Sixers by 10.

I expect R.Martin to continue to improve and hopefully get back to where he was before his knee injury but the Sixers are on a roll and playing great Basketball.

Tough follow up for the Hawks after the Cairns win. There, they weren't facing strong rebounding bigs and so didn't give up that edge in the paint.

Would've been confident seeing them take that form to Sydney, Townsville or even Melbourne, but Adelaide are a strong rebounding team and the Hawks are definitely not. Further, Adelaide has 3 of the top 4 in the league at FTA and if those guys are drawing fouls inside, Wollongong doesn't have the depth to cover for it. Knock out Gruber and the rebounding is that much weaker. Knock out Forman and there goes the big with range.

Adelaide just played their Grand Final, Hawks will come over and whallop 'em cause they'll have nothing in the tank /bitter-Cats-fan


But really, 36ers should take this by double-digits. If Hawks can produce another strong effort like last week they might drag it closer, but its a no-excuses game for Adelaide, and I have no doubt they'll get it done.

Will be interesting to see what the crowd will be like, following on from last week. Have the Sixers built on some momentum, or will the fact that its "only" the Hawks mean a lower crowd, given that its also on a Friday again.

Sixers to win quite easily too.

What is the injury status for Frye?

Do Adelaide based games play live against the gate in South Australia?

Cheers

We are finding different ways to win. While only Friday we won without scoring a three at all.
Mostly I wanna see J.Frye go round.

Sounds pretty good
2 sevenfooters should get 40 points
While my hero won't got on much with his weak ankle

You would think that if Frye plays more than 15 minutes something went wrong for Adelaide. Should be treated with kid gloves as he shouldn't be required.

Frye's injuries have been frustrating, but the minutes he is on court things happen. Even when he is not on court, he has a more than capable replacement in the form of Creek.

Well, you have the sunshine swing after this, and I think you'd want Frye pretty comfortable for that. Even with those teams turning in inconsistent performances, the swing is always a difficult prospect.

Frye is a high impact player and does a lot of little 1 %ers off the ball.

Would be nice to see him play lots of minutes, but hey, start him and give him a few minutes, bring on Creeky and then bring hi on for the last 2 minutes of the quarter.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Hawks employed hack-a-sixer..With how badly we shoot free throws, any good coach would exploit that

I am not too concerned about the Hawks at all.. they are full of guys who probably wouldn't even make any other team in the league. 36ers by 22 points.

Larry has not been completely ruled out yet. Has a fitness test before the game.

Should the 36ers do as expected and win tonight, what price Joey Wright getting the nod as Coach of the Month for November? Win tonight and November is a 5-0 month for the 36ers :)

With Larry Davidson I'd say the Hawks might have been half a chance of an upset. Without him I think we just have too much big man depth for the Gordie McLeod to cover. And with both Ervin and DJ is the form they are, I think we'll win by at least 10.

But if there is one thing I've learnt in 28 years of watching the NBL.....its never count out the Hawks. They are the kings of pulling off an upset.

^ You can never right off the Hawks because the coach has the mind of a master criminal ;)

Adelaide by 22

You people have jinxed it, Hawks by 7

Almost unjinxable, Hawks just too under manned without Larry Davidson. This 6ers team is hungry they enjoy playing with eachother and feed big time off the home crowd. Should be a big win. MAYBE if it was played at the gong could be considered a danger game based on all the hype that went into last week, but not at home, not with just the 1 game they have to play this round.

Wollongong will test the 36ers' smarts, this isnt a battle of on-paper talent. If Adelaide can force the Hawks into mistakes they get this easy, but if it comes down to a halfcourt battle it will be a close one.

Either way the boards should give Adelaide the edge.

As long as McLeod doesn't get too clever - that was his mistake in Perth...

Sorry but it has to be said

I pity the fool who doesn't like Mitch Creek's new haircut.

Jarrid Frye went to the Diamon Simpson school of free throw shooting. His FT's early in the 3rd were his first since the loss to Melbourne.

Frye hit a nice 3 though. That's actually just his second 3 of the season. His other one was also against the Hawks.

Wollongong falling over here in the 4th, need to be rather more clutch if they want anything from this.

Halfway through, no sign of closing deficit, this one is all about the margin now. Wollongong will want to keep it close to have a hope on the series split when they play the home games.

Um....wow, that was close.

Right, well, that was ... a little closer than I expected when I walked away a few minutes ago.

That was such a hard game to watch, think we got pulled down to their level and they made key three point shots. As mentioned a win is a win and good teams find ways to win. I guess it was always going to be a let down from the Perth game.

Another game where you can say 'good that we keep winning the close ones', but then you realise that we actually just lost a good lead, which created a close game.
Against a team with only 7 players, 2 of which are Tyson Demos and David Gruber... With the list we have... Probably a 1 point win isn't a great result. Also when you consider the wide open 3s and lay-ups they missed.
I'm assuming Creek was sick? Only played 5 minutes.

