Luke missed training , early in the week. Flu , I think they said. Will play, but one imagines that fri and sat games, with a bitta flu , on monday , maybe not quite at his best.

Should not walk out of QLD with less than 1-1 from this roadtrip. You'd expect them to top Cairns and have more trouble with Townsville, but I reckon 2-0 is on the cards - Crocs don't really have that much size to throw at Luke.

Hopefully the Sixers retain focus and hustle tonight. Too often they've come through when it's backs to the wall and then stumbled when the pressure is off slightly.

I'd like to see the front court use Cat's comments re: utilisation of our big men as fuel. Likewise, I'm sure Cairns is impressed Cat has announced he's headed west next year after four years with the Taipans (unsurprisingly).

Love to see the guys keep the intensity high and come home 2-0. As mentioned, I hope the Breakers took it out of the Crocs last night.

We have the depth to get both of these - let's keep the momentum we've generated.


Sixers by 15 over Cairns.
Sixers by 6 over Crocs.

Is it just me, or do we have a lot of options for offense? Ballinger, Grizzard and Maher all have very good mid range jump shots. Maher, Ballinger, Davidson and to a lesser extent Bruce can all hit the 3 ball consistently. Luke provides inside scoring and there's also Grizzard and Hill to take the ball inside and try to draw the foul - Grizzard is a very good free throw shooter.

The only real concern I have is our defence. We gave up way too many open shots against Cairns and they knocked the shots down, in the first half anyway. Adelaide seems to have a 'collapse' defense for lack of a better word, where they can guard the lane effectively (most times) by falling back to the lane, but they are inconsistent in getting out to contest the open shot.

It's the high post screens that concern me. The pick and rolls / extra pass to the shooter on the 45' or baseline seem to kill us. We just don't get a hand (unless Mahersy is in uber-hustle mode).

Winitana has improved our effectiveness there, but previously, our rotation in that regard wasn't the best. Too many open looks from basic picks.

Yeah I've noticed that too Loco. There was a horrible one a few games ago where Bruce got completely lost behind the high post screen and the offense drained a wide open jump shot. Bruce has improved a lot recently, but as a team it's still of concern. Winitana is very court aware so I think he's a good option for perimeter defence - he's always looking for the steal too which can help force some bad passes.

Even at home the Taipans havent got the plyrs left to be competitive espec with Darnell a shadow of his former self and Cat not able these days to be consistent scorer.
Just hope we have done a bit of work on our D as they really opened us up in 1st qtr last sat.
Hopefully get control of game and give the grizz plenty of court time ready for Crocs match.
Really confident the grizz will be a nice fit for our team can do diff. roles and scoring options without messing up the confidence of Davo . Hill.Jacob etc. Hope he can add a little to our defensive intensity. Will put us in nice posistion if win both.

Darnell did look like a shadow of his former self when then played at the Dome last game.
Huge gap between that game and the previous game at the dome by all players.

To be fair, he's pretty heavily injured. He's like a spandexed mummy these days. Must be frustrating for a player of his caliber / pride.

should get over cairns but is a danger game

almost a must win for our top 4 hopes

Word I have heard today is that there could be quite a small crowd due to the flooding up there this week.

The tactics will be interesting.

I would expect the 36ers to again attack Crosswhite early, while it will be interesting to see if Cairns again try to get Adam into early foul trouble, and whether they try and isolate Brett in the post again.

After last week Jacob will certainly hold down his starting SF spot, with Rod Grizzard coming off the bench. He massively adds to our depth. Also off the bench, i expect Brad Hill to make an impact offensively, but to be tested out defensively once again with a lot of head fakes.

Waiting for the radio broadcast...

BF - What radio broadcast?

4CA-FM - www.4cafm.com.au/

thx Kobe

no problem

cant wait to see how grizzard goes

http://www.fibalivestats.com/matches/1329/00/46/84/272LyGUTvl7Q/

grizzard #52?

Im guessing the 1 Singlet hasnt arrived from Adidas yet.
52 is the teams spare number.

has the game started yet?

if it has then fiba stats are not working for me!

not yet moose

Just started.

Forget about the second leg and lets concentrate on getting tonights game. We may well lose Lukes effectiveness tomorrow night with the flu during the week and the conditions for tonights game will take a lot out of him so we must place the importance on getting the W tonight and than deal with tomorrow nights game when it comes.

