What's Balls paying to top score?

i liked the way shannon found him in the right spot last week, I just wish he did it more, which i'm sure he was told a few times during the week too....

Sixers should take the win

I think its going to be a bit tougher, sixers by 4

Is it on One? In the time it took to write this I'm sure I could have googled it

It's televised, I think.

I predict a shaky patch in the middle, but a narrow 36ers victory.

Ok - I googled it - it is shown on One

SVD - it is a Kings game isnt it?

Adelaide to win by 18.

My tip is 6ers by 8 with Balls 26pts an Shannon 17pts 10 assists an hopefully a few Creek highlights

18? dont hold back LC. i hope it is by that much would be good to see a game where we walk over for a change.

Shame the NBL can't do a Friday night double-header. Would be great to lead off with Hawks/Breakers and end with Sixers/Kings.

After that Hawks game, the last time I remember seeing a free flowing offense was when Aaron Bruce was running point. He worked some magic w/ Balls and Luke that year.

Sixers should be able to get the W by about 12-15 pts. If they can implement the great defence they've done against the Crocs and the Cats, then the win should be by 20+

I watched the new Sydney imports last weekend, and I did not see either of them pass the ball to the Big KaZoooOO at all, the whole game...

actually I do not recall them passing much at all really...

If the Kings establish regular ball to the Big KAZooOOo, we could be in trouble. Top candidate for best centre in the league.

I'm hoping for the opposite, Skip. I hope we have Balls at C for as long as possible. Anyone with a jumper can score big on Khazzouh. I'm tipping a season high for our captain and Holmes to play some tough D on Julian at the other end.

36ers by 17. Oooooh optimism...

Anyone know if Harris is getting a run tonight?

if anything he might be suited up skip. It seems to me that marty will use him if we have trouble defending someone.

SKIP,
I know he isn't playing this game, but when Ron takes the court will you play the "theme song"?

If Robilliard and the Sydney coaches don't wake up and hand the offensive reins back to the little guy and use Luke Martin in a 10-15 min 1/2 role the Sydney offence will come down to Sanders 1 on 5 with a little help from Magden, and Sixers will have it easy.
Because one thing is for sure, Sydney must be the worst defensive team going around at the moment.
If Howard lives up to his press, Sixers will have it all their own way.

Howard isn't playing tonight

Looking forward to this game to see Shannon play and set up Balls, Dj and Ng etc with open shots and moves.
As missed last home game missed Creeks first game and hope the points and dunks are flowing from the Creek again.
Sixers by 12 and hope crowd over 5k
Hope Gilder doesnt answer the critics tonight

What time is start time ? 7:30 ?

I believe so.

from memory - Holmes did hava good one and Khazzouh a little quietier than normal.
All were puzzled by Gilders first game.. looked a bit of a dud.. If he's any good tonite could be the difference in a close one.

... seeing he's an NBA player n we're down one.
Gonna be an interesting game t' watch.

Running a hard press against a lineup with two point guards. Yeah real smart Sydney...

Trey Gilder. What a useless douche. No one messes with Murray Magpie! Murray should've pushed him back... or pecked him or something.

I think we started a little later tonite x..
anyways I think Shannon leading the scoring and Gilder the boards.

should have had eddie from game 1 - he is just what we want - pity we have not been able to finish off his passing.

my tip sixers by 3 in OT

Is Balls shooting every single ball he gets ... i guess since he is starved he figures he might as well put it up.

BTW Maher calling is awesome

BLATANT goal tend by Kazzouh of Daniel Johnson's shot then - all allowed to play on the ball was on the ring / above the basket and Kazz swatted it sideways.

Sixers look good with Shannon running the ship, like him as a point guard and a nice little flurry of points never hurt either

Ugh. Could barely pull out a win against the worst team...though Balls did miss a truckload of shots.

We missed a lot of open shots of shannon passes. He could have had 10+ assist. Great true point guard. Got some passion about him and can take over the game if needed.

Dowdell and Johnson were huge again off the bench.

Madgen 3/4 court shot was most impressive to.

This is great, for the first time in ages I enjoyed watching a Sixers team play. They are finally playing with some purpose and self belief.

Still some late game jitters, but from top to bottom I saw a team of players that are finally backing themselves and generally making good decisions.

Ng - good last week and tonight was the best I've ever seen him play. Did good stuff on BOTH ends of the floor.

Hill - Great block late, some good drives, clutch FTs tough rebounds, good D and solid 3pt shots

Shannon - Finally the Sixers have an import worthy of the name. And he's all mine ;-)

Balls - Not a big scoring night, but his D and rebounding has improved a great deal and kept Khaz to only 10 pts.

Dowdell - Not big numbers, but everytime I look this guy is in the right position. Plays the pick and roll really well and is money from the 3pt line. Plays with controlled aggression and passion and has his team mates backs. When was the last time we had a role player this good? Sapwell?

