Hoops

SF2v3 Game 1: 36ers vs Wildcats, March 3

Sixers got a lame duck opponent and should make the most of it. If it goes to a Game 3 they aren't winning the GF with no home advantage vs. Utd.

I just have this sneaky feeling the Cats might get away with a bit. But even so Adelaide will be good enough if they give it their best.

I'll be interested to see how the refs go in the next game. Will the home crowd be able to coax them around enough to benefit their cause? Keep making the calls and don't put your wistles away because the fans (and Gleeson) are whining! Really keen to see another fast paced, exciting game rather than a slow, low scoring slog.

Adelaide are young and fresh. Perth are the polar opposite - old and cooked.

Yep. Force them to play defense and keep up. Great game style to watch. No boring slow down tactics.

Wildcats fans complaining of Sixers getting soft fouls need to notice the terrible defensive techniques from Perth players. Tokoto might have hardly touched Sobey, but Tokoto has his arms down in a bad position and from view of ref it looks like he pushes him so the ref calls it. Too many times the Perth players are beaten by the speed and athleticism of Sixers and come from the side in poor defensive positions so the refs call the soft fouls.

And frankly if they limited themselves to players without weaknesses they'd never sign anyone.

Perth have done reasonably well with Tokoto considering they had to find someone at the 11th hour after Devondrick Walker went down injured in the pre-season.

“Yet the Wildcats didn't research this. Poor management.”

What point do you think you’re making here?

How much were the tickets?

Yet the Wildcats didn't research this. Poor management.

Read articles on Tokoto when he was in college.

Even his pop’s highlighted “mental toughness” as an area he would have to work on at a pro level.

Tokoto has got all the tools to be a star but something ain’t right upstairs. I don’t mean he is a headcase like Creek has been up until a year ago, more like his confidence is down. I don’t mind his midrange jumpers but if he settles for those instead of attacking the rim then the entire offence suffers. Its like watching Deandre Daniels all over again.

It was a great game to be at as an Adelaide fan last night. It was an electric atmosphere and a big crowd which was good to see for a semi final, especially considering it was competing with the fringe, Adelaide 500 and in the past few seasons, semi finals have often seen a dip in crowd numbers. I took a mate along to the game and he absolutely loved it so congrats to the 6ers on a good game night presentation also.

It was obviously a great team performance by the Sixers with numerous players stepping up at different points throughout the game. The team was in the right mindset and in attack mode from the opening tip and never let up for the whole game.

Perth played a reasonable first half though with Damien Martin and Cotton making some huge plays to keep their team in the game. It was interesting to watch Tokoto, he has shown he can be a good player in this league but he was taken off the court quite early in the first quarter - it seemed as though Gleeson was frustrated at him as on a few possessions he took quick shots which led to the Sixers getting easy buckets on the break. After this point, he just never got back into the game. It seems as though Gleeson’s coaching and Perth’s lineup isn’t quite the right set up for his skill set. I was actually surprised Perth weren’t able to slow the pace down a lot more and make it into a half court slugfest. Part of this was poor coaching on Gleeson’s part where he tried to run a full court press multiple times which failed and led to more fast break points for the Sixers and the crowd becoming more enthused. Heal also thought this was a terrible tactic as he mentioned on the telecast.

Hopefully the Sixers can get this done in two and avoid a repeat of last year. It would be very satisfying to wave goodbye to the Cats on their home floor.

Ramome Moore's shot on half time buzzer .. a spark...
although we couldn't score against a zone ...then sobey got three threes in a minute and deng got six rebounds in 7 mins.... besides the starters all got big scores..

.. just copy and paste ....perth loose every game due to refs...

BAN about a third of the way through the season and nothing has changed

Lots of a deserved questions about Tokotos mental toughness.

Not enough questions about how terrible Brandt has been.

"how is it possible to regress as much as Tokoto has this season? He looks like s a scrub bench player right now?"

Gleeson. He lost Tokoto and the team. Exposed and by 35! Beginning of the end, bye bye!

Perth got their pants pulled down tonight. Be interested to see how they perform at home now.

Tokoto Played like a man offered a big pay day contract if only he is free in 2 weeks time.

Cotton is fine. He's not selfish, he's just not good enough to win games on his own (basically because no one is) and he doesn't have enough help on the court. Those rare times we have other guys contributing and we look like a functional unit, Cotton is a pretty efficient player.
As KR mentioned though, if he's earning so much that we can't afford quality pieces to put around him then it's hard to justify him.
We've lost a lot of alpha scoring types in the last couple of seasons (Jawai, Knight, Redhage, Prather) and simply have not replaced them with enough.
Our strength was always our local talent. Today we rely almost completely on 2 imports, one of whom apparently checked out a while ago.