Here comes the Grizz!

6:14 in 1st

cairns 13
sixers 6

Grizzarddd first score at end of first!

Balls with 10 points and 5 boards in the 1st.

and Grizz gets the basket on the buzzer!

Sixrs lead.

Don't think game clock is correct on "live scores". 2nd Quarter started at 10 minutes, not 12?

Ten points to the sixers on second attempts to zero for the pans

there it is!

crap commentary!

Grizz with a Triple!

Great scoring balance, 14,8,7,7. Cairns just dont have 100 points in them! From the looks of it a scrappy kind of game. 6ers should look to get a knock out blow early in 3rd and rest the starters.

Radio called Ninnis passing it to Holmes.

We seem a bit better with Grizzard on.....not quite sure about cooper.

Hood - that sounds a bit too easy - I think Cairns might have other ideas?!

They think there might be about 4000 there

Spinner Cairns are such a horrible team they dont really get a choice in it ;)

AND in other news - Tigers only 5 up on Blaze with 7 left in the 3rd!

grizzard is terribel

Woeful 3rd quarter - 5 points! Record low??

Wow someone would say Grizzard is terrible and someone thought more team orinetated and just went for the full squad to be terrible. Watch who wins you nameless jerks.

5 points in a quarter of basketball - has their pay been stopped??!!!!

cairns by 7 in last

58-51

score????????

cairns by 9

5 pts in the 3rd...

is the box score right?

WTF...

Why do the FIBA live scores only show from 10 minutes - not 12?

My guess is that the 4rd quarter was energy conserving, given the double road trip. Expect a good few minutes now to take home a win!

This is why it is so goddam hard to be a Sixers fan sometimes.

5points and 7-8 turnovers in 3rd qtr

link to live stats please?

Spinner, I asked the same earlier. Tigers game shows from 12 minutes! Every Qtr here has started at 10 on live scores.

sixers getting KILLEDD by cairns

down 10

dissapointing

36ers down by 10

Why you say that Humpa?

link please!!!!!!!

http://www.4cafm.com.au/listen_online.html

http://www.fibalivestats.com/matches/1329/00/46/84/272LyGUTvl7Q/

nbl.com.au/default.aspx?s=livescores

http://www.fibalivestats.com/matches/1329/00/46/84/272LyGUTvl7Q/

cairns by 11

This is pathetic. Is it really that bloody hard to score some freakin points!?

MAHERR FOR 3

cairns by 8

these commentators are so bloody one sided!!

HOLMES FOR 3

cairns by 5

link

MAHERR FOR 2

cairns by 3

Must be the humidity. I can't think of anything else as to why they are playing so badly.

It's because we don't have Dusty.

taipans in the bonus

cairns by 4

I wondered what happened in the third too until I looked at Darnell Mee's and Aaron Grabau's stats. Looks like the 36ers' perennial problem with defending guards who can drive and finish or dish

Boodnikoff looks like he hit some 3s as well

Jacob WHY are you still shooting the ball?

Mutley more like why is he on the court for? :P

OVER

shit game by the sixers

maybe bcos jacobs one of our better defenders guys

You are probably right Bizzy. Good thinking.

all over down by 9
this is deporable - golden chance to move up ladder get home final
come on boys we need crocs big time now

Horribly coached. Holmes played way to many minutes and was given a green light he hasnt proved he deserves. grizzard AT WORST shouldve been isoliated 1 0n 1, explain Jacobs role please Ninnis. I cant believe they lost to such a disgraceful team. Cairns are full of jerks too, so not even like they deserve the sympathy vote.

pathetic : (

Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration, Frustration,

Looks like Winitana injured, Schensch ill and Bruce foul troubles messed up rotations.

Winitana had better be injured bceuase his 2 quick TO's did NOT deserve 1:41 playing time in exchange for Brick Holmes.

Sick or not, If Luek is out there for 25minutes, he is getting more then 7 shots, for fucks sake he had 24 the game before and look how Cairns handled that.

This is a fucking shithouse performance. I'm not toning the language down as it is an APPROPRIATE way to describe tonight's effort.

