There is a small write up in today's Tiser. Boucher gave a few comments.

looking forward to it.. gonna be tough and the 6ers will be underdogs so i hope that they can come up but nz are a really good team. much better balance on offence, quite often ive seen teams this year really struggle on offence to run set plays or adjust when their shooting isnt on fire and start playing to another strength (perth and adelaide for example) . ive only seen nz twice this year but they seemed alot better than other teams at keeping some consistancy in their offence.

Teams match up well. Depends who shoots the 3-ball best and who gets to the line for freebies.
Both teams only pretend to have an inside game so it comes down to shooting % and TO's.
If 36ers play that sick zone we will blow them out. Toughen up and make a game of it.

TV news, radio didn't talk about it all that much
or the loss in Melbourne. More about the win v the Hawks.
IF we were going for 3 wins in a row it would be publicized and written about.

wrong, wrong, wrong annonymous
benn was not on that game however my tip is 50 fouls or more and adelaide will win,
less than 50 fouls and nz will win

just started on the radio.
sapwell interesting to listen to what he has to say as an experienced baller

Can anyone advise if the game is on am dial or is it only on the internet?
If I want to listen in the car it will be a bit hard if it's internet only?

anon, I have somewhere to go so I will be driving.
not a complete idiot

ABC radio sometimes cover 36ers games on Saturdays
But , I think they are at the cricket , instead.

So far looking good, up 23-20 witl Ballinger on fire.

All those freebies we're getting are money for jam.

All your TO's Sixers should be up 10. When we connect on a few 3's we should take control of this one.

Boucher goes for a flop that Redhage would be proud of. Gets the foul. Elbows Bruce in the back. No foul. Then he gets the lane violation despite throwing up a pump fake before his free-throw.

FFS

2nd chance points killing us. And the retard of a ref with the short dark hair.

Pressures on, looks like we are getting on top. Sixers need to hang on.

Wilkinson has 6 offensive boards with 6mins to go in the 2nd. Getting ridiculous. Box that fat bastard out!!!

Up 8, 1.50 to go in half. We can really put the squeeze on here.

Must admit, really enjoying the King/Sapwell combo on NBL Radio. Precise, knowledgeable and entertaining. Just wish these guys would do the OneHD gig as well.

Call of the night from Sappa after Marty told the boys in a timeout..." We're leaving Balls naked out there"
King - "So what did you make of the timeout Rupert?"
Sappa - "I still cant get past the leaving balls naked comment!"

Brilliant!

Wilkinson likes naked Balls. Definitely an area in which we need to improve.

9 TO's and giving up 13 Offensive rebounds is why Breakers are up 8 even though we are not shooting ball well. When Penney gets going in 2nd half, not sure if Sixers will have any answers.
We have managed to keep Shannon from breaking loose. Howard seems quiet.
You will need big effort from those two just to stay close.

61-45 Now you are in a world of hurt. Catchup can get desperate!!!

Daly on in the 3rd. Uhh, does this mean we're sposed to leave or...

We've got 17 boards to your 14....... ON YOUR GLASS!!!!!!

I don't like to bag my own team, but this has been a f##king pathetic effort. Angry.

How much are we paying the guy who wrote 'Moscow'??? If he's not under the salary cap we're cheating more than the South Dragons.

Here comes more of those freebies, after getting the yips at the start of quarter.

Ron Howard. What is his purpose?

Go Breakers!!!

A 32 minute warmup followed by 8 minutes of basketball. Yeah that's how you win games.

Absolutely terrible game.

Just saw the final score. 90 - 85

Left the game at the end of the 3rd quarter. Not regretting leaving either despite the final margin. Basically showed that there was no defence by either team in that 4th period.

If the Sixers had actually played a decent game, that 17pt collapse the Breakers took in the 4th would have resulted in a 20pt win.

Very disappointed in Clarke now. What the hell is he running the team through? sure as hell isn't anything basketball related.

For the first time ever I also left at 3 quarter time. That effort was disgusting. Is Ron Howard on a paid holiday? Bruce back to his show pony worst. Really the whole thing stunk. Pathetic.

"Hill got some lucky points to pad his stats slot in the last quarter."

