"Can Brad Hill have another big game maybe with less turnovers"

He had 1 turnover last game and is averaging 0.8 per game. Come on people.

1 turnover LOL you must have been watching a different game, the game I watch he had 6. How can you be sick of the Brad Hill bashing, your saying he is good in spurts..I never knew professional teams brought in people who are good for 2-3 minutes a game personnally. Its funny Devries and Winder got so much critism for having better numbers than Hill ever has....

Hoping Howard has an immediate impact tonight, first game so we have to allow for that, but with Shannon getting more and more into the flow of the teams game I think he will be able to contribute with a few days training with the team.
Should be able to win this one without a problem I think. The team looks so different with Shannon running the point. Going to say Sixers by 15

Iam not bashing Brad but had more than 1 turnover or brain fade .
Even his defence was good last game and reject was major.
He is a impact player which teams need .
Same as Ng we need a 3 point shooter in this team especially when Ballinger battling under basket

Hill is a space cadet out there, and i worry like hell when he is on the court down the stretch! If he is hand fed great passes, sure he can finish, BUT he cant self create and finish with consistancy....always seems to do the hard work, get to the cup, and blow a layup.

Really Skud? I thought he had 7 :/

Face it, if Hilly played like Kirk Penney every week you'd still create a ridiculous way to bag him every week. Isaac, can we get Skud a signature saying "I hate Hill" so we don't actually have to read this crap every week. It would save everyone time.

the brad hill bashing thread is so last season! the guy has improved, he isnt going anywhere so suck it up and get over it princess!

Feels like the millionth time I have said this but Hill has been much better this season than previous seasons, he is picking his spots, has cut out most of his turnovers and is playing his role, im not sure what else he can do? I thought he was our best last week along with Eddie.

Hill has improved his play this season, with most of the brain fades in the distant past.

As for the game, I think the 36ers can get away with a narrow win. Could even go to OT...I'll say 36ers by 2 in OT.

Skud, people were all over Winder and Devries as they take a large chunk of the Sixers salary cap and points cap as Imports and Brad Hill does not.

My biggest concern for tonights game is how poorly the Crocs shot last game which means they will likely shoot the lights out this game?!

I think the Sixers have more strengths than the Crocs but we have to play to them along with some good team D. If we can do that, I think we will get over the line!!

P.S. I wanna see Creek throw down a big nasty!! :-)

Hill has been the big improver this year. I think the main reason is confidence. He has consistently played strongly every game and deserves his spot.

While not a Brad Hill fan, he did play well last game but could have had more points if he shot double handed rather than with one(3rd quarter x2).
His turnovers happen at crucial times but I guess, last game we won. Considering he was in the starting 5 last game, to get 15 is good.
As for tonight, the Crocs had a very tough game against the Taipans, so Im expecting them to come out blazing.
But all in all, I guess crowd support generally dictates game so another loud performance by us all should do it

As said looking forward to Howard debut for us and want to know what he might add to our team .
Looking at highlights seems more of a drive at basket player than a 3 point shot etc.
Has anyone seen more of him or at practice this week to give more what can offer.
Rozelle Ellis is a good add to their squad and will keep us honest

Lol no XztatiK if Hill was putting up decent numbers I wouldnt bag him, I have never been a fan of Ng's overall game either, but with Shannon in the team I think he will get the shots he needs to put consistant scores on the board so I have shutup about him playing, Hill will benefit from Shannon but nowhere near as much.

Hill had drawn a few fouls, done a decent job so far. We're having a little trouble with the pressure defense at times. Howard looks decent but Sixers aren't getting him involved enough.

6 down 7 secs to go - overtime

Too many missed lay ups cost us the win in regulation. Clarke cost it in OT with a massive mistake putting Creek on.

36ers missed their last 11 field goal attempts in the last 1/4 before the hail mary 3 pointer to tie the game. That is where the game was lost. Bit hard to blame the Coach for that.

As I said, the missed layups cost us in regulation. Clarkes choice cost it in OT.