On the positive side, I am 1-0 on picking our results for the remaining seven games.

We'll beat Townsville tomorrow night though, which will actually make this loss WORSE.

Whoever was on Darnell Mee should be shot. The guy can BARELY MOVE anymore and you let him get off for 19 out of a total of 79! Cooper's minutes for the remainder of the season should be zero. How is it possible that Holmes gets more shots than Schenscher? Our point guards tonight collectively couldn't hit Washington's head on the side of Mount Rushmore. Unacceptable.

townsville is now a MUST win

awful, just awful. We'd better start praying for a miracle tomorrow cos we're gonna need it.

Does anyone know why Dave Thomas didn't play tonight? He only played 8 minutes on Wednesday too.

Still don't understand the 10 minute quarters!

This is one game I wished Hodge had played. In the absence of anyone stepping up(including Ballinger) Hodge may as well have hogged the ball and played a lone game. No one else deserved it from him. I include Ballinger because his 18 points were below his standard and his 13 rebounds were wasted.

I would like all those people that think this team is better off without Hodge to explain this pathetic loss?

That is an absolutely embarrassing loss!

I would imagine the guys will bounce back tomorrow night and get the win. Otherwise things aren't looking good.

Grizzard should go straight into the starting line up and Jacob straight to the bench!

Too many subs it seems. Why is Ballinger only getting 30 minutes when he isn't in foul trouble, we are struggling offensively and Schenscher is sick with the flu. That must be a box score error... Will have to wait to the official one is out.

No excuses this time 6ers and fans, let's look at the Cairns team, 6 aba quality players, Mee at 38, Cat at 35, and Crosswhite heavily on pot(I'd love the NBL to drug test this guy). Do the 36ers deserve to be playing in the finals, simply NO! An utter pathetic performance and if so guys, please tell me why?

This is simply not acceptable.

You would be kidding yourself if you think Hodge wouldve made a positive difference to a game like this. So many players couldnt hit a thing, Hodge mayve got his 29 just like he did against the Blaze, but they guy was NOT a 'winner' just a awesome individual to watch rip in highlights, but i will say it again he was NOT a winner. Jacob Holmes needs to really decide what role he wants to play in this team, because he is not a go to shooter this has been proven this season well and truly. I point him out soley because he plays so many minutes and seems to take shots on key possessions. Hills 5 To's didnt help tonight either. And no I dont think the 36ers are terrible, inconsistant and hard to defend at my day job yes, but terrible far from it.

KJ, we beat Cairns without Hodge a week ago, and lost to GCB with him 2 weeks ago. How about YOU explain those results....

If I remember the half time stats right, 36ers went 9/32 from the field in the second half. That's the result there. It seems pretty unfair to come down on Holmes. This is one case where it looks like it was a team effort. Between them, Maher, Ballinger and Hill shot 18/35 and the rest of the team shot 7/37. Holmes only accounts for 7 of those 30 missed shots.

BTW - is scoring 5 in a quarter a record for the NBL? It would be for the 36ers, at least?

Why talk about "what if Hodge was playing for us". Might as well ask "what if Chris Paul was playing for us". He's not in the team and he's not coming back. If you're looking in the rear view mirror at the Porsche that just turned off behind you, then you're going to crash into VW that just turned in front of you.

Peter I do agree with you, and perhaps we are being a bit harsh on Jacob, but he does play alot of minutes. I dont think he has proven they are deserved. He did go very salty when he was coming off the bench for a few games, yet his consistantly poor shooting doesnt show he deserves those minutes! Ahh thats it im out, started repeating myself now. See how they react in Townsville.

Ok one last point, agree with you AGAIN peter, EC silly point or opinion to be bringing up. Focus on the now, and what Rod Grizzard can offer in the next 6 games.

yeah hood you were REALLY harsh on jacob

A numming feeling really.. I felt comfortable , at half time.. as we seemed to be getting a bit better as the game went on.
Perhaps the players did , also. Came out asleep for that 3rd qtr rubbish.
Maybe Ballinger, Maher and Hill were OK.
The rest well down on what I was expecting ,from them.

