Correct - Fox game = 7pm start.

Similar story with the Bullets game on Feb 2 - will now be on Fox, so starts at 7pm instead of 8pm.

Here's my game preview for those interested.

Kings are clear favourites on Centrebet with a line of -9.0 on the road. Short of a Kings implosion (at the Dome, you never know!), I think this will be a close loss for Adelaide of about 8-12 points, but I'm quietly hopeful that they get the upset just to piss off Kings fans.

36ers paying $4.95 for those who reckon there could be an upset.

cmon sixers... maher sixth man start Ng & Davidson?

ritz maher will start.

Cmon Chappell to shine.

davo and ng to continue there form chappell to score 8pts 6 in the first and kings by 8 with copeland being relied on due to chappells lack of form

Crowd 3,800. Chappell with 16 points (has consistently got shots up from outside this season and just needs to have a good night and hit 4/6 plus a couple of baskets inside to get there).

Just can't see us being able to limit Worthington and Saville enough. Have got Crosswhite and Hinder covered, and our guards are good enough, but in between might be problematic.

Can't make the game tonight (Have our Xmas show on), was one of the games I would have wished to have seen to see where we are at against the top side.

Hopefully with a big-in in Maher, we will take it to the Kings and play some attacking basketball that we took to the Pigs last weekend.

I reckon we will cause an upset and scrape home by 5 pts (here's to hoping anyway!)

Crowd: 4097

My Predictions for this evening

#1 - Sixers to get up by 5 in a tight affair

#2 - Goorjians head to get confused with his ass 4 times!

Look for the Big Banner in the East...

COME ON SIXERS

Ng and Burdon played well without Maher, so that's gonna be interesting to watch, and to see if Chappell fires. Maybe sixers by two. Crowd = 4143.

Do you think Maher will start, or come off the bench?

Sixers by 7.

Crowd 3927.

Reckon they will start Maher, reason being he was fit enough to play last week, and they just held him off for one more week.

where is there a TAB near the Dome??

Given the start they had last week without Maher, they would definitely be considering bringing off the bench.

Another question, will they start with the straight up zone as per last week? It worked wonders last week, but Sydney shot the lights out during the week from the 3 point line, and have played Adelaides zones well in the past. Will Adelaide be able to get the ball inside against the Sydney man to man?

I would bring Maher off the bench at the 4 minute mark. That will allow easier change of tactics if required, and will bring an extra crowd cheer into it.

Is it just me, or does the crowd seem flat tonight? (watching on fox)

Very nice 2 hand stuff off the dribble by Chappell, then a pretty big block on the break by him as well!!

Kings 24 - 18 at the 1/4.

Adelaide 1/14 3 pointers, Sydney 8/16

Adelaide has been missing shots they needed to get, Dench missed an open three by about two feet. Cooper our big scorer -_-

56 / 32 Kings at the half.

Sixers really do not know how to use a big man....sigh...

Ballinger and Mottram just get no looks. But we have taken a million 3's and hit about 4.

1/14...pfft pathetic shooting, lot have rattled out.

Sydney must have bought their own ring from home..

mark brad-ke-lee is making me miss John Casey....my god what a kok knoker!

just waiting for the Phil excuses and Phil lovers to tell us how this was someone elses fault... bullshit excuses like "we missed our shots blah blah blah...."

49 points in total and half way through the third.

Sydney are teaching us how to play simple, disciplined, team focused basketball in our own damn house....

8 point run, 37 - 20 3rd 1/4..

We are down 16.

Hard to cheer for THAT, however, bit of momentum...

COME ON SIXERS!!

Jesus, HUGE bally dunk.

Massive dunk!

Go Ballinger...we were down 30...blah...coming back a bit though...

78 - 89 8 mins to go.
Wortho just got his first field goal, Lanard massive 3!

Motts grabs an air ball, puts it in, and 1!

Shot good, 81 - 89!

Motts to the line, Sixers 10 - 0 run!

1 good, 84 - 89, 6 to go.

2.10 to go

36ers down by 13 :(

Apparently Motts is playing for the Razorbacks in this one if NBL live scores are to be believed.

1 minute left

36ers down by 11

sigh :(

After being down 30 they definately had a shot at the 'W'.....

Highlights of the game....

Ballinger's dunk... awesome, but second behind Davidson putting Hinder on his arse.

Should of never been 30 behind to begin with... not in our own damn house... why do we have to be down 30 before they start playing proper basketball???

lol TR, was good, he did not even look at him either..ha ha.

Ballinger's dunk was good, Ng is getting so good, now that he is finishing up, and Motts is very good for the times he is on.

Was great to see a bit of heart, even if Sydney took their foot off of the gas..

No W, but a little bit of respect in the way that they lost.

dench, chappell and phil to go......

