After Perth lost last night I have another reason to cheer for Sydney. The kings have found some form lately and are at bome so they might just get up in a thriller.

After the last game against the 36ers, I am not too confident, but having said that, nothing less than living, breathing, dreaming and scheming about how to prepare for this game should have been happening since the last game. I don't doubt that Wright will have done everything humanely possible to solve the puzzle of overcoming Sydney. Its just up to the players to follow his game plan and push themselves beyond all limits to get the job done. This is the game that will define the rest of the season. This is the game that will determine whether we can beat every other opponent, because if we can't, there is always going to be that brick wall in the way of the championship.

Should read "After the last game against Sydney,"

As finals get closer, the Sixers need to worry more about the teams in the finals than those out of the finals. The Kings have been unpredictable, but their 3 key players are Olgilvy, Young and Madgen. The Sixers have the solution for Young and Madgen, but Olgilvy is the one they need to tame.

I wouldn't mind seeing BJ being the sacrificial lamb in this area.

BJ Anthony on Ogily? You are kidding right? Great plan. Let's put our bench player on one of the best players in the league and see what happens.
How about we put our best team on the court and leave them there, making minor substitutions to give them short spells.
Does BJ Anthony have some sort of sponsorship deal with anyone that when he touches the ball he has to do a spin move to the left?

In the AFL you have taggers and I have heard the "100 bump plan" to control Gary Abblet jnr. Olgilvy is a brute out on court, so perhaps one control plan would be a "100 bump plan" on him. During each play, bump him at least 2 or 3 times. If he is on court for say 35 minutes and gets bumped twice per play (ave length 20 secs) then he is getting bumped 6 times per minute or 210 times a game. By half time that's about 100 bumps.

Surely worth a chance? You would need to nominate a bumper to get under his skin, or each time a cutter passed him, just give him a little nudge to say Hi.

A funny thing that the plan you brought up doesn't work (and you want the 36ers to use) and Ablett averaged over 30 possessions a game despite all teams focusing on him heavily and he completely dominated. The opposition gave up those tactics realising this and later in the season employed a successful tactic to try and control where Ablett would get his possessions thus causing minimal damage.

Ablett might be a 50 possession man otherwise!

sixtiesrockstar LOL

Sorry South Australians, but daddy needs his buffer game back! Go Kings!

There is nothing so aggravating to watch for me as a team I'm cheering on giving up a rebound on a free throw.

36ers lacking a bit on the defensive glass today.

Huge dunk attempt by Young over Schenscher.

Kings are dying in the last two minutes of each quarter so far.

10-0 run for Adelaide, a 12-pt lead destroyed at the end of the quarter.

Cody Ellis broke the run to give Sydney a little charge going into half-time. Kings by 4 atm.

If Kings don't stop the turnovers it will be impossible to win.

Every time the Kings get out, 36ers make a run. Every time the 36ers get close, Kings go on a run!

Also, Madgen, great arcing shot.

Gibson and Brad Hill in foul trouble.

These free throws from Adelaide will screw them as surely as they screwed us against Melbourne.

Kings with a 10 point lead at 3/4 time. Heal starts the 4th with Young, AJ and Madgen on the bench. WTF.
6ers go straight into an 8-0.

Yeah, you'd think they had been up by 20 with that combination on the bench...

That little fracas of blocks and rebounds may have just determined the game...

36ers have started fouling.

Not sure why but they seem to be...

AJ Ogilvy winning this game for them with his blocks and rebounding.

30 seconds to go, Ogilvy with the chance to put the Kings up by 10, no excuses from here.

Ouch, an alley-oop moneyshot by Sam Young to add an exclamation point.

@454325 Lighten up, negative nancy!

Is 21 points a career high for Garlepp? (and is this fairly basic stat available anywhere online?)

I question whether DJ is seriously worth being on this team.
The points he makes are great, the points he gives up and the rebounds he gives up are horrendous and are starting to out weigh his output. The guy watches a shot put up and starts running down the court, never crashes the boards. If he could learn to defend and crash the boards he would be such a better player but the way he is now is just bloody frustrating.

Ervin 8/24 shooting didnt help. Could have looked to add to his 6 assists when he realised he wasnt scoring under the basket. 6/8 Three pointers is crazy considering his 33% shooting percentage inside the line.