Point taken Hood85. Given the poor shooting all around though I doubt that replacing Holmes' minutes with someone else's would have changed the result. It's also hard to second guess what was going on from the box scores (especially as I wasn't listening to the radio coverage). His minutes may have reflected the need to counter what Cairns had going, defensively. I just hope the bipolar disorder this team seems to have means they bring their A+ game to Townsville tomorrow night.

That is quite simple twenty four, Blaze are now a much better team then Cairns! If the season was to start again today Blaze would end up probably doubling the amount of wins Cairns could get.

4 Games that really hurt us:

* Loss to Sydney away (Hodge's 1st game back, was in the bag!)

* Double OT loss to Perth (could have iced it in regulation from free throw line)

* NYE loss to Blaze (minds elsewhere.. Hodge pay issues? Still hurts!)

* TONIGHT!!!

We should have a top 4 spot locked in. Saturday's Townsville game is now crucial.

You're forgetting the 18point lead we blew against the Spirit in Canberra

71-70 loss at home to Cairns, when dave thomas was out of bounds (may have come from out of bounds cant remember)

About me saying Ballinger needs to play more minutes the box scores were incorrect he did actually play 38 minutes. So that is fine.

Hi guys i missed the game time comentary. I see the third quarter shooting let us down but can anyone please give a quick summary for me with some stats?

How did Grizzard go?

One other point. Are you guys saying Jacob played bad off of from what ive read a pretty bias live feed or only stats? Sometimes stats can lie, im not saying he shot well but do you know if he was missing open looks or shot clock beaters with a hand in his face?

So how much responsibilty should fall on the coach's shoulders?

I agree with a lot of the criticism on the players, but I seem to recall everyone jumping on previous coaches back about motivation and being too laid back etc. What difference has Scott shown in this department.

Yes I know they have had distractions, and I know people are sick and injured, and Grizzard hasn't had time to learn the 'system' etc etc etc, BWTF, when it comes to the crunch, where is the focus, where is the determination? I cant stand all the lame excuses.
To me it seems they have the same easy going nature as the Crows, any time an AFL team has a dry spell, who is the best team for them to play?....... Adelaide Crows of course.

Time to move on and forget all this hype about making the finals..... too much heartbreak and hysteria there. A new import, an inconsistant rabble for a team(minus Brett, Balls, Luke etc) and a rookie coach! Please dont tell me Phil won as a rookie coach, he was a winner during his whole career, and obviously a team leader, Scott never was and probably never will be a natural leader. I know he works hard, but either you've got 'it' or you haven't.

Hood I disagree. Hodge would have made a difference in this particular game only because he would have got his 29 points at the expense of no one else on the team because no one else was doing anything worthwhile.

Luke sick. Paora injured. Didn't help.
Bruce foul trouble. Davo quiet.
Seems Cooper and Holmes do their job defensively.
Grizzard passed to Cooper too much.

EC, the problem with a guy like Hodge is, too many of the team think they can just sit back and watch him do his thing, and they scrape through.
No championship team, not even MJ's Chicago Bulls, were relying purely on one player.

DoDaBonk, I specifically said he would have made a difference to this game only. I don't want Hodge on the team because I know he is not championship material and with the way he plays, he would never have led the team to a championship. I am just saying he may as well have had his way with the ball in this game because nothing much was happening from the rest of the team.

Thanks for the clarification. You're right, when they play like that, it would be great to have Julius Hodge do what he does best. But doesn't it piss you off to say that when we are playing for a finals berth? We are so inconsistant.

^^^ If a loss to a lower ranked team that is in administration and without imports is within reason by your standards, you need to apply for a job coaching the Blaze.

Really. Wanna go deep in the post season? HARDEN UP.

There is NO excuse. We are taller. We are deeper. We are VASTLY more talented. We have ore resources. We didn't have a freakin' cyclone this week. We have two more imports. Any excuse attempting to justify this loss is an utterly ill founded. NO exceptions.

We had our ass handed to us again because we took our foot off the throttle. As always. Mental discipline.

I WAS pissed off at the Sixers, but luckily, now I'm just pissed off at this DodaBonk idiot (#222073). Thanks for taking my mind off it Bonky.

And I'd just like to mention, Brad Hill had 2 turnovers, not 5 as mentioned somewhere above.

95%??? How many people do you think you are??? I'd say you're about 0.1% of the people on here and therefore 0.1% don't have a f*cking clue.