It's not padding your stats at that stage of the game, it's called dragging your team back into the contest. Christ!

i swear if i hear marty clarke going on about trying to make a finals run he is smoking some good stuff. after that shocking display they have a tonne of work to do. never been so disappointed. Its not that howard is a bad player its more so that they dont seem to be including howard in many of the plays. he seems to be a good player but marty isnt using him to his best ability from my point of view.

The 3rd qtr u only had a record low 6 pts. That would have been hard to watch!

I don't know guys, Marty is getting better I reckon. When Hilly got hot in the last, I was expecting him to be subbed out. That's usually what happens.

Hill is pointless, he needs way to much of the ball to achieve anything positive and that come few and far between. He played ok in 4th, but previous 3qtrs was not good at all. I hope they come to there senses and release him next season. Again, he doesnt offer enough offensively in ratio to how much dribble he has. Ahhh these are tough times for 36er fans, but atleast they showed some effort to not get done by 30.

This team is missing a centre, and a good old fashioned veteran! Marty obvioulsy wants robots that wont offer opinions, hence he has no vets. Def not sold on his coaching to this stage. And im sick of this 3 year plan crap, there is NO DRAFT! Every team had the chance to sign a roster from scratch this season, he chose to retain the majority of a team that finished dead last in '10.

Ultimately if we played with the same pressure D the whole game as we did in the last Q we would have been OK. Our full court defence or on ball defence up the court was pointless, might have well just ran back and set it up and let them walk it down.

Shannon needs to work harder to get the ball when were inbounding baseline.

SUBS etc were all over the shop and we had no balanc etc. it is also possible to play balls, holmes and DJ or Dowdell all at once and hopefully grab a board.

Making our free throws would have also helped.

Holmes: Smashed on the defensive boards and didn't do much else. Showed about 10% of the effort we usually get from him.

Ballinger: Brilliant offensively. Disgraceful on the boards. Just terrible. He's about the same size as Wilkinson, with more muscle and less fat, and yet he was completely obliterated by him on the glass. It's all effort and you would want to see a bit more from your damn leader.

Hilly: Like most of the team, he played one quarter. He was a huge part of our comeback despite being pretty damn useless for the first 3 quarters.

Howard: Where are we here? Madison Square Garden? This guy had an absolutely shocking game but you don't give the ironic cheers when he gets dragged, how does that help anyone?
I have to say this... we would have won that game by 10 points tonight if we had Gabe Freeman.

Shannon: Good defensively but just quiet at the other end. Didn't look nearly as aggressive as in previous weeks. The only time I can remember him taking a player to the hoop one-on-one was when he had the slow-footed Vukona in front of him. We desperately needed someone to take charge and be the man in that 3rd quarter and he kept being the facilitator. Good to see him go to Balls a bit more though.

DJ and JD: Equally pathetic. And that's why DJ's not a starting centre. No one with that size should be getting destroyed on the boards by smaller players like that. He played with no heart. That's uncharacteristic for Dowdell but I can't say he looked all that interested once the ball hit the rim tonight either.

Creek: No idea what he said to the refs before the game.

Ng: We needed his shooting on the floor at the end there. That injury hurt. Moreso the fact that they didn't call the charge. Quiet game tonight against some very nice D.

Bruce: I didn't expect to see 6 turnovers next to his name when I got home tonight. Apart from that he was very nice. It's good to see he's got his scoring touch back, just needs to clean up those passes I guess.

Clarke: Before that comeback I would've criticized his decision to play a tiny lineup with Creek and Hill at PF, but that was the lineup that got us back into the game so I guess I'll shutup, it just doesn't seem like the way you would fix a lack of rebounding presence.

Playing Daly in the 3rd struck me as a sign that he was throwing in the towel. We had other players to go to. I'm not sure if he was punishing them or he thought the game was over. I wonder how the game would've turned out had he gone to one of the regulars there.

Referees: Benn McDonald and Sonic the Hedgehog were actually ok by their standards. It was the tall bloke with short dark hair who did the damage. Surprisingly his demeanor around the other refs suggested he was the senior guy. Like he should be giving out any advice...

Breakers: I can't stand Wilkinson but he killed us. Penney wasn't playing that well until we gave him some of the easiest layups you'll ever see. Luckily he wasn't hitting the perimetre shots despite us leaving him wide open again and again. Abercrombie was fantastic in all facets of the game. That's how you have a huge impact on a game without putting up big points. Great effort.