Carter - solid job as usual. One of the most consistent performers all season.

Johnson - Couple of ill-advised plays, but had a nice slam and was solid. No reason to think he can't keep getting better.

Holmes - only 16 mins, didn't notice much that he did or didn't do.

Wolf Creek - Just off on his alley plays but boy has he got some athleticism. Made his FT's and kept his head when then Balkan Bull tried to intimidate him. Got screwed getting a tech against him there. First time I've seen him play and I can see what everyone is excited about.

Well done Marty Clarke and well done to all the players on tonights game. Progress is a wonderful thing.

p.s. - for those who say it was just Sydney, they are a different team with these new imports. Both guys can score the ball and they have a lot more length in the paint with Gilder now. Lets also not forget that Adelaide only had 1 import and he has only been in the country a week!

mitch creek showed very good maturity when janev challenged him.

kept his cool and focussed on the game - sign of a good player.

he was unlucky to get a tech

I also like creeks attitude during time outs - he revs up and is clearly 100% committed - way to go.

how do people feel about full audio and visualising the coaches board during time outs ?

I feel it gives too much away.

Two things i don't like about Marty Clarke;

1) When Shannon was clearly feeling it in the 2nd or 3rd quarter, he takes him off with two minutes to go? He was on fire, leave the guy on and let him do some damage!

2) In timeouts he talks about plays, surely in a pro league, you can leave the plays to training's and talk about what is really needed, defensive match ups, hustle etc etc

I think he needs to spend more time about the whole game rather then one play.

great interview with eddie after the game on TV

I like hearing what the coaches have to say in timeouts. Its interesting to see what diff coaches try to communicate and how diff players interact. One thing I was thinking tonight during a Sydney timeout was that too many players wanted to get their 2c in and this distracted from the message Moose was trying to give them.

In a perfect world, players would think carefully before interrupting/ contradicting their coach in a time out. For better or for worse, he is the guy who is supposed to be guiding the team. Several voices throwing out their own little tidbit in such a short span of time doesn't get everyone on the same page and working to the same plan.

Hill n Ng pretty good....
I think Trey may.. have hada coupla three chances to win it.. in the end there.

IMO Moose describes the game but gives no substance

You almost feel like the players might ask at the end of a time out what changes they need to make in the game.

Outsider, with the timeouts, I think some of it might be to do with the fact that Marty has a new and quite young team. Considering our generally horrible offence, I'd say he has needed to do all the play calling he can thus far. Might change now that Eddie the All-seeing Eye is playing PG for the Sixers though.

Also, if you watch any NBA you will see that coaches do the same thing there too. Some coaches (like Doc Rivers) have a veteran team and don't need to call plays all that often. Even so, at critical points of the game, Rivers will call the play for his team.

I'm not sure about the substitutions, I'd need to pay closer attention to exactly who is playing when, but I suspect Marty is resting players when he thinks they need it. Eddie had also picked up 2 quick fouls before he was subbed in the 3rd and only had one assist and zero points in that quarter. Suggests he might have needed a breather to me.

Another thing to consider is that, when Eddie was off for the last 4 mins of the 3rd, the Sixers played some really good basketball, built the lead to its largest at 9pts and kept it there.

Balls stayed in for another minute, but apart from that, for the last four mins of the 3rd, Johnson, Dowdell, Creek, Ng and Carter played really good team basketball.

Shannon is the complete difference in Ng's game. He is finally getting more open looks and just looks more confident for it in the last 2 games, hes also hitting his shots finally.
Brad Hill offensively benefited from Shannon as well, but having 7 turnovers as a direct result of him being on the court nullifies his points pretty bloody quickly.

Damn I want to see Creek on the court more!!

Everyone saying this was a win against Sydney, we also did it one import down. If Ron is as good as it sounds you can add a decent score from him to future games.

A good game to watch and definitely worth putting on the television.

Stoked to get a win at home.

Shannon is an awesome PG with passion and vision. I like the man. Doing well so far in his 1 week Down Under.

Brad Hill played decent for a change, however I think it's a one off. He's never consistent. His block was amazing and came out of nowhere.

Darren Ng played awesome at both ends and backed up last week's form. He's turning it around and showing more promise.

Mitch Creek is awesome. He's in terrific shape. He hustles, explosive and a bloody good player. Let's lock him up to a long-term deal if he remains Down Under.

Balls didn't always hit his shots, but he put up some good defence.

Carter was good as he always is.

I look forward to the next game.

The Refeering sucked again like normal.

1st Qtr- I think it was Johnson. He put up a shot, yet it was a baseline pass instead of the charity. This had me stumped. Clearly a shot was throw up with the use of the glass. Please explain

2nd Qtr- Foul called against us which was a pass, but they award 2 shots.

