Hoops

Pirates batter weary Sixers in Adelaide

XY
Don't go into shock but I agree 100% on your comments about Hill. His style of play does nothing for me also. For his age, he is a great player but far too inexperienced at NBL level to take on as much as he does. He has to be more of a team player and not try to do everything himself when he has the ball for the glory of scoring another 2 points. He continually drives himself into trouble to get to the hoop and gets the ball taken off him. He needs to stop just short of that happening and pass off the ball. He has to learn to play as part of a team.

Farley, Rychart & Forman. I didn't see the Wollongong game on Friday night but with the style of play Wollongong plays and the fact that the Sixers did so well in that game suggested that they also would have been playing a very physical and intense game. This would have aggravated any injuries already there. No doubt they saved their most physical performance for that game expecting that the next night would be a push over against the Pirates. The Pirates were much fresher and it went in their favour.

As far as a happy team goes, 3 losses in a row would have contributed to their happiness levels.

I don't know what sort of committment to the sport other team players have, but most of the Sixers have been playing continuously for atleast the last 15 months with barely 2 weeks off. It does not give you a decent enough break to heal injuries. I know that I don't perform too well when I'm sick. I don't think anyone does. It would be nice if they only played for the Sixers but then it would be nice if we could pay them a decent enough salary to be able to say that you can't take other contracts in between.

Anonymous, I would rather respond to someone who has the courtesy of identifying him/herself by something a little more meaningful than Anonymous. However I will respond by saying I was very disappointed with last night's game. The effort level looked to be almost non existent. The team is definitely in a slump at the moment. Hopefully its only temprorarily and they can pull out of it pretty quick. Let's not forget though, the fat lady hasn't sung yet. Let's also not forget that three of the major players are currently carrying injuries.

I'll start by saying that I thought Hunter played exceptionally well, and that the due criticism that will be directed Adelaide's way should in no way subtract from that.

That said, last night was one of the worst losses in the club's history. Adelaide has now lost three in a row, seven of their last ten, and the gravity of our blowout losses has meant that despite a 15-8 record we have actually been outscored overall this season.

Adelaide needed to win last night to stop a slump and was facing an average at best road team missing its leading scorer and best bench player. There is no excuse for not winning this game. Yet, we committed five turnovers in the first six possessions, never even bothered to address Gordie Cullen defensively, left Aaron Trahair wide open ALL NIGHT, and restricted the one Adelaide player who was a factor all game (Brad Hill) to just 12:32 playing time. A despicable performance from Phil Smyth.

Willie Farley needs a rocket up his arse at the moment. Dusty had what I though was a very solid and effective game, though it would be nice to see him play 38-42 minutes instead of 30-32. David Cooper has been terrible for the last two months. Oscar had a rare shocker, though this was due in part to his having to play the 4 and 5 instead of the 3, where he plays his best basketball facing the bucket. Jacob Holmes was brilliant, and Smyth has to get out of this habbit of leaving him out of the game for 5,6,7 minutes at a time. Mark Nash moved well without the ball, and Brett Maher was rock solid.

Trahair then Davidson embarassed Farley, and Russell Hinder was efficient and deadly from the perimeter.

Interestingly enough in the last quarter when Adelaide scored back to back baskets to cut it to 97-83, Adrian Hurley actually called a timeout. This allowed Hunter to maitain its control of the game, and they executed flawlessly in the final 8 minutes of the game, despite a furious charge from Adelaide. A lesson for Phil Smyth here I think.

We now have Melbourne then Sydney on the road and I haven't seen anything that suggests to me that we will win either of these games.

It will be interesting to see what Boti Nagy has to say about last night, whether it will be an honest article or the typical Phil Smyth mouthpiece effort.