Their fitness should be a big worry IMO. Wilkinson, Braswell, Henare, Boucher, Webster and even CJ are all terribly out of shape and their lack of conditioning showed in the last quarter. If that "baby fat" is seen as a significant problem for the GC Blaze then it's a much bigger problem for the Breakers.

Overall, I'm pissed. Let's play 4 quarters next week eh?

Only positive things i can say is Ballinger, Bruce, Hill. an as said above ya dont win games by doing f'all for 3qtrs thern try flick the switch in the 4th.

Dunkin Dan's comment about Howard is the same question I would like answered and from the coach...What is his role?

He starts but hardly sees the ball or much court time after he is subbed out. When he does get the ball he has to create a shot for himself which does not appear to be a strength of his game. He does not appear to be the slasher/finisher type of player that this team desperately needs. Winder provided the team more but no point going down that line of discussion.

Surprising final quarter from Hill, especially with his defense. He displayed that potential again, but he is not starter quality, a respectable bench man (as Loco would correctly suggest) at best and I doubt likely to be much more. In fact I also put Holmes and Ng in the same category (shame about Ng's injury, I'm giving an uneducated guess that it either ligament damage to the ankle or broken fibia or tibia bone).

I've never been a great x&o's man but I don't understand what the point is to the offense other than to hit the open man in the corner. Shannon's creativity looks so stifled that he contributes little when running the offense.

Well I've concluded that the rest of the season should be about giving Creek, Johnson, Bruce, Daly & Dowdell more responsibility and see if they can command starter spots. Don't see much point retaining Howard in his current role. This season has now become (for me) pre, pre-season for next year and any wins will be a pleasant surprise.

You anonymous characters really are a bunch of stupid wankers aren't you. Who here is blaming anyone but the pathetic performance of the team for that loss? Go away please.

Issac you have got to do something about Anonymous posters please.

New Zealand were what you would expect from a team sitting in top spot. They made the big plays when they were needed (Ambercrombie's block on that attempted Hill lay-up was exceptional!)and were patient on offense. They made silly mistakes but they also did what was needed so they didn't lose the game.

Interesting comment about fitness but there is still plenty of time for that to fall into place over the next 3 months. I think they simply went into cruise mode because they were on the road. Different story had it been North Shore stadium I suspect (see sixers v Melbourne game). I have little doubt they will miss finals even if they were placed on a heavy training program.

yeh im with x. Anons are smoking too much crack. Sixer fans are more disappointed with the performance of the team. If everyone was bagging refs then yes but we are shitty about the dumb shots and passes that were missed. So i agree anons are wankers at the moment but whats new

That was our lowest 3rd qtr score ever.
Bruce had a go, but has to leave us , if Carter comes back (injury weavers thingy)
Not sure what to do about Howard. Maybe Kevin Johnson instead (seeing he's here training)

Camel, I'm guessing Bruce may be able to cover the loss of Ng which allows Carter to swing to a shooting guard role.

Are you sure we need KJ, too many guards as it is ;-)

Is it just me, or does Scott Becker look like Mr Bean? Oh, wait, perhaps it *was* Mr Bean.

X, I agree with you that the some of the Breakers lineup is a bit out of shape.
However, when you have a lineup that deep, you dont have to have the fittest team in the league as guys are only required to play 'short, hard' bursts. CJ, Webster, Braswell and Henare are all interchangable. Take one guy out and you can put him in with a guy just as effective.

Difference is the Blaze players are required to play big minutes...Wortho obviously is their marquee player, Goulding plays significant minutes and Gibson plays huge minutes hence their fitness issues are going to be more noticeable/amplified.

Well that's the thing.. on that other thread re Clarke wants more flexibilty with the roster..
Bruce can only replace Carter on injury waivers..
Not Ng , as well
Too many Johnsons.. this one might swing.
Only saw a little bit of him..