I haven't watched the game just followed online score but man Jacob Holmes 2 of 13 terrible don't shoot the ball pls wat was he doing taking the last shot of the game man we should have won

We lost whenever we had a more defensive team on the court. Holmes had a fantastic game tonight but should not have been on in the last 3 minutes of regular time, his job was done. We needed to play an up tempo offense with a more athletic combination rather than trading baskets.We let them dictate the style of play and we didnt keep up.
This was not helped by having some players out there who had poor shooting stats for the night.
Shannon tried to win the game himself and pretty much ignored the rest of the side and he did this for quite some time without direction from the bench.
Overall though we are going to be hard to beat when the machine runs smoothly.
Looking forward to next game.
In the first game of the season we played some extremely intense full court pressing defense. I would like to see more of it as it was very effective.

The worst thing about tonight was the joke of an effort from the referees. It was atrocious both ways. The out of bounds of luke was clear. Ballinger back court violation was clear. The bail out after bailout of crocs players. I think every quarter made it to the bonus for both teams with stars of the game sitting for extended periods due to the shiteful calls.

I keep telling you all Clarke made the biggest stuff up at the start of the season when HE decided not to sign schenscher. This stuff up I rate up there with Smyth's decision not to get Newley and Ingles!

Once again we lost in the 4th quarter! I don't care if Clarke coached the dream tram he currently is a bad nbl coach! Continuous subs, having Holmes on schenscher in the 4th so they got 3 uncontested lay ups, having ballinger play center on defence so then he was too tired to be effective on offense, not playing hill in the last 15 minutes of the game, playing Creek in OT when he looked too nervous to be out there and finally not playing our leading scorer Howard in over time.

We should have been up by double figures in the first and then should have finished the rest of the game with a win. Instead we lose and now our season is looking bleak.

The refs had obviously decided to make more minor calls right from the start as the first foul call for the night which went our way was totally incidental. They continued to call many minor fouls and let many significant ones go often calling the second or third foul.
The refs didnt cost us the game, we did that ourselves with poor shooting percentage and poor offensive options and lack of direction in the final minutes.
Nevertheless its work in progress and there's lots of potential still for this season.

where the hell was howard in OT? the guy was on fire and then towards the end of the 4th and in OT he was nowhere to be seen. didnt marty say the other week that this is why we have imports so when the pressure is on they do there job and win games? hard to win games when they are on the bench.

WaSixer - the last shot by Holmes was a three-quarter-court prayer, it was too late by then and not much else he could do.

Most disappointing was watching the clock tick down on the last real Sixers possession and nobody wanted the ball - they were dishing it off to each other like it was a hand grenade. Carter's attempt wasn't great but at least he backed himself.

Re Ballinger's alleged violation, I understand that recent changes to rules now allow a player to jump from the front court to the back court. Both the body and the ball must go over the half way line and then traverse the halfway line again (into the back court) to be a violation. At least I think that's the case. Don't care!

Referees gave me the shits, Shannon's lack of team focus in the second half gave me the shits, Clarke's decision to play Ng the whole last quarter and in most of the overtime gave me the shits, Howard hitting his head every time he turned the ball over gave me the shits, Jacob Holmes taking shots that he should not have taken gave me the shits and so on.

Tired, exhausted, going to bed. I know there were positives but tonight was a must win game. I'm sure I'll wake up tomorrow and feel better!

Haines had to call the out of bounds to help out because the other ref didn't know which way so it was always going to be a difficult call to make from the top but I thought it was correct anyhow.

Shannon/Carter played too many minutes tonight at the 2 spot - I think they should have played Hill more as he was in good form early and took it to the hoop strong each time.

Holmes had 16 rebounds, does that give him the record?