I think Joey is going to have to write up and drill a few new plays against these up and coming teams. Sydney and Melbourne are starting to find their stride and we need to step up to beat them.

Sydney and Melbourne have proved it won't be a walkover for Perth and Adelaide. This weekends games could serve as potential playoff matchups

A quick look suggests Garlepp's previous career high was 16 the week before against Melbourne, beating the 14 he scored against Singapore in 2008 and the Breakers earlier this season.

36ers lost 4 of last 8, Wildcats 3 of last 6, starting to make the season rather more open.

Cheers paul.

All 21 in the 2nd half. That's a mighty fine half by any standards.

A close game for most of it. With 2:02 to go score was 88:87.

Still think the 36ers are better when Ervin plays less and takes fewer shots.

Has any player in the history of the NBL had 0 FGA but had the effect on a game than AJ did today. 8 blocks and I swear he had a few more early in the game that never made it to the stats sheet.

Great for the competition that tigers and kings are getting it together. Good teams peak at the right time of the year and Perth 3-3 and 6ers 4-4 since christmas will crank it up again towards the playoffs

Kings just passed the ball through Sixers press way too easily which gets our defence back peddling. Same thing happened last time against the Kings.
Sixers offence seems to be about self at the moment. When they were up and running there was a lot more drive penetration looking to draw the defence and dish off. Not getting as many players cutting and slashing as the player drives at the moment. Whether this is part of current structure??? Sixers definetily look better when driving and dishing.
Could be that the spell Ervin had from knee operation and his return from operation has unsettled them a bit. Cadee seemed to thrive when Ervin was out, and now is reduced to bench player again. Hopefully now Ervin has got some full games together again we can get back to pre-christmas form. Schenscher has looked a bit lost with Ervins return too. Playing only 10mins a game probably does that to you though.
Thoughts anyone??

Garlepp and AJ just killed our bigs.

They owned the keyway.

Sydney, Sydney, Sydney oi oi oi

there was lots to like about todays performance. we played good basketball but Sydney played great. That's how I saw it from the sidelines.
however like posted previously, DJ just doesn't jump for rebounds. 3 or 4 at a time before he gets benched. wow, makes a difference.
creek 11 mins? I appreciate how many wins we have but when you got an athletic guy who can play, hit some magical numbers last week and only gets a few mins....????? hello?
BJ Anthony has a good game for 15mins, again, gotta use the regulars in cadee, Gibson, petrie, Ervin. and when it fails, then the seconds group get a chance (creek, bj, schenscher).
long flight home I can tell ya when ya lose, but good to see a good game

What was with Adelaide fouling with about 90 seconds left and only down by 4? Do they have that little confidence in their D to make a stop? Nice of Petrie to let Sam Young get the last second alley-oop, most NBL players would have fouled him.

Pathetic crowd Sydney, 3600 ish? How many does that stadium hold? Gaps everywhere.

Think that crowd was pathetic what about hawks crowd less than 2000

Sixers have been exciting this season, but...

Without a credible offence outside the arc they are too easy to defend.

Without a credible offence outside the arc we will struggle in finals.

Without a credible offence outside the arc our running game is totally predictable and 36ers will continue to be blocked inside as all teams have worked out that all they need to do is contract their defence to inside the paint.

How often are we offered an open 3 point shot which no one wants to take. We constantly let those opportunities go and drive into traffic to shoot.

At the moment the sixers are not prepared to put in the time in training to be confident and reliable beyond the arc.

Darryl Pierce said in the half time interview the other week that its just practice, lots of practice and then more practice. You have to want it.

The same must be relevant to foul shooting which for the sixers is far from a charity strike.

Our running game has been fantastic this season but without a more complete offence we will struggle more and more against teams with a more complete game.

Without a more complete offence I think most coaches have by now noted how to disrupt our running style of game.

Would like some comments on what we need to do to stay better than the other teams which are adapting and improving and are a real threat to our position on the ladder.

SACK ERVIN!

I'm glad Sydney won, but we looked lost on offence on multiple occasions. During our offensive sets, Aj is receiving the ball behind the 3pt line surely that shouldn't be in the game plan right?

Mr E,

I would say Heal does that purposely: By bringing AJ out to the 3 point line, you also bring out the opposing center.