How is it that Wilkinson was allowed to post so many easy baskets? Is Ballinger on summer holidays?
Brad Hill unlucky to get a few fouls which utlimately saw us lose but when you have a quarter where you score only 7, to the Breakers 25 or so, there is the game.
One interesting point to make, how long were NZ allowed more than 3 seconds inside the key on more than one occassion. On one play I counted Wilkinson inside for 7 seconds and yet, game continued. Seriously, the only time the refs count seconds is coming out of defence which is really poor.
To those who had a dig at Bruce, hey...when Carter does it along with Hill, they are treated like gods. Everyone has game fades and brain fades. Ballinger had it last week with Greer yet was halo(ed) for his stand up performance.
Lastly, to the woman in front who indeed was a SACA member, just remember this isnt a game like cricket where you recieve scones and jam at each interval. Its basketball which means people support their team. Next time, come back with the same attitude instead of giving attitude towards myself and fellow supporters who want to see the team do well. If you cant follow that rule, then dont go. We werent abusive like you said on more than one occassion!

Good point MACDUB, not that I would say Gibbo has a problem there.

and a little bit of Harris would be handy, but I've mentioned that before.

Frigging frustrating night, I am absolutely fed up with not having a bloody legitimate centre!!!
Can we drop DJ and bring in Harris for the rest of the seaons, he cant do less?

Hill had a horrible first three quarters, airballs, missed layups under the ring, turnovers and just bad bad passes. Redeemed himself in the 4th quarter, had lucky placement with some of them but showed some heart and finally finished some of his shots off.

Ballinger shot the lights out tonight but was out played in defence by Wilkinson who seemed to score at will.

Howard, I dont think we have ANY plays setup for this guy. Hill gets ALOT of looks at the basket to do something with it, but Howard gets absolutely none. Im failing to see how a fringe NBA player who scores 17 points in his first game isnt given more opportunities and plays written for him to score. I honestly put his performance down to Clark than I do to Howard. At the start of the season we had set plays and structure, why not now?

Holmes probaly rebounded tonight more like a person his size would normally rebound. Not the best night for him to have an off game, we needed his D and boards.

Bruce played okay but he still has the flashy passes that dont need to happen. Just get the ball down there properly.

Shannon needs to take on scoring responsibilities more, once again Im not sure if this is Clarks instructions or if having Abercrombie on him for parts of the game just restricted him.

Ng didnt play to much tonight, defending Penney he is just well outclassed, and in offense he was so heavily covered he wasnt having any affect.

Creek Ill stick with what XztatiK said and wonder how he pissed the refs off before the game??

Any updates yet on Darren Ng's injury please?

Creek - 7 minutes and 5 fouls. Quite unlucky on at least 2 calls I thought.

wilkinson killed us, had a few easy shots but made everything count he was hitting everything. we got killed on the boards, no real centre + holmes is becoming a liability. never shoots cause he knows he cant and is losing the one thing that we need him for. maybe our defence isnt super but i think its our offence that kills us. too stop start. really need to attack the basket more.

we didnt seem to use howard but he is here as a scorer, is it too much to ask for a guy that can occasionally beat his man off the dribble or create his own shot?? do we really only expect a pro baller to beat a defence with a set play?? i played social ball with a guy who could hit a fadeaway jumper 8times outta 10, and if that didnt work he had other ways to beat his man.

next year we need a real centre, balls, creek/hill rotating at sf, import scorer, shannon. with ng, carter thats a good start. please get schensh back. could have used twin gingers to cancel out their ginger tonight.

"we didnt seem to use howard but he is here as a scorer, is it too much to ask for a guy that can occasionally beat his man off the dribble or create his own shot?? do we really only expect a pro baller to beat a defence with a set play??"

This^

Howard isn't a spot-up shooter. He was brought here as a slashing scorer who could get his own shot. So his "opportunities" occur every time he touches the ball. It's up to him to take them. He can call a pick if he wants one. He isn't the type of player who should be relying on sets.

Disappointed in:=

Clarke,
that pressing trapping defence worked a treat, it just started too late

Hill,
a great last quarter but in similar minutes over the whole game his man Abercrombe got 13 boards ?!?

Bruce,
ok you scored a bit this time but 3 bad turnovers in a row in the 3rd when we just needed good possesion,

the team's last quarter foul shooting {Howard 2-6 yuck!} and first quarter rebounding.

Impressed by

Abercrombe, 13 boards and 3 huge crucial blocks, a quality small forward who kills us every time.

Kirk Penney, when we ran a specific set play to get Howard going, Kirk ran over every screen and blocked Ron's shot. Plays real D like an ex Miami Heat player.

Why do people keep suggesting that it was the lowest third quarter ever for the Sixers? Where did they here that?