Phil Haynes and Benn McDonald are the worst refs in the league but these hairy fairy fouls shit me to tears. Its not netball! Raoul Kersten, another insipid performace as a ref. Time to return to Melbourne and stay there!!!!
On another subject, I dont think coach got it right from the start. When you allow players from the opposition to get inside and make easy baskets without presuure, I gotta wonder.
My only major grumble, is with only being 2 points down with less than 24 on the shotclock, why go for the big 3 and win when you can get inside and aim for a 2, draw the foul and then go for the win. I know whats better odds!!!! (unless you got it to Ng who was on fire)

Purely down to bad coaching tonight.
Howard put up impressive numbers but didnt play for what I think was the last 10 minutes of the game (OT included). Why do we have an import scoring 17 points in his first game for us sitting out the crucial part of them game. I like Creek, but he shouldnt have been out there over Howard at that point of time.
I dont understand why our best players arent on the court longer!!
DJ should have been guarding Schensher after he was clearly beating Ballinger (game he will want to forget) and if DJ cant do the bloody job give it to Holmes who for the 3 minutes he did defend him kept him completely away from the ring, dont let the opposition centre score 20 points while he is in foul trouble without changing something!!!

Great shot by Carter to keep us in the game at the end of regulation time, dont see an ending to a game coming down to 2 missed free throws and a hit 3 point shot like that very often.

Good debut by Howard looking forward to seeing more of him.

28 fouls to 29 in this game. Total (57)
That's a lot of calls for a 40 minute game hey?

Last time these two teams played in Adelaide it was 12 fouls on adelaide and 21 to townsville. Total (33)

The game in Townsville in NOvember was 17 fouls to townsville and 21 to Adelaide. Total (38)

Was not at the game - Was the game more physical tonight with three different imports?

"The worst thing about tonight was the joke of an effort from the referees. It was atrocious both ways. The out of bounds of luke was clear. Ballinger back court violation was clear. The bail out after bailout of crocs players. I think every quarter made it to the bonus for both teams with stars of the game sitting for extended periods due to the shiteful calls."

Sick of talking about the refs so I'll just quote that to cover my thoughts on those three dweebs.

Shattered. Balls was having a bad one but I'll take him one-on-one with Hinder in the post over a forced, contested Rhys Carter three every day of the week. Bad decision by Jake.

Horrible game to watch (due to the officiating), with an amazing finish to regulation and a frustrating as hell overtime.

Balls: Overrated. Get rid of him. -___-

Holmes: Beast on the board, liability on offence. Half the problem is with Shannon. He needs to recognize that Holmes is a useless jumpshooter and stop hitting him with wide open looks where he is basically forced to put it up.

Hill: Only 10 minutes after he was our 2nd best player last game and was playing very well tonight!?! Ok...

Carter: Arguably our best defensive player of the season so far but he was easily our worst defensive player tonight. He was absolutely carved up one-on-one. Huge play to end regulation but he couldn't back it up. I criticized his attempt to be the hero once again at the time but I really can't remember exactly how much time was left when he shot it and whether he had another option once Holmes gave it to him.

Shannon: Still finds a way to contribute even when he's having a terrible shooting night and getting hacked all game. I like that. As mentioned by everyone, he makes Ng so much better.

Creek: You could just see how nervous he was on those free-throws. Not his natural shot at all and that's why they fell so short. Gotta feel for him. Other than that he was solid. Get this kid a jumper!

Howard: Exceeded my expectations of his first game. That FT stroke is incredibly smooth. Looks like he's modeled it on the greatest player in the world. You know the one. Very happy so far and I'm glad we picked another guy with a DeVries attitude rather than a Gilder attitude.

Ng: Missed his most important, and most open look of the game, but apart from that he was flawless. Great D once again from the Doctor.

"Hill being on the court we turned it over because of him 19 times"

I think anon might be a jaded girlfriend.

Xztatik, your saying get rid of the captain or are you just playing up to the idiots?

Holmes needs to get through every game with 15-20 rebounds and 3/4 from the field plus play some tuff D and he has done his job. Anyone disagree that should be his mentality?

"Most disappointing was watching the clock tick down on the last real Sixers possession and nobody wanted the ball - they were dishing it off to each other like it was a hand grenade."

Where's Bruno Mars when you need him?

...had to be said.