I heard Mickan talking on the radio after leaving the game tonight. She said that we had come from being down 24. Well we were 30 down, cannot believe how someone can make a mistake like that. She is absolutely terrible and the ABC must get someone else, it's embarrassing.
Could not agree more with the observation of Anon, Smyth bringing Chappell back on when we had got it back to single figures, What the hell is that bloke thinking! And I must have been at a different game last week, obviously Burdon did not do enough to even get on court tonight.
Just how much longer do we have to put up with Chappell, for crying out loud, he would surely now have to be the worst import the club has ever had. But Smyth still gives him far more minutes than what he warrants. If we can't get rid of him, just leave him on the bench, the nett result would be better.

"another game lost by the coach.
Stayed in the zone too long."

Wow I must have been at a different game, I saw a team that at half time had shot ONLY 6% threes and 24% otherwise against Sydney who were shooting 54% from threes and 49% otherwise.

Thats PATHETIC, but obviously Smyth was shooting them, so it must be his fault...or could it possibly be that the players were the ones that missed them.....

Sydney got a few open shots, but they were on fire tonight, all of their players were hitting shots form anywhere regardless of how heavily they were defended. While at the other end Ng continuously missed open shots, Chappell missed a couple and even Maher missed 2 in a row.

Our poor shooting in the first and second quarter lost us the game tonight. Shoot like we did in the second half and we would have won.

Good Game by Mottram and Cooper, those 2 have really stepped up in the last few weeks. Possible the competition for Cooper for more minutes has really spurred him on, Mottram aswell. Loving their efforts though!

And what about the decision to bench Ballinger for most of the second quarter? Whose fault was that?

Nah... abc123 fiddled with the rings prior to the game, hence why the boys were shooting like crap...

The way I saw that game was that Sydney had finished the game so early in the game that it wasn't even a contest. When they reached this point Sydney had basically their entire bench on and even these players were in second gear! It was an absolute joke up to this point. Then it seemed that the game totally changed because it was way too easy for Sydney as it wasn't even a competition. Then it was like a shock for the Sydney players that Adelaide was back in the game and they started to shoot terribly and/or take bad shots. On the other hand Adelaide seemed to hit every thing. So at the end of the day Smyth can say that it was such a close contest and that we were right back in the game and everyone will believe that! He will say if we played like we did in the second half the whole game then we could have easily won that which is rubbish! The only reason we started to play like that was because Sydney turned off! The reality is it should have never been a contest! Maybe I shouldn't be so negative and see it as a positive that we came back and had a chance to beat the top team!!! but sorry I like to face reality and know that the reason we came back is only because Sydney totally shut off due to us not even being competitive. I would have rather lost by 20 and been competitive the whole game then lose by the amount we did the way we did!!

Some of Smyths great coaching moments of the night was:

Continue in the Zone for way too long once Sydney had worked out how to beat it (I think it took them 5 minutes before it was a 18-8 lead).

In the second quarter when we where still in it (only down by 10 odd) we decided to go with 3 smalls (Maher, Davidson and NG) and one of them had to match up with Saville who absolutely destroyed us in the second quarter (Does anyone know how many he got in that quarter). GAME OVER

During the second quarter the time outs where too late and in the time out they should have switched to a Man to man (Funny how in the last quarter when we were in the contest we had a great man to man defense going).

Finally, when we were still in the game with about 7-6 minutes to go we decide to sub Mottram out for cooper after Mottram was doing really well. GAME OVER. I'm sorry but Mottram should have stayed in! Lets say Smyth has half a bball knowledgeable brain (which i doubt) and the reason he subbed him out was to rest him then bring him back later, that is fine BUT these are professional atheletes and we have already played lots of games this season so they should be able to run out the last 12 minutes of the game (Especially since he hadn't played most the game prior to that!). I think the deal with Mottram is if his offensive game is going well like it was tonight LEAVE him out there! If he cant contribute on offense then fine put Cooper in!

Also I'm sorry but Chappell I know u have been given a crap coach to work for but its time to go! I actually dont think i have seen an import whose shots are almost all look like going in but don't! It is probably half a confidence thing I understand that but still its time to go Chappell. We need something different! Ill be happy with someone that comes in and grabs 10-15 rebounds a game, plus is intimidating inside and scores 5 points a game rather then what he is giving us. That Athletic import from the hawks that got sacked would be a better replacement!