I reckon they scored 5 points in a third quarter in Cairns a couple of years ago.

Does the NBL check their facts?

Gotta give some credit to the Breakers defence tonight, they did a great job of getting the ball out of Shannon's hands and gave him virtually nothing.

But as far as our team goes it was disgraceful. We have no steel in us - when our opponent is playing well, we just don't seem to understand how to fight back and regain control.

Hill, good effort trying to drag us back into it in the 4th, but we were never going to reel that deficit in, because our guys are once again back to playing clueless offence most of the time.

Does anyone on our team know how to set a screen properly to get the ball-handler free? Our guards just had nothing to create with. Everyone was either standing around or setting crap screens that achieved nothing.

Oh and one more thing: BOX THE F&%# OUT!

Too pissed off to say more. Thought we'd bounce back tonight. Instead, it felt like I was watching last years rabble of a team again. So disappointed.

Breakers said they were gonna concentrate on getting the rebounds and it looked like it worked. Didn't see or listen to the game so quite stoked to wake up to a win.

Does anyone know where Boti is? absent in the paper yesterday and seemingly a no show at the game.

Injuries and late roster introductions to the Sixers compared to largely the same team from late last season bar wilkinson for the Breakers is a fair bit of the difference between the two teams. Breakers roster is deep and players no longer need to play big minutes as mentioned earlier in this thread, players conditioning and fitness will improve through the season and chance of injury is greatly reduced meaning they will hopefully be playing strongly in the playoffs (fingers crossed they make it of course) when other teams have injury fatigue issues.

Boti is on leave. Camel, as far as I understand it once Carter comes back in for Bruce, then Bruce can be an injury replacement for Ng if he is out for the season.

Cisco see recent previous thread.

Beantown, good point about the poor screens. The two post offence needs quality screens to work and there were not too many good ones tonight.

I noticed that DJ got called an offensive foul in his first offensive set and he seems to lose the ability to set a good tight screen after that.

Couldn't agree more Beantown regarding the screens. I thought there was meant to be contact on screens - ours were pathetic and had no effect whats so ever. The breakers set great screens and people get open off them.

I am not even sure what plays we are trying to run.

I noticed that against the Tigers too, players are rolling out before the guy they are screening even gets there!

Only 1 more game until we get Carter back.

I have issues with our constant subs. If we were playing full court in your face basketball it would make sense. However our delay into zone or man just isn't intense enough.

If you are only getting 10 or 15 minutes a game, you need to be intense out there. Webster who virtually has no ability what so ever comes on and is hanging onto Shannon like he is his handbag. Yeah he got called for it, but he also got to hold Shannon up and tire him at the same time.

When we decide to get intense it is different from the norm, hence we get called for cheap fouls which they seem to get away with all game. Hence if we are hanging on, moving on screens, bumping cutters and anyone else who is in bumping range we will get away with a lot more.

A warning to Dillon to what everyone including Referee Damian Lyons saw was disgusting (elbow incident OT end). I can't believe 2 minutes later down the other end Dillon punches Holmes in the leg and same warning from Lyons again. If it was in Perth Dillon would have been thrown out.

Disgusting performance towards the end, can't remember if it was 3rd or 4th but we lost the ball on the inbound pass and then the very next play, chucked it the full length of the court out of bounds. And (if I remember right) no time out was called?? Surely you would call a time out and tell the team to stop acting like 7 year olds getting upset over loosing. I wouldn't have minded had we given that game our best and just been outperformed, but we literally gave up. 36ers don't deserve to have a large crowd behind them (comparatively to other teams) if they're going to screw around and give up once the margin gets too big. Was very tempted to walk out, horrible effort.

Other thing that bugged me was Shannon holding the ball at the top of the key, running down the clock when we're 9 or so points down with a minute to go. Also someone tell Bruce (I think) that when you're ~5 down with 9 seconds to go, you don't go for the layup. Child's errors.

6* down, my bad, could justify the 2 if it was only 5.

Agreed about our intensity. I've said this before, but with the roster decisions we made and with the way we played the first game against Perth, I thought we were going to be an in your face, harass them all the way up the floor team this season. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, we play with that kind of intensity all too rarely.

We showed that with a bit of pressure we can get turnovers in the last quarter and then all of a sudden, surprise surprise, Balls is getting easy post ups in the key over Wilkinson, who CANNOT guard him that close to the basket.