Some crap calls late in the final quarter which almost proved costly.

"BLATANT goal tend by Kazzouh of Daniel Johnson's shot then - all allowed to play on the ball was on the ring / above the basket and Kazz swatted it sideways."

That's what I thought initially, like most of the crowd. Then I remembered that it's fair game once it hits the rim. There's no cylinder.

"Get off Trey Gilder's back Xzatik, great game tonight for the young fella."

Who pushes a mascot? Honestly...

If you're happy with a schizophrenic import like that who can get on an offensive run for a few minutes a game and then whinge away for the rest then good on you. If people found a way to bag Winder for his attitude and body language then Gilder deserves even more condemnation.
As for his defence. Wow. I don't know if he is lazy or dumb but he is damn well pathetic either way.
Nice to see him crumble under pressure in the clutch too.
Sanders had a bad game, but give me him over Gilder every day of the week. At least he seems to be a team player, with a good attitude, who plays fantastic D.


Welllll that was a fantastic, entertaining game! I didn't think the standard of play was that high at all, we were just average, but you gotta love a bit of niggle and the crowd involvement that comes with it. Nice close finish too.

Balls: Looked very aggressive offensively, but Khazzouh played better D than normal and actually closed-out on his shots. Balls was very strong on D though.

Holmes: :/
Average. Really needs to be huge on the boards and on D if he is to continue to be a non-factor offensively. Harsh on the guy who's leading our rebounding I guess but still.

Hill: To the dickheads who abused him when he made that turnover, are you serious? I mean really? One turnover in what was an otherwise huge game. 15/4/2 with 2 steals and some big plays in the 4th. Starting spot safe for the time being.

Tha Carter: Solid Rhys Carter game as always. D wasn't quite as good as usual but it's good to see he's still in form from outside.

Eddie!: Great distributing, rebounding and D. He really knows how to find his shooters. Nice little scoring run there too. I like.

DJ: Made some great face-up moves on offence but struggled with the strength of Khazzouh.

JD: First poor shooting game all season? Contributed in other ways as always.

Creek: Nice rebounding and D. If he had a jumpshot he would've been in double figures. Work on him Ninja.

Ng: Sooooo happy to see him keeping up this form. He's so important when he's playing like this. Great energy offensively and much better D than usual.

Referees: .......................................Not even......... no.........

"Brad Hill offensively benefited from Shannon as well, but having 7 turnovers as a direct result of him being on the court nullifies his points pretty bloody quickly."

Damn, Skud! I was so close to thanking you for being the slightest bit reasonable in your assessment of Hilly for the first time in your life. 7 turnovers as a direct result of him being on the court??

What a massive exciting game . It had everything . Only thing missing was our shooting at times especially in 1st half.
Good to have a good PG at last though seem to hold onto ball too long sometimes and to get near Ervin standards needs to get you a score in pressure game end though did it lat first half.
Defence is where there is massive difference with Hill Ng and Adam all lifting their D .
Highlights .
Brad Hill reject and some sweet shooting from Hill and NG
Didnt understand why Dowdell was on virtually all last Qtr.
He certainly been a great pick up and worked hard but out of depth in crunch time.
Sorry X might not like Gilder but he can play and got them back in game.
We are not there yet but we have a team with a coach and look for the good times

Sorry had to say the crowd was not as many as thought might be .
And Skip music was spot on and added to the excitement

"Damn, Skud! I was so close to thanking you for being the slightest bit reasonable in your assessment of Hilly for the first time in your life. 7 turnovers as a direct result of him being on the court??"

Haha Xztatik I know youve agreed with me before lol. My mates and I counted 7 turnovers HE did, not created because he was on the court but 7 turnovers he completely caused. Granted we did count 1 completely shit horrible attempt at a layup.

Regarding the timeouts...I actually like coaches that go through plays and the X's and O's during timeouts. It's important to remind players of the reads they can get, defensive rotations etc.
I agree most of that should be done in practice but Marty told them that stuff merely to remind them. With a young squad and with Shannon and Creek new to the team, learning the plays and finding reads is paramount.
I think too many coaches these days talk about hustle and trying to fire up their team. IMHO, coaches shouldn't have to talk about hustle --that's a non-negotiable/constant. And the coaches shouldn't have to fire up or lift the teams intensity--that should come from the players.

Booyah i got one right. sixers by 4. had a feeling it was gonna be close

Good win by Sixers. Hit clutch shots, Ng and Hill when it mattered.
Shannon just opens things up for you shooters. Hell when you get Howard out there you may have a playoff team in waiting.
Gilder played well, Sanders one dimensional.
What has happenned to the refereeing though. Most of those charges were clearly blocking calls for mine?