No more role player centres totally inept on offence. This is not a development league when imports are on 1 year contracts

Cotton may get assists, but that doesn't automatically mean he moves the ball and keeps everyone engaged and happy

*Jack-of-all-trades kinda guys who keep the ball moving and the team humming with everyone engaged and happy

Cotton is a weird one... he's most dominant when he's most ball-dominant. Hard to say this with absolute conviction, and it's a sweeping generalisation, but imo as the game of basketball develops over time, it is becoming more team-oriented. Defences are more able than ever to shut down a team with just one or two studs, so ball-dominant guys are less likely to single-handedly win games. Is Cotton the kind of guy (a one-dimensional, ball-dominant guy) to spearhead a dynasty? I don't know.

I see those like Casper, Creek, Lisch as better players because they're jack-of-all-trades kinda guys

Zodiac, surely you're not that simple.

Did you actually read what I said? It's more of a preview based on things we know now. I didn't talk about the 4-0 or the 1 seed, I talked about styles

Why get rid of Cotton? You just need to get him more help.

So you're saying you think the #1 team in the league are better than the #2 team in the league? Big call that.

Melb have had our number this season beating us 4-0 but 3 of those 4 wins were pretty early in the season when we were playing crappy. The last one we almost snatched in Melb but got some dodgy calls right at the end.

Whoever put in less than the proverbial 110% should also be fired. Tokoto won’t be offered a contract next year hopefully, Walker’s Cinderella story ended up with him turning in to a pumpkin, and Wagstaff should probably look at giving the game away if he can’t be bothered trying.

Plus, Melbourne did a good job of hawking the NZ defensive rebounders to slow the outlet pass. In saying that, obviously Adelaide have the likes of Creek, Sobey, Childress who can rebound and run the break

I've been saying it all year and I won't change my tune... Adelaide isn't as impressive as they look. They just dominate matchups.

In my opinion, the only team with an offence well balanced enough -- and frugal enough -- to slow Adelaide is Melbourne. United has an offence so balanced that they can't really be taken out of what they want to do. They'll score on you from almost any angle, so if they want to slow Adelaide they'll gear their offence to do so.

Once it gets to half-court, it's Adelaide on the ropes. All they get in the half-court is Johnson post-ups, basket cuts and offensive rebounds. Melbourne is super adept at covering cuts and cleaning the defensive glass, and their defence is underpinned by loading (from what I've seen when I've actually paid attention) so there will be help for Johnson's man.

Shaping up as a fun grand final series

Great game by Adelaide. You cannot say the refs had an influence on the result and be of sane mind. Adelaide have an excellent gamestyle, go very deep on the bench and never stop coming at the opposition. I can’t see Perth winning the series, even if they get game 2 they have to backup less than 48hrs later in Adelaide and don’t have the depth or the run to pull it off.
Stating the obvious but Adelaide will win this series, the only question is whether it’s in 2 or 3 games.

Joey press conference, I saw a smile!

The important part is that they dominated.

For me, Tokoto's game is 80% physical ability and 20% skill. I think that's been consistent with him since his freshman year of college.

Cats going full Hawthorn. Dominated for so long then the decline begins

1 down, 3 to go

Lost to North Melbourne 165-110 in game three of the 1989 semi finals.

1 down, 3 to go

1 down, 3 to go

I'm with Btown. I don't think Tokoto lacks ability at all. His issues are all upstairs.

Zodiac: Lost to North Melbourne 165-110 in game three of the 1989 semi finals.

Fkn OUCH!

Remember back when the Cats were a good defensive team? Ahh... good times they were.
That was a title-worthy team I just watched. GF series could be a good one.

Surely Perth's biggest ever loss in the playoffs?

Regarding JP Tokoto; I'd say teams such as ADL have done heaps of scouting on him having had the benefit of watching him for the entire season, are able to defend him a lot better.

Interestingly, whilst JP did go to a big College, his numbers from Sophomore to Junior year actually dropped even though he was playing more minutes;

Personally I think they are two types of players/scorers; (1) players who can bust any offense and can adapt anytime to new defensive strategies (i.e. scouting is not effective); and (2) players who have a much more set offensive style and who can be rendered much less effective with good scouting (i.e. once you take them away from their modes of scoring, they struggle to adapt).

Tokoto is more of the second type IMO.

"Clint Steindl is the worst player in the NBL"

No, he's not even the worst player on the Cats roster

Were Perth actually trying this evening?

that the cats done for the year. shouldnt have replaced matty knight with a guard.

Im a cats fan.

Someone start a fight

Clint Steindl is the worst player in the NBL