The way we played in the last 5 mins is how we should be starting games!

I'm not exactly sure that people will remember these players, but Marty will, Ballinger actually plays like Dave Nelson ( all star centre NBL first season - cannons and bullets) did, a player who began as a banging centre but developed into a player with too much range out at the 3 line for a 4 or 5 man to guard , but too strong inside and mid-range for a 3 to keep tabs on. Plus Nelson actually had plays run for him that gave him the long 3 at the point. Does not seem to be even looked up here. So Ballinger has to guard Pledger ( who actually played V well ! and was effective I thought ) who is simply too big for Ball to guard under the ring, and when pledger was on him, we never ran ball out to the 3 - WTF !!.

I wonder if Marty ( as an ex-guard) just does not get the fact that for some tall guys, providing height is actually enough for the team to provide difficulty for the other team, provided that they have some ability and have good spot up shooters to feed. That was the difference between tall beanpoles like Andy Cambell and Peter Walsh, Cambell had players like Smyth and Kennedy to feed back outside, just like Ballinger could have Ng , Walsh had no one shoting from outside in the melboune and boomers system under gaze..

The Ais mens program did not produce experienced centres like Bogut and Longley, they got developed in the US. the AIS system ( at least at that time) focuses upon overall basketball skill, not specialist 4/5 man skills like, say Pete newell or Rick majerus did .

I really hope that we get a real 5 into the team and stop P!!ssing arrounf with all these flocks of adequate but not exceptional 2s and 3s.

Why do so many people insist on Harris playing. He has a tall body but I have seen nothing else. I doubt Marty has seen much either to confidently put him out there. He lacks the skills as an NBL centre. He needs to be developed and with an asset that he has in such a big body, I hope he is putting it to good use. After reading what very old Reply #303237 has said, I wonder if Marty is the coach to develop him successfully as a centre.

As I recall , Clarke said he'd be very handy, against Melbourne.
I imagine, with Ng and Carter fit, if they make a move on Howard, they'd consider signing Bruce and Harris, who have played on injury waivers and are training well here.

36ers fans are getting caught up on the lack of a centre - the Breakers played 6'9" Wilkinson as their big for most of the game. They barely played Pledger (under 8 minutes). Boucher is not a big forward. Abercrombie is all hops. Vukona is undersized. That's the NZ frontcourt.

Ballinger scored very well (often on tougher shots away from the basket), but his defence wasn't good.

Wilkinson was rampant. Our defence after switches was crap.

Shannon had one great move to the basket but wasn't using that move until the fourth when most plays started with his quick first step. Hill was getting murdered at times when he took it inside, yet no calls at all.

I thought Holmes tried his best on Pledger, but just couldn't compete with his height. His game is just too limited right now.

Not much point only stepping things up in the fourth. Thought they really missed Carter again - he might not shoot at a high clip, but things seem to happen when he's out there (and not gambling passes as Bruce provided at the wrong times).

Don't even know what to say about Howard. There were ample opportunities to try and take over the game and lead the charge, but he didn't do much. Only Hill really looked to shake up the game and make things happen.

Frustrating game. That third quarter was just sad to watch. Insulting to fans. I swear the atmosphere was almost one of disbelief and I am not surprised that a few people left at that point. It was like a bad circus.

The end result - narrow loss to the top team - flatters the performance in those middle two quarters.

---

I had a friend's kids with me at the game. In the second half, Lily (4 yo) said to me: "Which team are you going for?" I said, "The blue team. Which team are you going for?"

She said, "Those ones," and pointed at the dancers.

Guess they did turn in a more consistent performance...

Whats happened to DJ do we need to tell him he has a start and 30+ minutes next week and give him confidence and a chance .
Agree with X about Howard that not playing natural drive and slash game not sit in b---y corner like a stuffed dummy and shooting like one when gets a shot .
Howard maybe trying to play game coach wants you to but way going you are dead meat anyway might as well move around grab the ball and do your thing

I think you have it wrong if you are blaming the coach for Howard's woes. In the first quarter, Marty had clearly directed his team to put the ball in Howard's hands early to see if he could create and get himself going. Guess what? Zippo. Howard couldn't beat his man off the dribble. Didn't do it once. So that offensive option is out for Howard.