Removes the shotblocker from the lane and allows the likes of Madgen, Young and Harvey to penetrate.

The plan isn't as important against ADL (bigs aren't really shot-blockers).

Though it is a good plan, I would also like to see AJ in more isolation sets on the block.

Funnily enough, maybe the 36ers could learn something from Heal -- get Johnson etc. to float out on the perimeter, bring AJ out and allow Ervin to have open lanes without the presence of a shot-blocker.

Problem is that the Kings run a lot of handoffs for Madgen or a lot of quick passes and quick on-ball screens.

So if Ogilvy sags off you have no protection/ big hedging out on the handoffs, which allows Madgen and Harvey to pull up unguarded.

Meant to read "So if you sag off Ogilvy"

Seems if we play Frye 11mins and Creek 22mins we win

A great team win... Everyone chipped in... AJ didn't take a shot (statistically, he got fouled on his couple of attempts which doesn't count on the stat sheet) but could have nearly registered a triple double, 7pts, 7reb, 7blks (and a tied team high 4 assists), and had just as strong an impression on the game as Madge did with his VERY well rounded game of 25pts (team high) 7reb (tied team high), 4 assists (tied team high) 3 steals (game high) and a block thrown in for good measure...

Tommy was fantastic and was responsible for stopping multiple 36ers runs, and great for him to be rewarded with a career high points, especially against the tall timber of Adelaide :)

As a team, great to get contributions from everyone... Brad Hill has to be a bit dispapointed with his cut in game time since Cody came in, but he's ready to go when called and put some quick points on the board when needed... Cody nailed his shots, even White nailed a very timely 3pt shot... If he can consistently make them and not be someone that defenders can sit back on, combined with his tough D (at times) he will be a valuable contributor to the team...

Great to see Sam Young making the extra pass and while he had a few turnovers while trying to force things to his teammates, I'll take that over turnovers trying to get to the basket 1 on three any day... Boy, if that giant dunk came off it would have been awesome!

Overall, stoked with a win against a quality team and to get ahead in the series by a dozen points, as this top four is looking closer by the round!

Getting the feeling that this championship will really come down to luck of the draw in the play-off match-ups.

Nathan, spot on. I think the first objective is to finish in the top 4, then once you're in finals, it's anyone's game.

I think we've seen in that Mel @ Per game as well as this one, the importance of making your shots... Beal has been automatic from outside the last handful of rounds, and others like Ennis and Wagstaff (?) have been hot as well... Take that away and look what happens... Conversely, Kings able to get open and make more of their outside shots than usual put them in a great position and got them out of a few potential holes as well...

It's simple math, just shoot better than the other team ;)

Melbourne can win in Perth
Sydney can win in Adelaide
Adelaide can probably win in Perth
Perth can ...probably win in Sydney
Adelaide-Melbourne probably goes to home team.

And Breakers can apparently win in both Melbourne and Sydney if they get in, but not Perth or Adelaide.

If Perth doesn't recapture their form from the first half of the season, I hate to say it, but I'm not sure where they'd put together two series wins from? We played the Sam Young variant of Sydney on his debut, so I'm unsure about even that match up. We know from the first half of the year that we can play a LOT better than we have lately, and will get better when Knight comes back out of cotton wool for finals (where he will probably get played even if it kills him), but you have to translate potential performances into actual performances, and we aren't doing that lately.

Adelaide also seems to be stumbling, or at least have found a new bogey team in post-Young Sydney for this season. Seems to have enough inside tools to off-set Adelaide's strengths in the paint, whilst also having the offensive toolset to hurt the 36ers inside and out.

Hard to see the Breakers coming into this play-off scenario as much other than a speed-bump ... but it's never want to write them off.

@Wookie, yep, the difference between our average conversion and actual conversion of the 3pt shot was worth about 15pts in that game...

Beal hitting 1/6 from 3, Ennis going 6/18 from the field (including a lot of baskets you expect him to be automatic for), well if that continues we are going to have a hard time winning anywhere.

The only thing that worried me about watching this game was that the Sixers let a close game blow out at the end through fouling. In game 4 of the series we now need to beat them by a lot to get the split!

Game 4 is in Sydney, isn't it? The split "shouldn't" matter with Adelaide's head start but ... well, never say never.

Hopefully shouldn't matter, but I would hate to see it come into play.....

