppable.

So Adelaide in the last few weeks was the Adelaide of the first few. Flirt with form and bound to end up where you started.

Well played Hawks. Shooting was white hot on the night and after our bigs played really good rotating defence in game one, they never got it right in this one. Clarke and Martin were able to get to the basket too easily and that is a recipe for disaster against a Hawks team who play the drive and kick game so well.

Sixers made some great runs in the second half and a lesser team would have faltered, but credit to Rotnei Clarke in particular, he hit two absolute killer threes to keep the Sixers at arms length (ironically exactly what he does to his defenders when he dribbles, but that's another story).

Disappointing to lose in the semis, but it was always on the cards for such a young team who had exceeded most people's expectations this season. Drmic was exhibit A. He looked like he was going to lead us home against the Hawks in that 3rd quarter, but he lost his cool and reacted and bam, night over. Needs to stop and realise he'd just been to the line twice in a row. Getting called for the block was no big deal. Just button your lip, earn the refs respect and go draw a foul down the other end!

I only have one more question about might have been... Majok Deng. Why didn't he get a crack in the 4th quarter when we were down big? He has proved he can drill the three, he's quick on defence so he can switch like a smaller player and he would have reduce the likelihood of the Hawks getting critical offensive rebounds.

I said to my mate earlier in the 4th, we will come home strong and fall short because we are too small and a couple of offensive boards will kill us! I recall 2-3 Oscar Forman boards where he just used his height to pluck the ball from Teys/ Ferguson. One of those Oscar boards led directly to the second 3 by Clarke that sealed the game for the Hawks. Deng would've been worth a crack in my book!

My final comment is "chin up Sixers fans". As long as management keeps the Aussie core of DJ, Creek, Sobey, Drmic, Hodgson and Deng around, the future is very bright for this team.

Huh, so that happened.

Neat!

The changing of nets screwed Adelaide tonight. Can't believe the venue changed em. It just threw the Sixers, you could tell

Still wouldn't have helped. Hawks foul the shit out them, they cant make free throws and they wonder why they lose. Serious choke in front of their home crowd.

Hey Kyrie2Nation,you said for the Hawks to enjoy there holiday.I think the Hawks are going to Perth/The Gong/Perth again/back to the Gong/back to Perth so it must be a travelling holiday but i was wondering where is Adelaide going for there trip away.They can plan that now i guess but Mad Monday first or is it FREE THROW practice.

@JamesSpenceley on Twitter

"Class @jerome_randle wife threw sauce over a little @illawarrahawks fan after they lost. Who's dirty ? @Adelaide36ers #hawkheads #NBL17"

I was shocked when i heard the result.What a season of upsets its been.

Bevo and the hawks must be brimming with confidence having already won in perth this season. Will be a very interesting gf series

Don't know what to say really. Very unexpected.
Lack of defence?

Suck it Adelaide. You arrogant twats didn't deserve to make the Grand Final.

Randle's one man team was always going to falter come the playoffs.

The trolling in this thread aside,

I tipped the Hawks because they're a good matchup against Adelaide, I think they are our bogey side. It happens. I like pulling Spurs references out and here's another - I've watched my 1st place Spurs lose a first round playoffs series against 8th placed Memphis. Sometimes matchups suck for a team.

It's important to remember the 36ers are a 22 year olds average brigade with virtually zero finals experience. Going missing or being powerless in the big moments is what happens and it is part of the development. This is probably a point more to the 36ers fans with a view to hopefully going further next season now that some experience has been notchedup.

To the game itself, where were the 4th q sixers in the prev quarters?

The hawks are such a good side, their offensive movement and chemistry is great to watch. Full credit to them!

For Drmic, well he was probably fouled a little on that three - it feels like a double whammy when you get T'd up. The problem is, when you flop consistently you open yourself up to a "boy who cried wolf" situation. If you try to con the refs all the time and it comes to hurt, you have to cop it because it is probably deserved.

The second T, well I don't know what he said or if there was a prior warning but in a finals game the ref shouldn't have called that. Again though, why open yourself up to the potential of a ref T when you already on one? Silly inexperience.

Randle wasn't sharp but he will be the biggest challenge this offseason - convincing him to return! Sobey, hope he doesn't leave for euro he will be a big player for us next season as well. Shame he didn't quite have it going either.