Then I noticed they were running a play for Howard where he curls around a screen on the left wing a bit inside the 3 point line. That didn't work either, but I reckon that might not have been so much his fault. A couple of times, the Breakers defender just plowed through the screener (might have been DJ?) and shoved Howard and so he either wasn't passed the ball or he fumbled it and missed his opp to get to the basket.

Thats down to our guys setting up crap screens and/or ridiculous NBL referees, who don't seem to know what illegal screens are, or that you can't just run straight through a legal one!

So I don't blame the coach for Howard's woes. I blame Howard's limitations and the seeming inability of our guys to set decent screens at the moment. They were doing it better less than two weeks ago when we beat the Hawks FFS!

Our guys need to get a bit of mongrel in them too. If someone tries to plow through you when you set a screen, they need an elbow to the head or guts. Lay them out and send a message. We're too soft half the time. Get Paul Rees to talk to them!

Very Old, agree with you about Balls needing to go outside and draw guys like Pledger away from the basket. Exactly what Wilkinson did to Balls so successfully on Saturday! Problem for the Sixers was that Pledger didn't play all that long.

Isaac, I thought that Shannon seemed a little passive at times, but a lot of that had to do with the pressure NZ put on him throughout the game. They kept hounding him up the floor, so he didn't have much of a chance to find a lane to the basket, or to pull up for that money three of his. The way out of it is for our bigs to help him out by setting some good screens around mid-court. Lay a couple of bone jarring screens and not only does it shake the opposing guard up, Shannon would be freed up and playing 4 on 4 for a few seconds, which is all he'd need to create something I reckon.

I hope Marty has been drilling his team all week on how to set screens and how to box out! Get those two things right and I think we'll start seeing better results again.

Beantown lots of great points only whish to say for some reason and can only mainly put down to coach he sat in the 1 corner on offence 90+ % of time .
Thats could be ok if a shooter ala NG but Howard not.
In first game out moving around giving him some room to drive.
This might help to get the ball off Shannon quicker and more pro active moving of ball.
Anyway thats what my opinion is but definitely agree get some agggressive bodies in there for screens rebound, positioning

Twice Howard pulled up for the long two instead of stuttering and then continuing his move to the basket? I've been surprised that he hasn't really made to finish at the rim more as the YouTube video we all saw was almost nothing but slashes to the hoop.

Bretts, what I was saying above was that Marty did setup some opportunities for Howard to get involved, but he failed to seize them. As a result, he lost confidence and his team mates looked to other players to score.

He also has a problem starting atm, because there aren't naturally a lot of shots for him. He is the same player as Hill, so he is going to be looking for similar spots on the floor to score from, but Hill knows the team system better and has more confidence right now, so he is probably taking away some opportunities for Howard (not having a go at Hill btw people).

Combine that with the fact that Balls and Shannon are going to get their share of shots and there aren't a lot of opps for Howard with the starters. Hence, he is going to end up standing around in the corner, somewhat peripheral to the offence at times.

His skills might be better utilised off the bench when Hill isn't on and there is less scoring power on the court.

He'd also benefit a lot, I think, if the Sixers played that more aggressive, trapping defence we've seen at times. If we can create some turnovers, he'd get a lot more chances to score on the break.

Not much to add that hasn't already been said. I've not really chimed in on the Hill thing, but Big Ads is correct - I don't see him as a starter; the consistency just isn't there.

Flashes in the fourth were great, but have a look at his percentages from the first three quarters - horrendous. He essentially had a three and two lay-ups in the burst that got us back. Great stuff - but in the context of the whole game, not enough to warrant first 5 IMO.

Re: lack of a genuine center, I've been screaming all year for DJ to start - whatever it takes to gets Balls to the 4 spot. It's killing us.

Balls and DJ as a starting frontcourt would leak points inside. Wilkinson and other Breakers scored easily enough inside as it was.

Does anyone else feel like we're horrible at training big guys?

Wheels for example only became a rounded player once he landed in Goorjan's system. We just don't seem to develop guys to play at 5 (traditionally).

Or we land naturally talented ones and they defect after stints in Europe *shakes fist*

Whose "we" though? Over any real duration of time, "we" is just a brand. The ownership has changed 2-3 times, on to the third coach in whatever period, changes to support staff, etc.