Ok, enough negativity. Nice to see an even contribution the whole way across the board.
DJ and Ervin did what they do. Score the ball. DJ was owning the defensive glass too.
Cadee was good. Couple big 3s.
Petrie was another that did what he does. Rebounding, defense.
Liked seeing Benny and Schenscher chase after the loose balls. Schenscher wasn't getting any love from the umps.
Gibson wasn't making his shots. Didn't do a whole lot. Apparently was sick?
Frye didn't appear to be feeling too much ill effects from his ankle last week. Made a 3 which shouldn't be possible with his stroke.

Wollongong's entire game plan is shooting 3s. 41 attempts is amazing. 35 from 4 guys.
Martin had a handy game. Clarke came up big in the last to almost steal the winv(but it was never really in doubt).
Tiggs is a strange one. Sometimes looks like Christopherson (completely out of his depth), then every now and then he does something that makes you notice.
Funny that in the warm up, Martin wasn't making anything, and Coenraad didn't miss. Then during the game it was the complete opposite.

"I pity the fool who doesn't like Mitch Creek's new haircut."

Give that man a little basketball.

I wouldn't be surprised if Mitch lost a bet.

I know I fell asleep and I think the refs did too. That missed shot clock violation was one of the worst calls I have seen in professional basketball. When you consider as well that all 3 of the refs could've waved that away.

It was so far after the bell, I assumed that they judged that Tiggs controlled the ball on the steal (but it wasn't reset).

Came home from game feeling sixers had tried to coast through the first half and not really tried to up the tempo until the third quarter when they decided to play some defense. As a result they nearly let the game slip.

However I started the game replay and learned that this week we have had fitness problems.

Gibson flu
Frye ankle
Creek ankle
Ervin back

Explains a lot. Maybe we were lucky to scrape it in.

the gongers play much like the early Fearne coached Taipans defensive teams....keep it ugly and you have a chance to win!!

What a dreadful game, I know people kiss Gordie's arse but when was the last time that he developed a big man?

With such a short line up you'd think they would have put Harris-Tunks on the court when Schenscher was filling the middle for Adelaide but nope such short sightedness and makes Wollongong a joke and me a fool for thinking they'd scrape into the playoffs again this season.

We have Foreman that is a fully fledged small Forward in the Detlef Schrempft mould as you can't trust him to block, rebound or block out on an opponent... I know others will criticise me for that statement but he should have trained over the last several off seasons in guarding quicker swing men. All Foreman can do is shoot and as captain he sure shows less leadership than you'd like.

Wollongong should have aggressively persued a big as Davidson (always injured), Gruber (inconsistent and won't get better) Harris-Tunks (doesn't have coaches confidence), Foreman (see above) and Coenraad (supposedly they needed a new SF and now this guy plays up to 35 minutes a game) what the fuck is going on?

I love Rotnei Clarke and Kevin Tiggs is an exciting player to watch and atleast he is aggressive when so many other hawks players are happy to see the shot clock wind down to 3 seconds left and then pass you the ball!

I don't mean to bash a team that only lost by a point but their recruiting lacks logic and is a blight (sp) on the league.

Last week the game against Perth was like a Henshke's Hill of Grace, last night was always going to be more like a Jacob's Creek in comparison. Still, the Sixers continue to be undefeated at home.

The game is one of many that shows just how tight the NBL is this season. Picking winners is pretty hard and hats off to the 'Gong for their last quarter.

Oscar in particular. 4/8 from outside the arc kept the Hawks in the game. Gordie continues to play the role of seasoned card shark to perfection, keeping other coaches fumbling for aces while Gordie has a pair of threes in his hand.

I'll take that little basketball thanks Jack ;)

You gotta love a guy like Mitch Creek. Not afraid to shake things up, even if it means a hair cut that makes him look like the last of the Mohican's.

As for Gordie McLeod not developing any big men and under using a guy like 6'11" NBL rookie Harris-Tunks.....I'm sure GM would love an experienced 7 footer like Big Red, DJ, Alex Pledger or Luke Nevill out there in a Hawks uniform, but its not always possible.

Adelaide may not have been switched on last night like they were against Perth, but to their credit Wollongong would not go away either. They do need an inside game though, living and dying by the 3 isn't going to win championships in this league

Harris-Tunks should definetly be getting more game time, just like Auryn MacMillan should have last year. I'm loving watching Auryn's game develop in Melbourne.

At least Wollongong has one thing in their favour....

Their big man isn't Ben Allen.

Because Joey likes to play his Gold Coast boyz. Creek certainly deserves more game time.

I recognize that Wollongong can't afford a Schenscher/Nevill type but there's a guy called Jared Prue who was the injury replacement for Matty Knight to start the season. He averaged something like 21.6 rebounds per game in the SBL. I don't care what level it is when you put up numbers like that then you have a nose for the ball and I know he is short for a big man but when you have Oscar playing a big 3 then it creates mismatches.

Basically what I'm saying is if Wollongong have 4 players on court shooting 3s then someone like Prue or a Jacob Holmes type that will crash the boards is essential (when Gruber is on the bench)

Creek had an ankle injury which is why he didnt play alot of minutes.