How could we not say he is selfish after he left his teammates stranded on game night. And yes, we did love him when he was on our team - because that was when we all thought he was a hard-working, honourable superstar player, now we all know different.

From only looking at the box scores it would appear wew lost because we went away from what has been successful, Big Luke & Bwalls getting plenty of shots. Schensch only had 7 for the game, WHAT??

Turnovers also appeared to hurt us, while we only had 4 more than them, they made us pay.

WOW This result is a absoloute shocker, with no excuses against a part of a team. On their part shows what a bit of desire and character can do.
I agree with loco views there is no reasons or excuses espec. saying Paoro inj. give me a break only a fringe plyr and been inj.all year.
Jacob is on there because he is 1 of our only decent defenders. How often he should be shooting is another story. Too late now for this season but it looks like we have to get some experience on our coaching bench .
Coaches have a big job now to ensure we can beat Crocs tnite.
Still believs we can go far but need to find some heart every game. Unbelievable bad result and all involved cant blame anybody else it was a pathetic team effort.

What's wrong with Winitana - again?
Should have brought Hoban along if we had all of these problems, at least he couldn't have done any worse than some of the stats show.

XzTaTik,
There's no need to get personal. I have an opinion, just like everyone else here. If you disagree that's fine. But I'm no idiot, and I dont get caught up in all the hype. I try to look at facts, and although I do get excited when I see talent on the court like Julius', I dont talk championships and top four etc until I see consistency, discipline, and mental hardness as Loco put it.(#222092)

I can't say I have seen any major change this year on the mental side. We still lose the one's we're supposed to win, especially when it counts. If it hurts your feelings that I say we are not finals ready, I apologize, but dont take out your frustration on me because I am 'killing your buzz'.

I have supported the 36ers since the begining, and there is no more loyal person than me. I would love to see them at the top of the league all time winning list with another title, but it just isn't meant to be this year, sorry.
I refered to our rookie coach above. Is it unreasonable to suggest he isn't ready to win a title?I'm not calling for him to be sacked or anything that emotive, but he has a learning process to go through also. Everyone says Rod Grizzard has to learn the system, but Scott has to develop one and test it and modify it. So how unreasonable is it to expect a championship this year?

And FFSake STOP the lame excuses!!! It's pathetic

Field shooting and turnovers absolutely killed us. Maher, Hill and Ballinger were the only players in the whole team shooting at a respectable clip, every other player was under 30% and that's an absolute disgrace. I don't know how sick Schench was after early in the week, but maybe he shouldn't have played - 29% from the field and 5 turnovers personally. Of course, he may just have had a shocker. Also for Cooper to play 15 minutes and get 0 points and 3 turnovers is an absolute disgrace. Give his minutes to Grizzard!! Both Holmes and Cooper are known to struggle offensively - when the whole team cannot score DON'T HAVE THEM ON COURT!

Personally Dodabonk, I do think we can be "finals ready" . Admittedly we have had or fair share of upsets this year on the import side and we do seem to miss the ones we should win. But in saying that we have also beaten all of the top teams, and more than once. Mainly without Julius and also without Winitana for that matter.
So, if we can get our rotations running, and incorporate Grizz into the mix comfortably, we can surely be a contender.

#222094 you have quoted something that I have said so I assume that you think I had been on Hodge's bandwagon before all this drama occured........WRONG.
The people that sit around me know my attitude towards Hodge and one of them said to me that I must now be happy that all this has happened and Hodge is gone. He was right, you were not.

DoDaBonk I agree that consistency has not been proven yet and a championship this year is unlikely because of it. We could also rest on the theory that we have beaten some of the best teams and they are the ones that are going to stand in the way of a championship. I personally would not be satisfied with anything less than 4th place because we have to have a home playoff game. At home we can beat anyone, on the road we can beat the better teams (its the lower teams we can't get over). That will be the key.

"But in saying that we have also beaten all of the top teams, and more than once. Mainly without Julius and also without Winitana for that matter."

Raytri what dream world are you living in?

Dragons - We haven't beaten. We had a chance to beat them with Hodge but he cramped up and couldn't play the last few minutes.

NZ - We lost by 38. Second time we beat them without CJ and Jones.