Sorry to post again, but is it too much to read these comments by Marty and wonder if he's identified problems and is dissatisfied with his roster this year?

"In the end it's internal make-up - you either want to do those things or you don't," he said.

"You either want to do it or you don't, and we've got to find guys who really want to do those things because they are so important."

@Loco i would say we are very good at identifying , developing but not holding talent.

Bradtke, Rogers, Wheeler all started at the 36ers and sans Anstey they were really the main preferred bigs in the NBL for their era.

Rogey perhaps the only one that got noticeably better away from the Sixers, and even then he still came back here.

Isaac - 'We' as a club, regardless of ownership. Might be a symptom of the league overall - just the feeling I've had for a few years.

Re: the quote, I read it as "We've trained right - I can't physically make the guys translate intensity and desire to the floor on game night". But yes, it strikes me as a swipe at the roster.

The club (as a brand crossing over ownerships, coaches, etc) doesn't train big guys though. There's not really a common element throughout the period that you could consider responsible.

Bradtke was well developed when he left, already an australian player and he had left to play in spain when he returned through a fallout with his team mates over personal issues he went to Melbourne.

Wheeler was very unco when here he grew into his body as many big people do and sometimes that comes with age. plus he was getting limited mintues here behind Bradtke and Davis.

Schensher is again playing better he IMO is another one that has bettered with age

Isaac agree sounds like Marty is having a shot at his players although sometimes his coaching leaves a bit to be desired end of second quarter on saturday he made his team pull out from an easy two to shoot a 3 pointer so instead of going in to the break 10 down it would only be 7 down. We missed the 3, so we went in 10 down where surely it would have been preferable to score the easy two. And he did call to them twice to pull out of easy moves to the keyway to get it out to the outsider shooters. I'd have rather taken the 2.

That reminds me - on an inbound play when we got close to a 5 second call (2nd or 3rd qtr), Marty had Brad tied up speaking to him from the sidelines in the back court for the first 3 seconds as we couldn't find a player to hit with the pass!

Or my favourite play by Clarke was put the smallest line up possible on and while someone for NZ was taking foul shots, he decided to get Creek to come to where he was standing to speak to him (he was playing power forward) and then have Bruce at the power forward spot on the foul line. The NZ player missed the shot and Bruces player got the rebounds. Great work there marty its not under 12's you cant say "Don't worry about whats happening in the game listen to me I want you to..."

isaac have you played ball it seems to me you now alot about the game .thye sad part about the 6ers is that by all these comments everyone out in hoops land think they have thye answers to the problem .how about we let the coaches do the job until the end of the season then everyone can apply for the job starting with all the explayers out in lala land

When do school holidays end?

Seianna, not sure if it's clear in my posts or not, but I support Clarke (though season one will be a bit of a learning process) and think he will come good with time and more NBL experience.

Are you joking Seianna this is a B Ball forum based in Adelaide what are we going to post when team struggling . How bad the hot dogs are or would that be offensive to the caterers.
Apart from they would not read this forum regularly Sixers coaches , players are indirectly paid by the supporters as that is proffesional sport so they have to accept the criticsm or views of supporters and media along with the praise and of course nice little wage to play a game of ball.
Yes we are never going to be Sixers coach or even consdider wanting to apply for but that doesnt stop us from having a opinion.
Lets face it in a season promised so much has been dissapointing.
Many of us spoke of concerns of team being undersized and full of guards and not excited by choice of imports and think clearly shown that both those areas were mistakes by hierachy.
I support my team by season tickets every bl--y year

One thing i notice about Clarke's coaching is he seems to call players over to talk to him a lot during the game.
Howard especially where he seems to need to talk to him nearly every time there's Free Throws.
This is probably a good thing as he's trying to get the players all on the same page, but on at least 3 times against the Breakers, he was talking to Howard at the side at the same time we, or even they were inbounding the ball. Once, they had an inbound in their own half and Howard was standing talking to Clarke, looking in the wrong direction as the ball was passed in, he then had to try to scramble to find his man and they ended up scoring off that play.
Suppose it makes sense that he needs to do these little coaching sessions as Howard and Bruce are new to the team and he needs to get them up to speed as fast as possible, but he really needs to make sure he's concentrating on the game when this is happening because we can't afford to be giving away cheap baskets.