Thanks King James, spot on as usual.

rotations didnt seem to work too well and people got subbed out just as they were starting to play ok. ballinger looked a bit perplexed as he had hust scored the last 6 or 7 points then got subbed out.
Chappells and ballingers dunks definately made the night for me. for all the criticism of chappelle i fell he should get the opportunity to play 40 mins and really earn his money and either show us what hes got or leave it at that as he has the good just needs to put it together as we all know. He gets subbed out for lenard way to often just as he is looking to get into the game. then lenard turns it over at the most crucial time in the game.

personally a few calls our way and the result could have been different.

but credit to sydney they shot the lights out in the first half. they just didnt miss even with what i thought was pretty good d althought they should have switched it a few times from standard zone to 2-3 zone to man, even 1 and 4 may have changed it up a bit but only when draper wasnt on the court as he is a decent penetrator.

dissapointed with the result but overall came out entertained and enjoyed the game. they definately showed some heart.

Brett maher is an absolute star. some of the shots he made tonight were great as usuall.

Taking off Mottram and Davidson when we were within 6 in that final quarter was unforgiveable by Smyth. I remember shouting at him when that move was made. Davidson is one of the fittest guys in the league and even if he did need a rest, Phil had Timeouts to burn so why not use one of those to give them a break? Very poor rotation by the coach did nothing to help us get the win tonight IMO

agree igotmadskills give chappell some minutes. i no the situation and all but the reason he isnt putting a whole game together is because when he does something fantastic he gets taken off!. Tonite is dunk and rejection were insain. shows glimpes and thats my opinion why. give him that one chance, he wasnt our worse player tonite!.

I'm going to lay the blame for this one squarely on Mike Chappell. No, f*ck that, I'm going to call him Mike Adcock. He doesn't deserve to have the same name as a DECENT cricketer.

Davidson was super solid. Maher played well in his first game back. Ng's hustle and effort can never be questioned, and this is the guy who has the LEAST riding on these games. Once he's done with basketball he'll have a great career as a Doctor. Ballinger's 2nd half was fantastic, after he spent most of the first half on the bench (God knows why!?). Mottram was excellent in limited minutes, and Cooper was rock solid. We won or were competitive in every position on the floor except... drum roll... SMALL FORWARD. Once again our useless, pathetic, lame, has-been, impotent,... import produced a 6 point, 2 for 10 game. He got a nice dunk. So what? He also clunked ALL of his jump shots, and that is with no one on him. He can't even make a shot in warm up. Tonight, his 42 year old backup couldn't bail his ass out. Chappell must go. Though maybe keeping him around for one more week gives us an opportunity to "bring a mate" to the Slingers game to see THE WORST import in our once proud club's history.

Where the frigging hell was Erik Burdon? Squid is right, he was instrumental in last week's win and tonight, DNP-CD. Great call Phil. Just like putting Chappell back on when we had got back to 84-89. What happened? 84-96.

Nice shot on Axel Dench! It missed by about 3 feet.

Sydney was fantastic in the first half but really did come to a grinding hault and gave us EVERY chance to get back in the game. That said, they were up by as much as 30 in OUR building, 48 hours after PLAYING IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. My God BJ Carter shoots the ball well. The Kings ball movement in the first half against our shithouse zone was magnificent. And, they made the big plays down the stretch when they needed to.

So, 6-9, with Singapore here next week, then four games on the road, two of which are at Melbourne and Sydney.

7-13 anyone?

This was the first game I have seen live this season because I have been overseas up until now, but a few things were apparently clear. I guess its hard to make any informed comment until you have actually seen it for your own eyes so I was relying on what others had said in previous game threads. Do not be fooled by the score line in this game, Sydney had our number.

IMHO Chappel is gone, I think his manner on the bench in the game sorted of hinted at it. He looked down and probably knows his fate. He has no confidence when he is playing, he fumbled while trying to catch the ball, looked uncertain when handling the ball, lack of leading for the ball, had no confidence in his shot what so ever and generally was a step behind the play. His defense was also bad, I don't recall him blocking out for rebounds, and he is not quick enough to play a good man on man defense nor to fight his way around screens. We played better when he was not on the court.

The coaching was frustrating, the substitutions were down right confusing. Some players were coming on and off so regularly that they never had a chance to settle in the game. Mottram was playing well, not only was he scoring but he was setting solid screens, moving well, and making a presence. The lack of time outs especially in the first half was disturbing, I actually don't know if more than one was called by the 36ers. When the Kings were on one of their many runs, a time out would have been good to just try stop the momentum if nothing else. It just didn't happen. Neither was a change made when we were struggling to bring the ball up the half court or create a fluent offense instead of just chucking up a ridiculous amount of long range low percentage shots. At times it was just mind boggling.

I thought Davidson, Ng, Maher, Mottram and Ballinger all played reasonably well. The only reason we managed to cut the lead down a bit was because of Ballinger going on a tear, I think at one stage he scored either 6 or 9 consecutive points which got the crowd going a bit.. because beforehand it was dead.. (I have never seen anything like it at the Dome and thats including last years AND1 tour). Ng has grown in confidence since last time I saw him play and his speed could be very useful if used right! Davidson was really good, he's a fiesty bugger and never seemed to give up.