You mean with Sydney's head start?

I'd like to think that the Kings would be able to get the win in the final game of their series (16/03 in Sydney) so the split will be of no consequence, but that's a long way off and we've already seen these last few rounds anyone can win anywhere... My sister in law (who has only maybe seen three games of NBL in her life) was also confused that they started fouling as quickly as they did... Maybe a few were unintentional?

The next few match ups with key teams will be interesting for the Kings... Riding some confidence and finally clicking as a team, role players contributing very well, our start players stepping up... NZ and Perth haven't seen this version of the Kings yet, if they can beat NZ on their home court or at least compete with minimal errors and then get a win on our home court the following round, I think that will be a warning sign for other teams... I really want to get some revenge on the Hawks after some poor Kings performances... Plenty of key games coming up in the remainder of the season... No series has been decided for them except the Tigers...

Was actually thinking headstart in terms of ladder position!

Kings Series status':

vs Adelaide (2-1 - up 12pts)
vs Cairns (2-1 - up 6pts)
vs Melbourne (3-0 - up 21pts and won series)
vs NZ (0-1 - down 16pts)
vs Perth (0-3 - Perth win series very convincingly)
vs Townsville (2-0 - up 23pts)
vs Wollongong (0-2 - down 10pts)

A valuable series win against the Tiggers, and a rather bad series loss against the Wildcats, but should be a good way to measure the teams progress, especially on our home court...

That one against Melbourne might be crucial if it gets you into 3rd and a match-up against Adelaide, rather than 4th and a match-up against Perth.

Just went through the remaining rounds and tipped results to come up with a final speculative ladder.

Perth 22-6 (losses in Adelaide and Melbourne)
Adelaide 19-9 (losses in Syd, Mel, Per)
Sydney 16-12 (loss v Per)
Melbourne 16-12 (losses in Per, Syd, Ade, NZ)
----
New Zealand 13-15
Cairns 11-17
Wollongong 9-19
Townsville 6-22

Have tried to be reasonable with regards to HCA and match-ups. I have Perth getting through the remainder 7-2 but could very easily see that slip to something much worse; if Melbourne could knock us off here, Cairns and Adelaide in particular are a definite chance in Perth, and I feel nervous about Sydney and Townsville away. Could all of a sudden be 3-6, leaving us on 18-10 and 2nd place behind Adelaide and overall in a very bad situation.

Sydney gets 3rd by dint of the series split against Melbourne.

The way I see it...

Sydney is a hot chance against Adelaide after their last two head to heads, may very well get through to the GF.

Melbourne may very well knock off Perth. If Knight isn't back, I'd have a hard time tipping us as favourites.

If Melbourne go through, Sydney have the wood over them, so, uhh, potentially...

....Sydney Kings may well win the title this year (over Melbourne), as flabbergasted as I am to contemplate that. Wildcats will have to win at least their remaining home game against Melbourne convincingly and not drop any other should-wins before I'll come back out and say they'll beat Melbourne in a three-game series. And since the team Perth pantsed is a shadow of this current side (and arguably we are a shadow of the side that pantsed them) I'm feeling very nervous about the a number of these possibilities.

I wouldn't be too worried if I were you Nathan. There's only 2 teams capable of winning it all and Sydney or Melbourne aren't either of them.

Actually warming to Sydney's odds. I've never engaged in betting with my own dough, but I am contemplating a sneaky bet.

with your wife's money?

You're an ideas man, Wilson. I like that.

They sure did. 4th is the only realistic position for them and that won't be easy altho I expect they'll get it. 36'ers and Tigers must be tearing their hair out tonight. What the hell is happening with Gleeson?

Pretty devastating loss... All but writes off the series with the Breakers so relying on some other teams to pick up their game and not let them sneak closer to the top 4... if any team was to push us out, I'd rather Cairns be the one... At least the loss was an Away loss, bit harder to take when I have to drive home after getting soundly beat on our home court...

a win ahead but still a few losses ahead too, so REALLY need to win the games against the lower ranked teams and sneak another few wins against the top 3 and just hope that some OTHER teams can get wins against the Tigers as well...

Would hate to have to face Perth in the Playoffs (IF we make it) but who knows, maybe they're having their slide now and the 36ers will take them for regular season honours? :D