Tigers - We got smashed by them without Hodge. Beat them twice with Hodge

Townsville - Beat them twice. Once with Hodge, once without. Could possibly lose to them tonight.

Perth - We are 0-2 against them.

So we were 3-2 against the top teams with Hodge (2-4 Without him). We should have won against Perth if Maher hit the foul shot. We could have beaten Dragons if Hodge didn't cramp up. So I would say 4-1 Record or 5-0 Record with Hodge could have been possible against the top teams.

So we have beaten 2 teams out of the 5 without Hodge. 1 of those wins was due to CJ and Jones being out.

If you hate the guy that is fine but don't make up crap to try to make him look bad.

yea, Hodge definatly helped, he didnt take us from last to 3rd like he said in his blog, but he did turn us around and get us winning or ver close to beating the top sides. I dont think anyone can bag out Hodges on court performance!
Anyway what are peoples thoughts on Grizzards first game, what are we expecting from him, i personally feel for us to stay in the top 4 mix he will need to give us 15-20 points, 5 rebounds a game and some solid defense and be able to play from SG-SF-PF.
My starting 5 for the rest of the season
PG Maher
SG Grizzard
SF Holmes
PF Ballinger
C Schenscher

I think Bruce has dropped off a little and should go off the bench for a bit or reduce his minutes a little, and if people think holmes has also dropped off a little i say give Brad Hill a start at SG and move Griz to the SF.
I think the 36ers have to build there core around and possibly put the most minutes into Bruce, Hill, Holmes, Ballinger, Schenscher if we can keep those 5 with Balls naturalising and add 2 good imports (before the Hodge saga went down i would have been hoping for a pairing of Hodge and Grizzard) thats going to keep us in the title mix for the next 5 or so years, especially given guys like Anstey are starting to get up their in age a little so the tigers reign probably doesnt have too much time left.

King James those facts are fine but was after team settled in and we replaced probably the worst import we ever had which I base that view mainly on his turnovers which were massive. So there was going to be better results.
Although the Grizz nowhere settled in there is no excuses to lose to a team that is surviving on pure heart.
But although devastated by this result and you are right under real pressure we havent produced the wins
consistently but still have hope.
Dont know any facts about last nights game but poss. time to start Davo.to set up structure from first whistle. The team is there to do it and no ego distraction lets not have any more excuses or what if Hodge crap as no way would we win through finals with his attitude etc either

I agree with Jonno in putting Maher in the starting PG position. The 36ers' undoing this year has come partly by Bruce and his inexperience. Bruce still needs the leadership of Maher and should not be given such a huge role in his first year. As it is so close to the end of the season, I would be risking Maher as a starter and I would risk it in the hope of seeing him out this season after a brilliant end. The way they are going now, Maher is not going to end his career on a memorable note.

King James
I don't hate Hodge.
In fact I'm very, very, very disappointed that the whole debacle happened and we lost him. What I'm trying to say that the season's not lost because of it.

Thats fine Raytri. I don't believe the season is over also but one thing that Hodge did that is over looked, is the ability to bring the ball up as well. Now if Davidson and Bruce have a shit game we look absolutely average. I don't agree we can just use Maher as a prototype PG as this takes away from his offence and thats all he should be focusing on.

Personally I don't want Grizzard to come in and do whatever else is needed to be done as he has said. We could have gotten Tydnale to do that. This team is not strong enough for a role player sort of import. He needs to take charge out there and score 15-20ppg at least. If this means he has to hog the ball a few times then so be it.

I think it would be better to start Davidson. This way we know the defensive temper will start straight away. This happened earlier in the season and Davidson had one of his best games of the season with 14points, 8 rebounds, 5 assist while Bruce had a great game as well with 15 points, 7 assist. It was against spirit whom had played the night before but even so it is worth trying again as I think Bruce plays with no pressure then.

Having Bruce and Holmes start is erratic as we dont know whether they will contribute anything offensively or defensively. Its always a guessing game with those two.

Why do the FIBA live scores only show from 10 minutes - not 12?

Isaac thats just stats how dare you show stats! :P

Did anyone see what the snake was holding up at the game?

Photo of Luke and Alf side by side "spot the difference"

No respect whatsoever.

Pretty lame banner.

Wednesday's one should be great if they take it from the thread on here.