Solid win over a much improved Sydney outfit. Sixers should start making their way up the table with Shannon controlling the point and I agree that Ng had one of his better games, espesh on d

My son recognised why Trey Gilder was given Shane Heal's 23 last week. He can't pass.

It was a good win and a game we probably would have loast last year. It's all good. Just a small question with regard to the coaching panel. Why didn't they take a timeout with ten seconds to go, there were two left. It would have automatically advanced the ball to the front court and taken the possibillity of a backcourt violation out of play.

A quick question:

Did the refs call a 'television timeout' at one stage during the second quarter last night?

I wasn't aware they were doing TV timeouts but it sure looked like they called one after Holmes I think it was got warned for throwing the ball away after a Kings basket.

What I like most about Creek (apart from the obvious killer instinct and confidence) is that he commits to defending and playing a team game, and seems so mature (for a sub-20 yo). Not sure how/why he got that tech, but he didn't seem to flare up, kept his head, etc.

I think Shannon changes things significantly. There were possessions that looked completely alien for a 36ers fan. A few times, he got right into the lane drawing defenders before being able to kick it out, or taking it back outside himself (Nash-style). He had 13/5/5 and seemed to have another gear yet. I was really happy to see the new guy get a win on his new home court, play well, and get such a great reception from the crowd.

Thought the game should never have come down to the wire. Up 4 and with possession, twice before we got the violation, Shannon was getting bear-hugged by Luke Martin and it should've been called. Go to the line, hit at least one. Up 5-6, Kings have to score then foul, rather than Sydney with possession and able to make it a one point game.

Hill had a strong game I thought - great contribution. Whoever counted him with 7 turnovers - grudge much? He and Ng had 15 and 14 from nine shots each which is pretty efficient. And Ballinger got a good number of shots this time out. We were undersized against Gilder and Sanders but handled them OK considering Ng was often defending Gilder.

Need to put away a team like Sydney at home (even if they do have an improved roster) by 10+, but Balls can shoot better than that and our guards were finding him the shots tonight which has been a problem in the past.

Seeya Brad Hill you shit me to tears rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Why is he still around? Id rather bring back J Will

SC, happy to be correct, but I've heard Carfino mention a TV timeout in Wollongong this year.

Does the new import have a bung eye?

eddie just creates big time - change of pace and moves the ball - quality unit

Orbit, he has one prosthetic eye. Yes, cat has only one eye. Remarkable and says a lot about his talent and determination. Impressive individual.

Eddie Shannon had a childhood accident when a rock took out his eye.
What was the figures for attendance?
Who is the jaw dropper/ cheerleader featured on cam throughout the telecast? OMG...........

I like the look of the Wolf - reminds me a bit of John Rillie.

He looks like John Rillie but on Steroids. He will be a great player!

Mitch Creek got robbed on that tech

mitch creek showed really good maturity and focus on the game when that incident occurred.

and it was good to see dowdell and carter stepping up to support him

There's a TV time out after 5 mins only if neither team has called one yet

i loved the way dowdell will fight for his team... was straight into janev with words after he tried to intimidate creek.

by the way how tall is creek? he has a bit of mass to him as well for a young kid, could be very imposing in a few years.

good things are happening in adelaide

isaac you are spot on - eddie has a different look to our offence - definitely more organized and before the 36ers would end up running something predictable. eddie really gets the read well and anything is likely to happen - defenders cant read us well. You can really see the euro style he has brought - very accountable player - if he keeps this up and with carter - we will have these guys back in 2011/12.

expect eddie to be doubled for the rest of the season - will free carter or howard up - i think eddie will be good enough to work most doubles anyway.

Agree that the Creek tech was a joke. And that Blagoj is a bad enough player without the attitude. No need for him now that Knight is back.

watchin the game on ONE HD after attending the game you really see how bad Janev acted, Creek showed composure just to keep smiling an do nothing, Janev's lil headbutt thing was an shows he must be a top bloke (big man pickin on a 18yr old kid lol). The NBL should hopefully see how bad their call was with that.

Dowdell has been the best sleeper pick up for, no offence to him but not much was expected when most of us heard the signing but ya cant do nothing but love the way he plays an the passion he shows those charges he drew in the 4th won us the game basically.

I like the look of the Sixers squad at the momment, I will be interested to see how the new import slots into the lineup. Shannon and Carter are a great guard duo and def keepers and I have never been a Ng fan but if he can play D like that every game and keep knocking down his open looks he's def worth some sold game time.
Mitch Creek bought some enthusiasm and energy and will be a player to watch, he has a bit of size to him and still looks quick, I can only see him getting better.

eddie interview at the end really good

Nagy said Mayberry's brain snap when Janev twice bumped and brought his forehead into Creek cost us 4points in a 4point game.
Clarke on Hill Dowdell and the like in Ron Howard the missing piece , amongst other interesting comments..
worth a read, just up on Adelaidenow.