I guess thats my little rant out the way, look forward to seeing what others thought. Does anyone have an official crowd number? It looked very low..

TC, I don't know what the crowd number was but we count it wrong every week. Chappell is always a spectator, so the count is always out by one.

igotmadskills, I hope you were being sarcastic when you said that Chappel should be getting 40 minutes..

I think he means 40 minutes to pack his shit, and get out of Adelaide.

Any idea what Smith was whinging about the whole game? Was it the floor wipers?

Mutley your pathetic

Mottram had to keep getting subbed out because he had diarea, he spent all of the last 24 hours on a toilet or in bed.

stayed in the zone way too long, get Scotty Ninnis back as assistant now, he never would have let that happened.

Smith has lost a step, no make that two in the last 12 months, he can still shoot but is Sydney's weakness in the Goorjian man to man defence.

Chappell has got to go, we got nothing from the mobile forward spot tonight and it was amazing that we got back into the game without any contribution from a small forward.

Mottram had gastro, hence the limited minutes. Played a great game considering. I swear by coincidence players who've just scored get subbed out. Crowd was just under 4,200 I think which is better than I expected. Looked small but got loud!

Very telling that Ng was on at the end instead of Chappell.

62 posts here, and ive only just got in from a night out, and cant be bothered reading through them all. In my opinion, Chappell is gone (no surprise), but with that comeback which made me lose my voice, shows Smyth is a shocking coach as of 07/08. The comeback came due to Brad Davidson and his amazing desire to never give in, no tactics here, no set plays run by Smyth, just pure determination. Proves this team has the capabilities to outscore the number 1 team in the country by 25!!!! Yet Philly cant get the on any kind of roll.

I took a friend who had never been before, and she made the comment, 'why does the coach keep taking players out who score?'....'He has no &(*^&*%&$%^## clue is why' I was forced to reply. Unless Ballinger, Maher or Davidson call there own sub, i wouldnt even consider them coming off!!!! I cant wait for you to be gone Phil Smyth, you got very very lucky with the player personel you got to work with during the 36ers dynasty.

Truly great coaches can make good of any situation....Phil Jackson ring a bell?

Biggest gripe of the night watching on Fox... Phil's rotation... Putrid, disgusting and totally crap. He must shake a magic 8 ball to decide if a player remains on the court or is subbed.

I said it earlier and the player I was most impressed with was Davidson. I liked the way he put Hinder on his arse. I haven't seen that in an Adelaide player in years.. Screw the foul, this bloke is going to earn that screen. The only player we have with a set of hard nuts. Ballinger is a stud, we need to lock him up until he becomes an Aussie and then further lock him up.

I also think we will be 7-13 in five weeks.

TR, try saying my name right.

I was referring to your evil twin... the ring tamperer...

Second look at the game this morning and have to congratulate Mottram on his game - quality on another night but especially brilliant considering the gastro. I bet on Adelaide thinking they might cause an upset and have to wonder if they could've got there with a different import at SF. Yes, it gets boring saying that but there is no point handicapping the team when you can improve it.

Offenses do not shoot 3 pointers at > 50%. Defences let offenses shoot 3 pointers at > 50%.

Zone against Sydney for half the game? I said to my brother 2 minutes in (whilst the zone was still looking fresh) that we would get slaughtered if we kept it up against the best drilled 3 point shooting team in the comp. Game over. Thanks Smyth. If I can see it, why can't you???

Props to the team for working their guts out in the second half to make it look respectable.

working their guts out

Smyth, piss off! And take Chappell with you! Come on man, surely you know you you have run your race. No more salary cap rorts to bail you out this time buddy. Take your sorry ass somewhere else, please, for the respect of the organisation and the great fans!

Help,

I'm thinking you should show a little more respect for the General. I'm not saying that he shouldn't be given his marching orders at the end of the year but he was once one of our top players who gave a lot to the franchise as a player and if i recall could have signed with Perth a while back to coach.

If Mark Davis or Brett Maher were our coach in the same situation would he hammer them down so hard too? I just hate it when kids post on here.

Smyth will probably go at years end and i'd imagine Chappel will follow but lowering standards to some of these posts is just rediculous...

agre phil is the general and should be able to make decision in his own time - down by thirty and nearly jag a win come on things arent that far away
let the boys gel and let them get some time on the track

About 4-6 weeks?

On Motts great effort, he spoke post-game up at Apollo about the efforts he has to go to to get up for games as he has one leg shorter than the other. I have been curious why he hasn't been playing more than 20 mpg all season (foul position notwithstanding). It seems that his body just can't take any more. However Motts still keeps putting together great valuable contributions in limited time.