"Xztatik, your saying get rid of the captain or are you just playing up to the idiots?"

The latter.

Yep almost every shot of Shannon's touched every part of the rim and rolled out. I just dont know why we miss on so many small things like that last rebound we still have a timeout. Sure you may still lose but at least you can get a structured shot off and maybe even get a foul. Likewise end of the half we had a similar situation with a TO left and just forced some hail mary.

Also Clarke needs to get Johnson in there more, Balls was getting killed by Luke and we needed size. This one was on us, and once we got into OT i just though we would get the W somehow but it was not to be.

Adam Ballinger - time to step up. That was one of the worst games I have ever seen from a captain. You were destroyed tonight in a game that was vital to any chance we have of being in the play offs.
Great effort from Darren, inspirational stuff.

Would Shannon know that Holmes hasn't got a jumper.
I mean he's been here 3 weeks and we've seen it so many times. Just wonder, that's all.
He's gotta good set shot but no jumper.
Holmes had the most shots, tonite, Ballinger only 6
Howard the best shooter tonite, but only half a game

People you realize you can't call time outs from th floor anymore. There was no way that they could have called time out in the last rebound exactly why pc missed the shot on purpose.

A great game, but a painful game! It was lost in the matchups and the guys who killed us were Luke and Crosswell. Townsville didn't have too many passengers last night.

I lost count of the number of shots that went in and went out.
The rotations seemed a bit unbalanced at times.
Ballinger only 6 FGA for a game??
Hilly only 10 minutes?
Why didn't Luke play like that when he was playing for us?
Why did Eddie insist on driving in when it wasn't working?

@anon perhaps know the rules before you shoot your mouth off. You CAN NOT call a time out in that situation last night. That is why Crawford missed the second foul shot on purpose. He knew that we cant call time out , that the clock starts as soon as the ball hits the ring and knew that the only chance the sixers would have of beating the Crocs would be a full court shot on the buzzer.Adelaide has the most educated fans they say , apparently not.

"Ng: Missed his most important, and most open look of the game, but apart from that he was flawless. Great D once again from the Doctor."

Has anyone noticed how badly Ng can shoot when he is open. I would love to see a stat on his shooting % when under pressure or on the move, compared to a standing wide open shot. Maybe its just more noticable that he missus them??? The last shot he took I was almost willing a defender to run hard at him so that he would hit it!!
Keep in mind Im not bagging his game, he played well, Im just asking the question.

Awful result
Awful Refs
Awful Sixers shooting
Awful over refeering
Awful defensive efforts (espec.under basket)
Awful awful refs
Awful court movement (why was Shannon holding ball so long)
Awful awful stuffing up game refs
Awful leadership by captain no strong effort on D or moving to demand ball
Awful ---------------- refs
Awful over coaching by our man and some bad mistakes at crunch time.
Awful foul calling by refs
Awful dissapointment that the coach and team promises so much and we cant win games like last night
We had chances to blow Crocs away and didnt.

I have to say some props to Cedar too. He had a shocker and chocked his ass off on those FTs immediately prior to Carter's buzzer-beater, but he stepped up and hit a couple of monster threes in the extension. Blalock came alive in the fourth (I'm pretty sure he was scoreless until then). Crosswell's introduction in the first half was game changing, and big Luke had a monster. Ellis gave more in one game than that joke Freeman did in two months.

Most of our guys were pretty solid. Balls was hopeless, but I would expect him to bounce back. I too am not sure why Creek was on in OT, and in hindsight that was an error from Clarke. Ng had an excellent game, and I think it is no coincidence that he has played well since Shannon's arrival. Shannon didn't have a good shooting game, though he was pretty unlucky on a couple of rolls. He didn't handle Crosswell at all well though.

A massive shot by Carter which may have masked what was his poorest game as a Sixer. Holmes had a monster of a game on the boards, and I was surprised to see his FG at 3/13 as it didn't seem like he'd had that many shots. Johnson and Dowdell perhaps didn't have the value for minutes impact they have had in most other games this season.

A tough loss.